AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Chris Webber pretty much disappeared off the 76ers' radar in his final two weeks with the team, then resurfaced as an important contributor to the star-studded Detroit Pistons.
So what happened?
"You should ask the coach, the coach that didn't allow me to play," Webber said last night before the Pistons faced his old team, the Sixers, at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Yes, but Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks didn't have him available for those final seven games because Webber, according to the team, had a bruise on his right foot.
The foot somehow got a lot better as soon as Webber joined the Pistons on Jan. 16. After coming off the bench in his first game, Webber has started every game since Jan. 19, including his 29th in a row last night.
"I definitely had foot problems," he said. "My foot is taped now. We have a great trainer [Kevin Johnson] in Philly, but we've done some different things here to approach the foot and found out the reasons why.
"But like I told you before, Mo came to me [in Portland before the Dec. 29 game] and said we're going to cut in half your minutes and half your playing time, and I said, 'Why? I just came off a 20-and-10 [points and rebounds] season.' So I don't have an answer for that."
Webber played his final game as a Sixer on Dec. 27 at Sacramento, the team that traded him to Philadelphia on Feb. 23, 2005. He sat out the next game in Portland and the six after that before the Sixers completed a buyout of his contract for around $36 million and waived him on Jan. 11.
Webber then signed with his hometown team, and he calls the experience "great."
"I just feel really blessed," he said. "It's been like most of my experiences in the NBA. It's been good."
And the Sixers were the worst experience?
"In the NBA? Yeah," he said. "I don't know [what happened]. Whenever you don't meet your expectations, it's not as good as you had hoped it would be. It didn't meet my expectations, and it wasn't that good."
In Detroit, Webber entered last night's game averaging 13.7 points and 7.4 rebounds in 31.9 minutes per game while shooting 54.3 percent from the field. With Webber in the starting lineup, the Pistons are 21-7, and 19-4 when Webber starts with regulars Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace.
Webber had nine points, seven rebounds and two assists in the Pistons' 96-75 win. He played nearly 28 minutes and sat out the fourth quarter.
Billups missed the game with a strained left groin.
"Chris has been good for us," Detroit coach Flip Saunders said. "He hasn't had to be in a situation where he has to go out and score 20 points and get 10 to 12 rebounds. He can go out and know he can be as important playing with the ball by feeding other people and passing and being involved offensively as he can by scoring."
Webber, who has suffered from flu symptoms the last couple of days, said he didn't consider the game against the Sixers to be of the same magnitude as his first games against his other former teams - Golden State, Washington and Sacramento.
"I'm just happy right now," he said. "I appreciate being in Philly, because it got me here.
"I'm not going to try to shoot or anything like that. Actually, I'll probably be less aggressive. I want to win. Hopefully, I'll sit on the bench and get ready for a tough road trip. I'm not [feeling] too well, and hopefully I won't have to go too much."
Sixers Notes |
76ers75 Pistons96
Next:
Bobcats at 76ers, Friday at 7 p.m. (CSN)
Inside
Webber on his fade-out from the Sixers: Ask Cheeks.
D9.