Chris Webber has been on “Inside the NBA” this week, and at first, I thought he was pretty good. Webber is smart, and he can be funny, although he didn’t get a chance to rap. However, as Kelly Dwyer pointed out, it’s strange to hear Chris Webber criticizing someone else’s playoff failures:
Webber couldn’t run faster from the ball in the waning seconds of a big game. He’s sitting on the same set where Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith (with guest Jalen Rose) famously (albeit anonymously, the Western conference power forward wasn’t mentioned by name) destroyed Webber for not wanting the ball in the clutch within a tremendous column by Bill Simmons some six years ago.And to hear him go on about his bad self on Sunday night, it was ridiculous. No trepidation, no fear, no sense of who he was. It was quite the sight to behold.
Here’s is the relevant passage from the aforementioned Simmons column:
12:10 a.m. We’re officially in the dog days of the two-game marathon. Everybody’s collective energy is beginning to wane … except Barkley, of course.“Yo, J-Ro, you want a beer?” he asks Rose.
Captivated by the Kings-Mavs game, Rose shakes his head no. Kenny is so smitten by the game — a high-scoring, retro-’80s affair — that he hasn’t spoken to anybody in about 20 minutes. Even Barkley finds himself getting sucked in. With two minutes left in the fourth, one of the relevant players clearly seems to be shrinking from the action. On this particular play, the player is posting up, but you can tell that he doesn’t really want the ball.
Barkley narrates the entire play: “Come on, (player), come get the ball. Come on, come get it!” Not a chance. The player’s teammate finally gives up and swings the ball to the other side.
“He didn’t want the ball, Kenny!” Barkley exclaims.
“Didn’t want it,” Kenny repeats. Both of them seem disappointed. Even Jalen seems bummed out.
“(Expletive),” Barkley says again. “He didn’t want the (expletive) ball.”
The Mavs end up polishing off the Kings in regulation time.
I wonder if Webber, or should I say, (player), remembers this. Of course, he didn’t flinch when Kenny Smith needled him by suggesting a team “needed to call timeout”, so maybe Webber just has thick skin.
