I don’t watch the national broadcasts if I don’t have to, give me Blaha over everyone. So if you weren’t watching TNT’s coverage you probably missed Chris Webber’s take on the Pistons. Luckily The Starting Five has us covered:

Webber on the lack of intensity by the Detroit Pistons: “(The Pistons) are really nonchalant and that’s why I felt we lost last year (in the Eastern Conference Finals). It sounds crazy, but they could care less. That locker room is crazy, disciplined and unruly. Disciplined because they police themselves, they are all veterans, they know they’ve got to be in bed, they know they’ve got to work hard, I’m not talking about on the court. They come from a coach like Larry Brown, they look at him like the epitome of basketball, and they feel they can wait until the last game or the championship and they won’t lose. I’m not saying it’s right, but that’s how it is.”

He’s probably not winning over any of his teammates from last season over with those remarks, true or not. I always thought what goes on in the locker room stays there? The Pistons can be nonchalant, and it has come back to bite them but so did signing Webber. He really underpreformed in that Cleveland series as our starting center. He wasn’t the reason the Pistons lost, but he was definitely a contributing factor.

It would have been nice for him to have just a little more loyalty for the guys he was in the foxhole with. I guess he’s bitter we didn’t pick him up (thank God!).

Again, click over to The Starting Five if you tuned in to the TV20 broadcast, because they’ve also got Kenny Smith’s take and Charles Barkley’s bash on the ‘Stonz.

ESPN: Time is apparently up on Chris Webber’s basketball career.Sources close to Webber told ESPN.com on Tuesday that the 35-year-old has decided to retire from the game and end his comeback with the Golden State Warriors after more problems with a surgically repaired left knee that has plagued him for the past half-decade.

He’ll probably never get the recognition he deserves as one of the games best big men in recent memory. It’s too bad things didn’t work out better for C-Webb here, it would have made for a much better ending to his career than him joining a Warriors team that had no more to offer him than some cheesy full circle articles.

Good luck Chris and thanks for the memories.



Some more former Pistons things I’ve been meaning to get to:

• Chucky Atkins deals with wheels
• Derrick Coleman is injured on Pro Vs. Joes
• This Toronto fan has taken a real liking to Primoz Brezec
• Isiah, while in Indy passed up drafting Tayshaun Prince in favor of Fred Jones
• Rick Carlisle to be Chicago’s next coach?

So it ends, looks as if Webb will sign tomorrow.  Talk about all the unlikely places for him to land, not exactly the best fit for the up tempo game they play out there in Oakland.  Good luck Chris. (finder’s fee to Nation member Nick)

Chris Webber’s unlikely but fast-moving return to the Golden State Warriors is on course to be completed by Tuesday, according to sources close to the negotiations.Barring an unexpected change of heart, sources said, Webber will accept the invitation from former coach Don Nelson and former teammate Chris Mullin to come back to the team with whom he won NBA Rookie of the Year honors in 1994, only for Webber to force a trade to Washington some six months later when his prickly relationship with Nelson collapsed.

I think if he comes, it can benefit our team, it can benefit his and my relationship, it can benefit players on this team. I think he has a chance to make some of our players better and make our team better.

–Don Nelson

“I hope that it happens to be quite honest with you,” Nelson told Bay Area reporters Sunday before the Warriors hosted the New York Knicks. “I think our team needs it.”

Nelson made his own surprising and triumphant return to Oakland last season, guiding the Warriors to their first playoff berth since they went 50-32 in Webber’s rookie season in 1993-94. Sources say Nelson and Mullin, now the Warriors’ vice president of basketball operations, are confident that the 67-year-old coach and Webber are ready for this seemingly hard-to-fathom reunion after multiple conversations in recent days.

For his part, Nelson has maintained that he and Webber reconciled years ago, when he chose Webber to replace the injured Shaquille O’Neal — over Dirk Nowitzki from Nelson’s Dallas Mavericks — as the West’s starting center for the 2002 All-Star Game in Philadelphia.

Webber could not be immediately reached for comment Sunday, but sources insist that he would be Golden State-bound now even if the Detroit Pistons made an 11th-hour bid to re-sign him. The Warriors have offered to sign him for the rest of the season for a pro-rated share of the league’s $1.2 million veteran minimum.

We Pistons’ fans have tendencies to dwell. There were the annual trade scenarios to bring Mike James back to Detroit Auburn Hills after we lost him to free agency in ‘04 or the more specific Sheed for KG trade that wouldn’t die until Garnett was dealt to Boston this offseason. Our newest hang up is Mayce Edward Christopher Webber III, or more commonly C-Webb. We just love our Mitten-Bred baller.

It’s coming up on the two week anniversary of Webber telling a Sacramento TV reporter that he’d be “back in two weeks playing basketball”.

There’s a very large faction of the Nation that wants Webb back, and there’s also those that don’t share that predilection. Here’s a cross section of both.

Rob Parker says Webber Can help Pistons. Parker expects to see Webber rejoin the Pistons sooner or later. Parker thinks Webber’s ability to pass out of the post would be the “perfect scenario” for Detroit’s offense.


You can see Webber playing 12-15 minutes a night. Best of all, coach Flip Saunders can see quickly if he’s able to help or not. Last season as a starter, Webber was either very good or very bad.

If it’s one of those bad nights, you go to someone else. If Webber is playing well, then you get all those minutes out of him.

That’s not going to sit well with everyone who’s wanted to see Amir Johnson get those 12-15 minutes per night. Especially after the effort he put forth against the Sixers on Wednesday night.

Jamie Samualson doesn’t share Parker’s avidity for Webber’s return. In his Free Press blog bluntly titled Chris Webber would add nothing to the Pistons:


Detroit needs to forget about Chris Webber of Country Day, Michigan and even the Kings. That player doesn’t exist anymore. Webber now is a pull-up jump shooter who never attacks the basket. Don’t you remember his act in the playoffs last year? There were games where he flat out disappeared. In fact the only ream impact I remember him making was early in the Bulls series and one game of the Cavs series. Bottom line. He would not make this team any better. Not at all.

Antonio McDyess was posed the question on Webber’s return on WDFN:


“Chris is a great teammate. I would love to have him but I can’t make that call. I don’t know what he would give us right now, you know, if Flip would even play him, if that was the case. I would love to see him out there as a teammate and I mean I loved him last year, he helped us.”

Dice seems to take the high road but does hint to Flip Saunders’ lack of confidence in Chris’ ability to help the Pistons. Antonio said in the interview that he feels the team needs is another energy guy off the bench, possibly a fourth or fifth big. “Energy player” isn’t exactly the terms I’d use to describe Chris’ game these days.

Even a non-Piston fan thinks Adding Chris Webber would negate any chance of a Detroit Pistons Championship:


He’s about i, me, my which didn’t have any place on the Pistons best teams over the last 6-7 years. During the playoffs, Webber was quoted as yelling on the court during numerous possessions “D-up! I got to get my ring!”

That’s funny, Webber telling teammates to D-up. I hadn’t heard that before, but if it’s true it gives Jim O’Brien’s recent Webber retorts look a tad less sour grapey.

Ok, so here’s my feelings on a Webber return, which aren’t so thinly veiled if you’ve made it this far. The Pistons SHOULD NOT RE-SIGN CHRIS. Look, I’m no Webber hater. I love the guy. I pulled hard for him in Sacto. They were my preseason favorites to win it all a few times. I still have the #4 Michigan jersey that I rocked in Jr. High (although it’s a wee bit extra-medium on me and since it’s a replica joint the dryer has gotten the best of the screened on applications). But, like the required reading in Jr. High “That was then, this is now”.

What the Pistons DO NEED in my opinion is a situational big. We need a mass neutralizer like we had in Elden Campbell or Dale Davis. More or less a large foul eater. We match up well with Dice and Sheed against the athletic bigs in the L, it’s just the plodders we struggle with. This was brought to light to me by the way Big Baby Davis was able to open up his own and1 layup bazaar right there in the Palace paint in the 4th quarter of the Celtics game. Or When we were unable to stop the Knicks, THE KNICKS, from going over the top of our defense to the tandem of Curry and Randolph.

Who pray tell should we go after? I don’t know, sorry. I’d thought for awhile PJ Brwon, but all reports are that he’s content in retirement. I, like the rest of us, have to leave our trust in the very competent hands of Joe D.

I saw this and thought it would be an interesting read to pass along to all the members of the Piston Nation clamoring for Chris Webber to once again to wear the red #84.

Former 76ers coach Jim O’Brien (now coach of the Indiana Pacers) has finally, after 3 years, fired back at Chris Webber for Chris’ public denouncement of O’Brien and his system.

Via - Delaware Online:

“In one of the first conversations I had with Chris Webber, I said, ‘This is one of the ways we’re going to use you offensively [down low with Kyle Korver on the outside],’ ” O’Brien said. “And he said, ‘Coach, I don’t do the low-post thing anymore.’

“We just made a major trade to bring in this 6-[foot]-11 guy and he said, ‘No,’ and I said, ‘Yes, you do.’ ”
[…]

“Webber didn’t practice at all that year prior to coming to us,” he said. “I think he was just at the point where he didn’t necessarily feel he was in need of practice, or could practice. It became apparent that he was not going to give the Philadelphia 76ers everything that we had hoped for.”

Everyone knows he didn’t want to be in Philly so these allegations aren’t all that shocking. I’m sure he wasn’t like that here (although he did attempt to throw Flip under the bus after the Cleveland series) because he seemed to be truly happy about the prospect of competing for a championship, especially in his hometown. But, this does speak very little to his character, something that’s supposed to be at a premium on this Pistons’ team.

Here’s some quotes I’ve come across on the ever building resurgence of a Pistons/Celtics rivalry

Bill Laimbeer - “The era that I grew up was very intense competition,” says Bill Laimbeer. “It was almost hatred of the other team and it still holds to this day on any players of those teams. Your teammates are all that matter and the other team is the enemy. There were some bitter rivalries and some bitter feelings … and I still won’t talk to Larry Bird.”



Isiah Thomas - “It was extremely personal [..] you just wanted to beat the (expletive) out of them, [..]I’ll say hello, but I’ll never be friends with them, [..] there’s no personal dislike. (pause) … We’re Pistons, they’re Celtics”



…Quotes via Pistons.com: Hatred No Longer A Part Of The NBA

Chucky Atkins - “The thing about Detroit that separates them from Boston right now is, they’ve been through wars together,” Atkins said. “When it gets tough, they know they can rely on each other. Boston might have a good record, but they haven’t really been in any wars with anyone yet. So that could be the story toward the end of the year.”



Adrian Dantley - “I can see that being a good series,” Dantley said. “And that rivalry happening again.”



…Quotes via Denver Post: Celtics show “bad” attitude

By the way…

In unrelated former Pistons news; Chris Webber told a Sacramento T.V. reporter he’ll be back in two weeks. No confirmation on who he’ll be signing with though.

Rodney Stuckey via Krista Jahnke (Detroit Free Press):

Starting sometime soon — maybe next week, maybe, if it’s a blowout, even tonight — the Pistons will finally get to see Rodney Stuckey in real NBA action.

The Pistons announced that doctors cleared the rookie point guard on Thursday to begin full-contact practice as well as to play in games.

I’m going to have to hit up YouTube to remember what Stuck brings to the table. Seems like forever he’s been out. Once he gets re-acclimated to the team he’s going to make our attack even more dangerous and diverse. We really don’t have another guy on the roster who attacks the rack off the dribble like Rodney does, which is something that’s been missing. We’ll see better looks for the field as a result of collapsing defenses and a player like that is also able to get to the line a ton (like Stuckey’s idol Dwyane Wade).

And remember when Stuckey’s up to speed he’s the first guard off the bench, so we’re not just waiting for blowouts to see glimpses like with Amir Johnson.

Chris Webber via J.A. Adande (ESPN, finders fee - Nick):

Fourteen-year veteran Chris Webber is close to returning to the NBA, with the Pistons his likely destination, a source close to Webber told ESPN.com.

“Look for him to be back the first week of January,” the source said.

The Boston Celtics, Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers had also inquired about Webber’s services, with the Heat intensifying their efforts after backup center Alonzo Mourning suffered an apparent season-ending injury to his patellar tendon in a game at Atlanta Wednesday night. But for Webber, a Michigan native, his familiarity with the Pistons players and coach Flip Saunders’ system after playing there last season appears to make them the most desirable team.

Until he signs here or somewhere else the Webber talk will not die. Is it wrong that I wouldn’t mind having Webb back now that Boston has shown interest? Or is that by design from Webber’s camp to force Joe’s hand?

How would we open a spot for him? With Flip Murray falling out of the rotation in favor of Lindsey Hunter, Dumars could shop him for picks or package him with Walter Hermann?

Chris McCosky’s Adande rebuttal:

ESPN.com’s J.A. Adande, citing an unnamed source, is reporting that Chris Webber could return to the Pistons as early as January. President Joe Dumars told me tonight that was not true. In fact, Dumars has told Webber’s representatives this week that he is content with the roster as it is and has no immediate intentions of changing it.

The Pistons presently have five frontcourt players — Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess, Jason Maxiell, Amir Johnson and Primoz Brezec (with rookie Cheikh Samb waiting in the wings). Dumars, as I have continuously reported, made it clear to Webber in August that he was not going to have four veteran big men on the roster this season barring injury, and that if a situation ever arose where the Pistons needed to bring Webber back, it would be only as the fourth or fifth big. Dumars is committed to using Maxiell as the first big off the bench, and he wants to continue to groom Johnson. Brezec was an unexpected addition who, frankly, might have more to offer in limited minutes than Webber. Webber was not all that pleased last season when he was starting and not the featured player in the offense. There is little chance he would be happy playing five to 10 minutes a night.

If Webber is going to be back in the league, it’s probably a safer bet that he will land in Miami. They have just lost Alonzo Mourning for the rest of the season. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for Webber to return to the Pistons.

Chris Sheridan of ESPN.com runs down a list of the 10 players most likely to be traded in the NBA. Flip Murray comes in at #6, which really shouldn’t be news to Pistons fans. I don’t think the Pistons will aggressively shop Flip until we get to see how Rodney Stuckey fits into the equation. He also goes onto say that the Pistons are looking to make a spot for Chris Webber (parting with Nazr Mohammed & Ronald Dupree) which is contrary to what we’ve heard from Dumars and his plans to commit to the team’s youth in the front court. We’ve been told that Joe Dumars is not looking to acquire veteran big men. This kind of sounds like a preseason relic when Nazr and Flip were all but traded in the media.

Then, when you scroll down to #8, Walter Herrmann, Sheridan reveals:

The Pistons are among the contending teams that would be willing to take a flyer on the forward who many remember as the difference-maker when Argentina defeated the U.S. in the semifinals of the Athens Olympics.

Herrmann really isn’t getting the minutes in Charlotte and his numbers reflect that. He’s a 28 year old 6′9″ forward. I’m not really sure how he figures into what the Pistons are doing. The only thing I an think of is maybe Dumars is looking to pick up a white guy so people can stop accusing him of being racist? Of course that’s in jest as I know that’s not the type of thing that determines personnel decisions with Joe D.

floridatoday.com: Magic general manager Otis Smith said Friday morning that the team has reached out to Webber and Brown to gauge their level of interest in playing alongside of Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis next season in Orlando.



This would certainly be interesting. Chris returning to the team he was drafted by, but then traded from immediately. It would be kind of a “full circle” thing especially after spending part of last season with his hometown Pistons. He might want to respectfully decline Otis’ offer though as Orlando has been a place where former Pistons have gone to die in recent years. But, I don’t think there’s any chance Webber would sign on there. If he wants to play for a ring then Orlando certainly isn’t on the short list.