Chris Webber's beef with Don Nelson was a power struggle that ruined the Warriors

When Don Nelson drafted Chris Weber back in '93 he seemed like a perfect fit, but he was an outstanding player and an outstanding coach, what could go wrong? Egos collided in an irreversible explosion with ramifications that lasted for years. Yeah, how did you know in the summer of 1993? don

nelson

had won the coach of the year award three times, as well as the honor of occasionally being called a basketball genius, which has to make you feel good, maybe not as good as if you were just called a genius, but still in five years as Coach and General Manager of the Warriors, he had turned them into playoff contenders with his patented Nelly Ball style of play, a small ball game with three guards, two forwards and shooting that lent itself well to the Golden State team. , nicknamed Run TMC.

However, there was a problem. Nellie's Warriors lacked a proper center for years and that kept the team stagnant. The Warriors were just playoff participants at best. The fans were about to get angry, so when 7-6 Sean Bradley entered the long legged draft savior

nelson

saw all his problems go away with the 3rd overall pick, it seemed easy to get brett oh wait, philly had the 2nd pick and also wanted bradley, plus they didn't seem to care at all about nelly's well being when the Sixers won the deal. Nelly set her sights on her. About the next biggest star in the draft, Chris Webber, a

power

forward who had been touted as a potential NBA star since high school in college, led the Michigan Fab 5 to the NBA Finals as a student. as a freshman and again as a sophomore, he sure made a mistake calling. timeout in the finals when Michigan didn't have any and I'm sure he made another mistake when he accepted money from a Michigan booster and then lied to the grand jury, which I guess is technically a third mistake, but look, it was going to be great.

For the Warriors, he was fast and agile, an expert passer and at six-nine and 245 pounds he was big enough to hold his own in the NBA from day one. Nelly had big plans to make him a centre-forward, now selecting him was going to be a bit complicated. Orlando was planning on taking him with the first overall pick, apparently having the third pick totally sucks. Nelson managed to make an 11-hour deal with Orlando that somewhat mortgaged the Warriors' future. He gave up his pick Penny Hardaway, as well as three future first-rounders. with a happy face while trading hats with Hardaway on draft night, but the trade didn't go so well for him for three reasons: one, he had been pushed to play with Shaq in the Magic 2.

He knew he was Don's second choice. nelson then bradley three and this is the big one

chris

webber

didn't want to play center considering the guys he would have to protect in center, i get it, but hey, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, although it's worth noting that life was about to give you.

chris

webber

moves a lot of money over the salary cap, you see, there was no rookie salary scale in 1993, the only thing that limited his contract with Golden State was already over the salary cap, so Golden State got creative . Weber ended up with a contract that undervalued him. in the short term, but he was loaded with incentives, he was nice and long and he had an opt-out clause after one year that he would decimate the Warriors if he used it, but why would he use it?

His coach was excited to have him. He fits perfectly. with the team and the team looks great on paper, two weeks into the season, Weber told journalist Rick Beuker off the record that if the owner didn't protect him from Nelson, he was going to use his opt-out clause, what was it going wrong? Well, Nelson was known at the time for being a demanding and demanding coach with rookies. He made no exception with the number one pick. Webber Nelson was used to getting the best out of underdog players. He wasn't used to having a star who needed positive reinforcement. the other party was used to special treatment and illegal presence, technically loans, I know, I know he wasn't used to a critical coach who seemed almost eager to annoy him.

The

warriors

beat the reporters got a front-row seat to the microaggressions Nelson hurled at Weber as Rick Beuker. describes in his podcast how nelson would comment on chris webber's free throws even if they went in, you know, weber after practice would shoot free throws and miss one or make one and nelson would say something like oh, that now that was good webb or uh no that ugh no that's not good if you're thinking hey that's not so bad what's up with this one during a practice? Nelson told the other players that if you can't get the money you want it's because of that guy.

Just then he pointed out to Weber, come on Nelly, you can't do that, it's rude to point out that the holidays didn't offer a respite during the break. Nelson met with the guards and told them that Weber was the reason the team wasn't improving, which it has. It has to be good for team morale. Imagine how good the guards felt knowing it wasn't their fault. Nelson's criticism wasn't just behind the scenes in practice. He once yelled why we drafted you at Weber in front of the team. fans and it all came to a very public breaking point in early February the

warriors

led the hornets by nine in the fourth webber threw a back pass that was immediately intercepted and converted nelson came off the bench to yell at weber webber yelled at him Venting months-long frustrations, Nelson responded by benching him for the rest of the game.

A few weeks later, Buker thought the dispute was public enough and abandoned his article about Weber wanting to use his opt-out clause. He kept the source of the information anonymous, but we now know it was Weber. Nelson himself did his best to downplay the article, insisting that everything was fine and that Bucher was a man, but Nelly was clearly exhausted. She limited press access to the team. He called the leak selfish and inaccurate and referred to them as Judas Wait. In this metaphor, let's not think too much about factions beginning to form within the Warriors on Team Nelson.

Tim Hardaway and Avery Johnson were separated during the season with an injury that implied to the press that Weber needed to get stronger. Nellie often used Hardaway as a go-to. One thing she wanted Tim to communicate clearly when he returned from injury was Tim's team, not the Webbers. You can see why hardaway sided with nellie here. The weber team consisted of latrell sprewell and billy owens, all three of whom were fast and weber friends. The dispute with Nelson spread to them, Billy Owens complained about Nelson's coaching in the press and Nelson quickly benched him, although at war with themselves, Golden State played quite well, they made the playoffs and won 50 games. , which was better than last year and, oh yeah, Chris Webber. won the rookie of the year award with 17.5 points and 9.1 rebounds per game, maybe Nelson was some kind of secret puppet master who played twisted mind games to get the best out of his players or maybe whoever was that good could name to the rookie of the year. performance despite being super unhappy no way to know for sure either way the future looked bright basketball wise 95 could be the year of the warriors spreewell had flourished hardaway had returned from injury with weber chris mullen and billy owens rounding out top five this is a final caliber team to try to appease weber the warriors traded for ronnie cycling so weber could play the four but were they really trying to appease weber to get the center?

They traded Owens Weber's friend and Buffer himself Owens thought the main reason he was The trade was not to get a center, but because Nelson wanted to punish Weber's friends, it didn't matter. Webber was determined a long time ago that he was using his opt-out clause and it was 100 because of Don Nelson, the potential dominance of the 95. He didn't care about the warriors, he would rather be happy than be on a good team, Nelson played the good guy and He offered to resign. Weber dismissed the offer as a pr move, but it wasn't out of the goodness of his heart, or there was only one job in san antonio, he wanted more, the owner decided he wanted to keep Nelson and let C Webb go, they signed and traded to Weber to the bullets and they got Tom Gugliatta, who had his worst season, but team morale was low. and Golden State was 14 and 31 at the All-Star break, which would be enough for Nelly.

They asked him to resign because of the polite way to fire someone, but more than just the Warriors' season was

ruined

after Weber left, they didn't make the playoffs for 12 years. Webber himself took a hit and earned a reputation. Being demanding and spoiled, the press did not spare the bullets he received to prove his theory that he preferred to be happy than to be on a good team. He was injured for most of '96. In the '97 season he made the all-star team and the Bullets reached the playoffs, but the next season the Wizards now won fewer games and missed the playoffs.

Weber was not the leader Washington needed on the court and off the court he was a pain in the ass. to put it lightly so the wizard sent him to the kings by mitch richmond and otis thorpe the king's fans weren't interested weber's reputation had never been so low and yes i'm sure those kings fans Kings later denied these quotes, but at the time it seemed that Sea Webb was more trouble than he was worth, Nelson's reputation also took a hit. Many blamed Nelson for destroying the warriors by ousting Chris Webber. With Weber's criticism, other players felt comfortable talking about hating Nelson, the meat, he put an asterisk.

About his legacy, he is a great coach who completely

ruined

it once Nelson found his way back to the Warriors over a decade later in 2006, Chris Mullin was executive vice president and wanted Nelson back. Nellie's approach was a little softer this time and he managed to end the 12-season playoff drought in 2008. Weber was 34 and had a rebuilt knee and in the twilight of his career there was talk of retirement. . The Lakers wanted to sign him to two 10-day contracts, but then Chris Mullin said, "I think he's been around enough." We need some offense. Nelson and Weber met.

They both downplayed his problem. Weber said he for the most part had good memories of his rookie year. He was happy with his career. So how could he be upset about how he started him. Nelson also insisted that the dispute was minor and he was behind it. Although he continued to imply that it was mostly Weber's fault and in 2018 he echoed that sentiment, he was perhaps tired of answering questions about a single season more than two decades ago. Nelly and Weber only had one season of conflict thanks to Weber. exclusion clause this was a small cut of meat but it was so spicy the pain it caused lasted for years thanks for watching if you are willing to click the subscribe button and as long as I have it I can offer you more chris webber We have a problem of its days college students and a collapse of his time with Sacramento for some nation.

I'm Clara Morris, good night and good game.