King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Don Nelson loves Chris Webber: Now he tells us. Plus: A golden age for the Super Bowl logo.
Read more: Sports, Super Bowl, NBA, Basketball, Football, NFL, King Kaufman, NFL Playoffs, Sports Daily
Jan. 30, 2008 | The Golden State Warriors have announced that they've signed veteran free agent Chris Webber, who hasn't played since the 2007 playoffs with Detroit, and if I may just speak to coach Don Nelson as a lapsed Warriors fan: What?! Now you like Chris Webber?
It was the insane feud between Webber and Nelson that drove me away from the Warriors a dozen years ago. Webber responded to Nelson's treatment of him by demanding a trade following his Rookie of the Year season in 1994.
The Warriors could have chosen Webber and said to hell with Nelson, under whom -- I said then, I said when he coached the New York Knicks, I said when he coached the Dallas Mavericks and I'm still saying now that he's back with the Warriors -- no team will ever win an NBA championship.
The franchise threw its lot in with Nelson, who was authorized to make a hideous trade, which he did. He traded Webber for Tom Gugliotta and three first-round picks. That doesn't sound too bad, even considering how useless Gugliotta was, because three first-round picks is a lot.
Until you remember that it was the Golden State Warriors who had to make those picks.
The first of them was Todd Fuller, who right off the bat had the best year of his career. He averaged four points a game. The Warriors had picked him over Kobe Bryant, Peja Stojakovic, Steve Nash, Jermaine O'Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Derek Fisher. You can go all the way to the end of the second round and you'd still be naming guys better than Todd Fuller. Watch: ... and Shandon Anderson.
The second pick became Vince Carter, who was flipped in a prearranged deal for Antawn Jamison. The last one was packaged with John Starks to get Larry Hughes and Billy Owens. By Warriors standards, that trade was an outrageous success. This team dared you to be a fan.
Webber played in five of the next nine All-Star Games.
Nelson decided he'd had enough and quit soon after the Webber trade, which made the Webber trade even worse, because the only reason they'd traded Webber was to keep Nelson happy, and now Nelson was gone, and let's review here: Tom Gugliotta.
Tom Gugliotta. I still can't get over that. I was a young man then. I'm a middle-aged man now. Someday I'll be an old man. And I'll still be all: Tom Gugliotta? I will, you watch.
Next page: Webber's back and so are the memories. Oh! Rony Seikaly! Plus: Clean, sharp, bold design