“Needed my Mama’s cooking to recover from the NCAA Finals blunder!”: 2021 Hall-of-Fame Inductee Chris Webber finally opens up on the defining moment in his career

Chris Webber finally opens up about the timeout during the 1993 NCAA Finals, and how it propelled him to a Hall-of-Fame career

Chris Webber was drafted #1 in the 1993 Draft by the Orlando Magic, but then got traded to the Golden State Warriors. Webber established himself as a superstar pretty early on. He had a pretty successful career too, winning Rookie of The Year and being part of 5 All-NBA teams. None of those reasons, however, are why most fans will remember his name.

C Webb was part of the ‘Fab Five’, the group which changed the scenario of collegiate sports for good. The starting five from the University of Michigan broke several records during their extraordinary run, which included competing in the NCAA Finals with an all-freshman lineup.

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Besides their fascinating gameplay, the group was a marketing juggernaut. Consisting of future NBA stars in Jalen Rose and Juwan Howard, alongside Jimmy King and Ray Jackson, the world was on their feet. Surprisingly though, the roster wasn’t able to lift the championship.

Their best chance to win was dealt a huge blow by Webber’s costly technical foul. It was assessed after he embarrassingly called for a timeout when his Wolverines had none remaining. The team went on to lose the game to North Carolina in a crushing defeat.

Chris Webber said he was proud of the timeout game, and hopes that it would inspire others

Webber was understandably broken after the game, he revealed in an interview with The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

“I went home after that, I needed love and went to my parents’ house and just sunk in depression, got my mom’s cooking, all that stuff.” His family, however, wouldn’t let him give up. “I never was around people that would let me feel sorry for myself. My father’s like, ‘You’re about to be the No. 1 pick, what do you feel sorry for?'”

C Webb was introspective in his remarks.

“If there’s one game that I would ever have to show my son or daughter, it would be the timeout game. Because I was killing: I had 23 points, 11 rebounds and I was the best player on the floor. And the worst moment of my life happens. And after that, your dad was still a bad man.”

“It wasn’t the end of the world,” Webber said. “It was something … a championship, a demon I was always chasing, yes. As far as affecting — I wouldn’t be here if it affected me.”

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Those surely are some inspirational words, with a lot of truth in them. Webber did go on to have a Hall of Fame NBA career and didn’t let one incident define his life.