They wanted to banish me: Instead, Chris Webbers trade to Kings unlocked Hall of Fame caree ·

05 Jun 2024, 00:00

Chris Webber didn’t want to “Beat L.A.”

Webber wanted to be with L.A.

If the 2021 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee had it his way, he wouldn’t have been leading the Sacramento Kings against the Los Angeles Lakers in the early 2000s, when for a brief moment theirs was the rivalry of rivalries in the NBA. Instead, he would have been the third All-Star alongside Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, personifying the glitz of Southern California while tormenting their counterparts in Northern California, where fans rallied by clanging cowbells.

The Lakers were what many hated about the league. Shaq was drawn to Hollywood with a lucrative contract. Bryant was an arrogant wunderkind taking the league by storm. Rick Fox was the pretty boy who would go on to marry Vanessa L. Williams. Lakers coach Phil Jackson was smug and condescending. Robert Horry was traded to the Lakers after throwing a towel in the face of his coach in Phoenix. Some punishment, right?

Webber’s own fate wasn’t as fortuitous. In May 1998, after being labeled a problem on and off the court, Washington dealt him to Sacramento for Mitch Richmond and Otis Thorpe. From Chocolate City to a Cowtown. A franchise that hadn’t had a winning record since 1985 in the city. Now this felt like punishment.

“They wanted to banish me to Sacramento,” Webber said. “That’s what that was.”

Webber held out hope that he’d be flipped to his preferred destination, the Lakers.

“I thought there was going to be a trade for Elden Campbell, Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel for me,” Webber said. “I wanted to go there.”

Sacramento? Did anyone want to go to Sacramento? One of the best shooting guards of all time, Richmond, spent most of his career with the Kings, but he languished in Sacramento for so long he’s still most associated with Golden State and Run TMC. The Lakers? That’s the team where good players become household names. It’s the franchise where great players become cultural icons. And on the court, it would be different too. Said Webber: “They had more pressure to win championships.”

Winning with the Lakers would have brought what Webber chased his entire career: respect.

Webber wasn’t traded. But two decades later, with Webber on the brink of enshrinement, it’s clear he gained the respect he craved. He did it by doing what no one else had ever done, briefly turning Sacramento into a championship contender and a team that captivated the basketball world by taking on the mighty Lakers. In a recent conversation with The Athletic, he opened up about the work he did to achieve greatness and how he came to believe that his time in Sacramento was just as fulfilling as any success he could have achieved in a bigger market. It was a time Webber shied away from discussing while still a player.

“It was all based off the principle of do the work and hopefully tell the story later,” Webber said. “I’m telling the story, I just don’t have the championship to sit on the mantle while I’m smoking a cigar, sipping some Cognac in a smoking jacket while telling you my story. I don’t have the trophy, but I do have the stories.”

Left to right: Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic and Chris Webber in 2004. (Rocky Widner / NBAE via Getty Images)

There was no pressure to win in Sacramento. How could there be when, in close to two decades in California, the Kings were hardly royal? They had never once posted a winning record in a single season. So, of course, Webber and the rest of the basketball world saw this move as punishment. He’d be banished to basketball’s boondocks. Then, as happened with Richmond, whatever he achieved would be ignored, because if it happened in Sacramento, it was as if it had never happened at all.

Instead, his time in Sacramento became the cornerstone of his professional career. Though his career also included stops in Golden State, Philadelphia and Detroit, it was in Sacramento where he cemented his place in history by leading the Kings somewhere they had never been: championship-contending status. Jerry Reynolds, who served as coach and general manager, among other duties with the franchise for more than three decades, called Webber, “by the far the best player the Kings have ever had.”

“He was a franchise changer,” said Reynolds, who called many of Webber’s games in Sacramento as the television color analyst. “We had a couple playoff teams but not a winning team. When Webb arrived — and certainly others as well — but he was the best player and brought the Kings a legitimate, top-10, All-Star type player for the first time, really. Mitch was a top-15 player in the league, but Webb probably brought a guy that was a top-10 guy, if not higher. Simply changed the dynamic and the culture.”

It took some work to get Webber past not being a Laker. There were conversations with general manager Geoff Petrie and coach Rick Adelman, assuring him he was welcome and needed in Sacramento. The talk with Adelman was especially key. The message, Webber said, was clear: “We know you wanted to go to the Lakers, but we want you and we need you and we’re going to win with you.”

Then there was the first practice with the Kings.

There was Vlade Divac, who still might be the most impactful free-agent addition in Sacramento history. There was a sharpshooter named Peja Stojakovic, who was unknown, though it didn’t take long for Webber to spot his talent. Then there was a rookie point guard with a West Virginia twang named Jason Williams, who had a flair for fancy passes, that caught his attention. Webber’s brother told him he’d like playing with Williams, though he wasn’t sure because he hadn’t followed the college game closely. But after seeing Williams and the rest of the team that was assembled, it became easier to put L.A. dreams behind him and start changing how the league viewed Sacramento.

“It definitely wasn’t just me, it was the people who were around, we all worked our butts off,” Webber said. “In my life, it was just more proof that God walks with you.”

Webber knew this Kings team could be special. But there was still work to be done on and off the court. There were still stark reminders of where the Kings fit in the NBA respect rankings — inside and outside the team. Like many struggling franchises, the Kings would use the allure of the visiting team to help sell tickets. It was less about seeing the home team and more about marketing a glimpse at the Jazz, Spurs and Lakers. Still, there were some things Webber couldn’t accept, like the time he saw a team employee wearing a David Robinson jersey when the Spurs were in town to play the Kings.

“It was bad, man,” Webber said. “I had to give a talk to the organization.”

Webber’s message was clear. Everyone in the organization had a part to play in changing the Kings. Off the court, Webber connected with employees around Arco Arena, to the point that their routines were off if they didn’t hear his music blasting upon his arrival.

Webber would do his part to make sure visiting players weren’t the reason to watch games at Arco Arena. He averaged 20 points and a league-leading 13 rebounds in 1998-99. The Kings went 27-23 and lost in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs to Utah, going five games with a team that had been in the NBA Finals a season earlier. It was before that playoff series that Webber and Williams stopped their own video-game playing to bring pizzas to fans waiting outside of Arco to buy tickets. Webber and the Kings had won the respect and admiration of the fans even more than they did by posting a winning record.

The next season, Webber was an All-Star, the first of four straight selections. The Kings went 49-33, good for eighth in the Western Conference and a meeting with the top-seeded Lakers. The series went five games, back when the first round was a best-of-five series, with the Lakers prevailing on their way to a championship. The Kings took another leap in 2000-01, finishing 55-27.

Sacramento’s style of play captivated the league. Because of a pass-happy offense, they were featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the “Greatest Show on the Court.”

“It was just great,” Reynolds said. “Just so much fun to watch them. The style of play, and Webb was such a key because you could play him on the elbow as his free-throw and jump shooting improved from his early days, but he still had his great post game when he went there. No question, the offense kind of flowed through C-Webb.”

But that team would run into the Lakers — again — and didn’t have a chance, like every other team the Lakers faced that postseason. The Kings were swept in the conference semifinals by a Lakers team that plowed through the playoffs to win back-to-back titles with a 15-1 postseason record. Still, there was no denying the Kings weren’t just some other team.

They had the Lakers’ attention in 2001-02. The Kings finished with the league’s best record, 61-21, and went 7-2 in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Then came the de facto NBA Finals against the Lakers in the conference finals. No one outside of New Jersey believed the Nets, led by Jason Kidd and the favorite in the Eastern Conference, had a chance to beat either the Lakers or Kings. What ensued was an epic series.

The Lakers took Game 1 in Sacramento, snatching away home-court advantage. The Kings rallied to win the next two games. Game 4 in Los Angeles is known for Horry’s buzzer-beating 3 that came courtesy of Divac tapping the ball out after Shaq and Kobe had missed attempts to tie the game. Mike Bibby hit a clutch jumper to take Game 5 and a 3-2 series lead. Then came the game that still makes Sacramento fans cringe.

The officiating from Game 6, won 106-102 by the Lakers in Los Angeles, still inspires eye rolls, profanity and conspiracy theories. The Lakers only made five field goals in the fourth quarter but made 21 of 27 free throws. The Kings shot nine free throws in the fourth, 25 for the game. The disparity was so bad that fans were ready for Vince McMahon to come out and explain how he’d screwed the Kings. Game 7 was at home in Sacramento. But the Kings missed 14 of 30 free throws and lost in overtime.

The Lakers went on to beat the Nets for their third consecutive title.

“It really hurt because you’ve really got to look at it like this,” Webber said. “I’d come to win a championship, we get as close as we can get, still should have won Game 1, got hosed Game 6, still should have won Game 7. But we didn’t do enough to do it. Didn’t hit free throws, didn’t hit shots.”

Webber, however, didn’t leave the Western Conference finals loss without hope. He knew the history of the game and had seen teams overcome daunting obstacles on their way to the top. The Detroit Pistons, led by Isiah Thomas, had to topple Larry Bird’s Boston teams. Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls had to get through Detroit before winning it all. So 2003 was going to be Sacramento’s turn to snatch the torch from the Lakers.

“I feel like we were even more ready the next year because we’d come off that pain and there was not going to be any stopping us,” Webber said. “We were on that trajectory.”

That season, Webber was feeling his best physically and mentally. What he didn’t count on was shooting a free throw and feeling a sharp pain in his knee the day after Christmas. He swallowed his heart, knowing that pain was a bad sign, but no one could tell him exactly what was wrong. He got through the regular season and the Kings entered the playoffs as the second seed in the West, a game behind San Antonio. But during a blowout loss to Dallas in Game 2 of the Western Conference semis, Webber tore cartilage in his left knee. There went the quest for a championship.

“I remember we were down and just wanting to play, wanting to get in a good rhythm for the next game and going for a backdoor cut and it snapped,” Webber said. “And I just remembered being like this can’t be happening. I remember squeezing Gerald Wallace so hard just because that’s my young boy but also I had talked to him about life so much and things like that that I think he could feel what I was feeling. That’s all I could do, thinking an opportunity is gone.”

The Kings believed they were the best team in the league that season and would have been favored against New Jersey in the Finals. Without Webber, they never got that chance.

“Even though the team didn’t win as many games that year, that was the best (Sacramento) team, that was the most talented team,” Reynolds said. “You had depth that was fantastic. They were just loaded with great depth and talent and Webb was probably having his best year, both he and Peja were at their best.”

Webber appeared in only 23 regular-season games the next season but felt better coming back for the 2004-05 campaign. However, a shift was happening in the organization. The franchise Webber fought to make relevant was ready to move on.

Webber wasn’t the same athlete he was before the injury, and the core of the Greatest Show on the Court was getting older. Webber, however, was still a good player, and perhaps the team could land enough talent back in a trade to stay competitive while freeing itself of Webber’s massive contract.

In February 2005, the Kings saw their chance for a split. Webber was feeling good. He’d just won Western Conference Player of the Month for January. He averaged 22.5 points and 10.3 rebounds, leading the Kings to a 12-4 record. Then he received a phone call from Petrie telling him that he’d been traded to Philadelphia. Doug Christie was traded to Orlando that season. Divac had already left for the Lakers before the season. The run was over.

“That’s when it set in that I wouldn’t win a championship,” Webber said of being traded to Philadelphia. “I always wanted to win a championship as the bus driver. Jumping on teams later and being the 20th man, things like that after you’ve been the guy, I wasn’t looking forward to that.”

Webber averaged 20.2 points and 9.9 rebounds in 2005-06 for the 76ers before a stop in Detroit. He finally returned to Golden State, appearing in nine games in 2008 before retiring due to knee problems.

For his career, Webber averaged 20.7 points, 9.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists. He was a dominant force at a time when legendary big men were in the Western Conference. There was Tim Duncan and David Robinson in San Antonio, Kevin Garnett in Minnesota, Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas, a collection of bigs led by Arvydas Sabonis and Rasheed Wallace in Portland. Yet, Webber was a five-time All-Star, four times with the Kings.

At the time, Webber’s obsession with winning a championship left little time to reflect on his place in the game. It’s why he passed on a chance to appear with O’Neal in the movie “Blue Chips” after college. How dare he make a movie after the infamous timeout call in the NCAA championship game at Michigan?

Not many got to know the introspective Webber, because he wasn’t interested in saying a lot because of his focus on winning. “I would say I enjoyed my career but I didn’t try to,” Webber said. “I was trying to win a championship.”

So how does it feel to go into the Hall of Fame without that championship he yearned to win in Sacramento?

“I thank God for my time there,” Webber said. “I know guys who have won championships that don’t like the guys they played with. We can talk about a lot of things, but I don’t know they would equate that in their lives. I know how I equate my time in Sacramento, I did not win a championship, I did not reach that goal, man that’s tough. But besides that, I couldn’t have asked for anything else.”

Webber credits Sacramento for extending his career. Playing in assistant coach Pete Carril’s offense made him adapt his game when he was healthy. He was already relying on his brain a lot in his prime. So losing some athleticism wasn’t as crushing.

Then there are the relationships from Sacramento. Whenever Webber sees Christie, Bobby Jackson, Divac or any of his old teammates, it’s all love. The handshakes, the hugs and Webber’s trademark smile are all there whenever the Greatest Show on the Court gets together.

“I don’t care, we’re like the ’85 Bears,” Webber said. “You can’t tell me nothing. I know the truth, but you can’t tell me nothing about it. I always say our team was like ‘Major League’ … the championship is the only thing missing.”

The Kings have fallen on hard times in the post-Webber era. The team hasn’t made the playoffs since 2006, the season after Webber was dealt. The 15-year postseason absence is tied for the longest drought in NBA history. The Kings have had a winning record just eight times since moving to Sacramento in 1985. Webber was in Sacramento for six of those postseason runs. If not for the trade to Philadelphia, he would have been a part of another.

Given Sacramento’s history of futility and folly, Webber’s run should be viewed with even more respect. The Kings were actually relevant on the court, and the reason why was Webber.

“There was a period there when he was the best power forward in the game,” Reynolds said. “You can make the case for maybe Tim Duncan, but he and Duncan and Garnett, that was a pretty good threesome.”

The Kings haven’t found their new Webber, Divac and Bibby. Yet that era created hope in a fanbase that yearns to feel it again.

“Though it may not seem like it right now because the tradition hasn’t been carried on, even though the tree was torn down, some of those other seeds got into the ground,” Webber said. “We started something there. You can’t kill the spirit we left in that locker room.”

They wanted to banish me: Instead, Chris Webbers trade to Kings unlocked Hall of Fame caree

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