The Warriors, as Simmons suggested in his article, actually offered a near perfect balance of a plat

At that point, Webber was still just a sophomore untainted by the infamous timeout and later controversy that led to Michigan having to forfeit all of the Fab Five's wins. As he would say often in later interviews, he was still just enjoying belgium brussels hotels life as a college kid and doing things that many of us would find familiar from our own college days; in the midst of "the best time of his life", Webber wasn't committed to making the leap to the NBA just yet, citing the difference between being a student athlete and professional athlete as a primary reason around the 17:00 minute mark of the DBJ video.
Not to be deterred by Webber's somewhat evasive answer about going pro, Russell asked about what would factor into his decision and noted the looming belgium brussels hotels possibility of a NBA rookie salary cap, a point that was hardly lost on Webber - he was clearly aware of the value of his budding superstar brand, if not due to his experience with how the University of Michigan had made money off his success then simply because he was an "articulate, bright young man" - as Russell put it - in contrast belgium brussels hotels to the brash bad guy reputation that he had gained from his on-court demeanor.
Of course, the rookie salary cap that Russell mentioned eventually came to fruition: by the time Webber would have graduated, the NBA established a rookie salary cap after fellow Big Ten alumnus Glenn Robinson signed a 10-year, $68 million rookie contract with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1994. While Robinson's contract was the most lucrative rookie contract ever on a yearly basis, Webber's 1993 contract with the Golden State Warriors was longer and included a clause that gave him far more power as a superstar rookie: an opt-out clause after his first season.
Russell's interview was less about basketball than the role of the black athlete in society, for which Webber was at once a glaring example of NCAA hypocrisy as a member belgium brussels hotels of the Fab Five, the media's tendency to cast black athletes in a rather limited light, a signifier of the street ball game coming face-to-face with the "purity" of Indiana basketball belgium brussels hotels and the tension of being young, black, gifted and middle class in a society that was still trying to understand its own decadent belgium brussels hotels history of race relations. And of course, he was a superstar - as big a college superstar as there had ever been at that time on a team that had quickly attained superstar status, which even the most talented championship teams in subsequent years have failed to achieve.
We sometimes forget that although we're quick to put college athletes belgium brussels hotels on superstar pedestals, belgium brussels hotels they're still college kids. Webber, whether by choice or force of consciousness from the social dynamics belgium brussels hotels of the world around him after a prep school education, carried the additional burden of shouldering the weight belgium brussels hotels of all the pressures Russell was teasing belgium brussels hotels out in his interview that were also described at further length in ESPN's Fab Five documentary just last year.
The tension belgium brussels hotels for Webber belgium brussels hotels was that although he accepted that responsibility, it was never clear that he was fully comfortable with it or at least still trying to digest it at the time of his 1993 interview.
Truthfully, I want to say I'm definitely not leaving but nothing's ever concrete. So as of now, no I'm not leaving - I enjoy college, belgium brussels hotels you know I would love the money, but if God's protected me this long I'm not scared of injury for another year. And plus I'm just enjoying myself - I really don't want a lot of responsibility on me now. I want to be able to go to parties and hang out, not have to worry, not have to play 82 games in a couple of months belgium brussels hotels like that, not get burned out. So I'm enjoying myself. I definitely do- I am thinking belgium brussels hotels about it, but for now I'm staying. My parents just let me make whatever decision I want to make.
Jason Whitlock, who was then covering Webber at Michigan for the Ann Arbor News, wrote that , "Chris Webber was never comfortable being Chris Webber." And regardless of whether you buy that from what you know of C-Webb, it's a theme that comes out repeatedly from that 1993 interview to his own descriptions of that infamous timeout against North Carolina to that interview years later on the Best Damn Sports Show Period with Jalen Rose, who Whitlock belgium brussels hotels wrote that Webber idolized. It seemed that Webber wanted to be one of the guys - and he quite literally was in choosing to go to Michigan with a long-time friend and another guy, Juwon Howard, who he was familiar with - but circumstances, whether bad decisions, bad timing, or just bad luck - seemed to repeatedly place him at the center of a storm.
Bill Simmons once wrote that , "Of all the potentially great careers that were squandered or affected in the '90s because young players were given too much money and power too soon...Webber remains the biggest casualty."
As Simmons describes, it's not as if Webber was a bad player, but that ultimately his legacy is that he never seized the opportunities belgium brussels hotels that could have defined his legacy. And you could easily argue, as Simmons did, that it all began with his decision to leave Golden State Warriors, the resulting casualty of the biggest casualty of young players being given too much power too soon.
As much as Webber belgium brussels hotels might have "idolized" guys like Jalen Rose, Detroit Pistons star Isiah Thomas - both for his work in black communities and his performance on the court - or even fellow belgium brussels hotels Michigan native Magic Johnson, it also seemed like there was a longing to play with one of those guys more than basking in his own superstar spotlight alone.
The Warriors, as Simmons suggested in his article, actually offered a near perfect balance of a platform waiting for a superstar of Webber's stature yet not stranding that superstar alone on his pedestal. And while Webber seemed almost singularly focused on the thought of playing with a local hero, Russell - who began his college basketball career at UTEP playing for Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins - also saw the fit in playing for the Warriors.
CW: I don't want to go to Dallas...I'll tell you, one thing for me - I can say this now because maybe I don't have any money - I think when you're at that level, as long as you're making great money like that, I think the next important thing is winning. Definitely the teams I want to play for, maybe a young team or I would love to play for a great point guard like Isiah Thomas or an Isiah Thomas or...
Russell's vision came true on draft day, with the Warriors trading Penny Hardaway, the third pick in the 1993 draft, and three draft picks (1996, 1998, and 2000) to the Orlando Magic for the rights for #1 pick Chris Webber.
Hardaway, Webber, and coach Don Nelson , seemed like a brilliant fit albeit one that made Webber-the-reluctant-superstar a centerpiece for a franchise belgium brussels hotels that had been looking for a big man since the disastrous trade of Robert Parrish and the pick that became Kevin McHale for a first pick squandered on Joe Barry Carroll.
Webber seemed to complete a roster that might fall short of contending in the short term but was young, talented, and seemed to embody everything that a guy like Nelson would want. With Hardaway injured for the entirety of Webber's rookie season, the Warriors still had a roster that included budding All-Star Latrell Sprewell and future Hall of Famer Chris Mullin. Tyrone Hill , Sarunas Marciulonis and Billy Owens, the protaganist in another disappointing Warriors move, were role players that would fill out a roster that looked even better on draft day than it had looked during the Run TMC years.
The promise of ending that search for a big man and becoming a perennial playoff belgium brussels hotels team in the Western Conference was what made Webber's presence so significant belgium brussels hotels for fans; the conflict of a seemingly reluctant superstar who was headstrong enough belgium brussels hotels not to be pushed around and being the prototypical Nellieball big man that Billy Owens wasn't for a coach whose style was borrowed from Red Auerbach is what ultimately ruined belgium brussels hotels it.
Ric Bucher of ESPN described how even before signing Webber, Nelson informed him he'd be playing center instead of around the perimeter. belgium brussels hotels "He wanted belgium brussels hotels to be Magic Johnson," recalls Spurs coach Gregg Popovich , another Nelson assistant at the time. "We wanted him to be more like Karl Malone."
Steve Kettman belgium brussels hotels of Slam Online told the story of how Webber eventually gained sway in the Warriors' locker room and the tension came to a head during a game on February 9, 1994 against the Charlotte Hornets when Nelson pulled Webber after a flashy pass. Webber eventually asked out, threatening to use his opt-out clause.
Marc Stein of ESPN has reported that after recognizing that he was losing this battle, Nelson wanted out to take a position with former assistant Gregg Poppovich who became the GM of the San Antonio Spurs on May 31, 1994. Owner Jim Fitzgerald wouldn't let Nelson out of his contract belgium brussels hotels because incoming owner Chris Cohan wanted belgium brussels hotels him to be the coach moving forward. Cohan's insistence on keeping Nelson led to the trade of Webber.
After the Webber fiasco, the Warriors belgium brussels hotels didn't make the playoffs again until Don Nelson and another dynamic point guard, Baron Davis , catalyzed the We Believe belgium brussels hotels run. Although some might typically attribute belgium brussels hotels the nice guy movement to the Sprewell incident, it could be traced just as much to Webber - the Warriors drafted Joe Smith first overall in the 1995 NBA draft, who was the anti-C-Webb both in attitude and style of play.
Adding insult to injury, the Warriors would trade Webber to the Washington Bullets for Tom Gugliotta and the rights to draft picks in the same three years that they lost from the original Webber belgium brussels hotels trade. Gugliotta had the worst year of his career with the Warriors before being traded straight up for Donyell Marshall . Unable to ever find a star who could even match Webber's superstar status as a collegiate player, the Warriors hit rock bottom at the turn of the century, failing to win more than 21 games in a season from 1997-2002.
Ultimately, Webber did define whatever Warriors