After a 15-year NBA career, Chris Webber announced his retirement this week. Now the debate begins about his Hall-of-Fame candidacy.
His career stats of 20.7 points, 9.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists along with four all-star appearances are quite impressive and certainly make a good case for the Hall. Only five players (Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Billy Cunningham, Larry Bird and Kevin Garnett) have averaged 20 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists per game over their careers and all are in, or in Garnett’s case soon to be in, the Basketball Hall-of-Fame. Webber played for five teams but did most of his damage with the Sacramento Kings, where he played from 1998-2005. His Kings were perennial contenders but only advanced as far as the 2002 NBA Western Conference Finals, losing in seven games to the eventual champion LA Lakers (remember Robert Horry’s game-winning jumper?).
So why would Webber not make the Hall of Fame? To some degree Webber is a victim of not living up to his potential, multiple injuries, and playing in the era of the power forward. After being drafted number one overall, (and traded for Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway), Webber, with all his talent, was expected to be an NBA superstar. He got off to a rocky start during his first five years and bounced through Golden State and Washington before flourishing in Sacramento. Webber, however, never left an indelible mark on the Kings, as he and his running mates Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic and Vlade Divac never reached the Finals. At the end of his Kings stay and throughout his career Webber was plagued by injuries, playing in 55 or fewer games in six of his 15 seasons.
Also, Webber was never the preeminent player at his position, having to contend for recognition with all-star power forwards Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Shawn Kemp, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Rasheed Wallace and Dirk Nowitzki throughout his career. His mere four all-star appearances despite gaudy statistics are a reflection of the abundance of talent at the power forward position throughout Webber’s career.
As a side note, for those who criticize Webber’s college days and allow that to influence his NBA career evaluation, what he did at Michigan is irrelevant to his NBA legacy. To set the record straight, Webber had a phenomenal college career on the court (leading his team to two NCAA Championship games in his two seasons) that has been unfairly tainted because of an ill-fated time out call and inappropriate activity by boosters.
In the end, in an attempt to maintain the criteria of truly outstanding achievement for Basketball Hall-of-Fame induction, C-Webb might fall just short.
2 comments:
CW is close but no cigar. If only he could stay healty. He is more talented and versatile than all those other 4s from the 90's and 2000s but never reached the levels the other guys did. From that group of 4s only Garnett and Webber never made it to the Finals but with his performance in Boston KG is a lock for the Hall, and maybe the Finals as well.
C'mon. Webber is in. How can you leave 20-9-4 out? Everyone else on the list is in.
People still remember his Michigan timeout. Get over it.
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