When Chris Webber was being recruited, we heard that one very sharp source said that if he came to Duke, Duke would win four straight titles. Of course he chose Michigan, and if Ed Martin is to be believed, his scholarship was massively subsidized.
Since then, Chris Webber has alternately shown himself to be a thoughtful man and an idiot.
After Duke beat Michigan in the '92 title game, Webber promised revenge in the Durham rematch. After a lot of Fab Five smack talk, Duke smacked them around but good.
Later that year came the infamous timeout against UNC in the title game, and then the NBA draft.
In the NBA, he helped to destroy the Golden State team, got in some trouble in Washington, and has now been indicted for allegedly lying about taking money at Michigan.
Yet when he is not commiting random acts of stupidity, he is a reader and a guy with a lot of potential.
When he was leaving Washington, bitter with the franchise and former Michigan teammate Juwann Howard, he said his mother had told him not to put his light under a bushel - not to do foolish things which would come bakc to haunt him later, in other words.
Whatever happened at Michigan happened long ago and is largely irrelevant now, except that allegedly lying about it to a grand jury has gotten him indicted. A friend of Webber's said that he thought Chris was trying to protect Michigan's honor. A nice thought, but if that's what he wanted, wouldn't it have been easier to just follow the rules?
At any rate, Webber is back in the news in a way he surely doesn't like. He's done a lot to damage his credibility over the years. Regardless of what happens in his trial, he could still do a lot of things of great interest. Here's hoping he catches on and takes full advantage of his humanity and potential.