Back in the day when he was part of the Fab Five here at Michigan, Chris Webber was warmly regarded as a leader, a great player, a good sport, and a good kid. Because of that, Michigan fans stuck by him even when he blew a big game by calling a time out that U-M didn’t have. People forgave.
I was offended when he got peeved at the University when they let Steve Fischer go (after Webber went pro). He said he “no longer considered himself a Wolverine” or something to that effect. That was bad enough. Go ahead and be pissed at the athletic director or the president, you crybaby, but to deny how good the students and the other fans were to you is pretty low. Apparently Webber also suggested that the University had not acted with integrity in dealing with Fischer. This gets interesting later.
Now we find out that while at Michigan, and perhaps even in high school, the holier-than-though Mr. Webber allegedly took nearly $300,000 from Ed Martin, that weasel booster who was just indicted.
Integrity, Mr. Webber? What did YOU do to Michigan’s program by taking all that cash? How many careers did you risk? And where do YOU get off?
I used to be sad that he hadn’t more of a superstar career in the NBA. Now I wouldn’t let his man lick my cat’s litterbox. Though I sure wouldn’t mind dumping it on his head.
I did not then nor do I now live in Michigan, but I remember that game, and remember thinking THEN that he was kind of an ass… I mean, the kid was hot-doggin’ all through that game. I could tell he had a holier-than-thou attitude.
I did feel kinda sorry for him, though, when he blew it with the time out (the bigger they are, the harder they fall)…
Anyway, I know this isn’t much of a response… but I have to tell ya, I’m not surprised.
But he’s nailing Tyra Banks!!! Do you understand what that means? Few men even dare to dream of what it would be like to have Tyra Banks come to bed with that come-hither alluring face and body, and Chris Webber gets to live that every day! He’s a hero to many of us, don’t you realize? [/sarcasm]
Oh, there was something there about $300K and how he should have turned it down? I think this rant would be better directed at the guy who offered it to him, this weasel so-called “booster” who endangered the program himself, not at some then-unsophisticated kid who grew up poor and always dreamed of getting to cash in on the skills he was fortunate enough to have.
It just highlights the hypocrisy of big-time college athletics.
They should just allow the players to make a salary and sign endorsement contracts. Or, even better, they should realize that, ultimately, intercollegiate athletics have little to do with the educational mission of each institution and let the NBA and NFL pay for their own minor leagues.
Frankly, Cranky, as an Indiana University fan, I am amused by the whole thing. I still remember all the whining the Fab Five did when Calbert Cheaney, Damon Bailey, Greg Graham & Co. won the Big Ten championship by beating Michigan twice, waxing the Fab Five in Assembly Hall.
The fucking Wolverines are just like fucking Illinois. They cheat big time and still can’t win a championship!!!
You make a good point, ElvisL1ves, but chances are that even as an unsophisticated kid, he KNEW he wasn’t supposed to be taking any money.
Do I blame him for making the choice, when he’d probably never seen that much money in his young life? Heck, no. Do I think the suits that offered it to him are bastards? Sure. However, Cranky’s point (and a good one it is) is that he is HARDLY the one to be throwing stones, given his own indiscretions.
Of course Ed Martin is the real scumbag here, but he is beneath my contempt. Michigan banned him from campus in 1997, unfortunately too late. We’ve canned everyone affiliated with his access to players, but that’s also too late. It’s a big ugly black mark on Michigan, and Spartans have a right to snicker. I think we finally (knock wood) are in a place where we are less likely to open the paper in the morning and see our U maligned thanks to jackasses in athletics, but this past stuff keeps haunting us.
Mitch Albom has a nice column on this whole mess, and he talks about Webber whom he covered extensivly:
I have had a case of the jaws with the guy, and the rest of the Michigan team, ever since they beat the stuffing out of my alma mater’s collection of eight or ten second level players back when the Fab Five were freshmen or sophomores. They mocked the local players and generally hot-dogged for the whole game. Character will out.
