Happy Hour 01/16: The Webber Presser

♦ Chris Webber's face went from smiling and youthful to aged and tortured in about five seconds. He had to expect some questions from the media about what happened at Michigan, and how he might deal with that upon his return to Detroit. But to ask for an apology - or expect one - is probably hoping for too much.

Did he dodge the question by saying today was about the Pistons? Did he sound like Mark McGwire when he said he didn't want to get into what happened 15 years ago? I certainly think so. Webber can't possibly be naive enough to think that people have forgotten about this. He could smooth over everything with a simple one-sentence mea culpa.

But such hard feelings might be limited to Ann Arbor, and not representative of the Detroit sports fan base as a whole. And ultimately, as Terry Foster pointed out in his blog today, Webber is a Detroiter, not necessarily a Michigan Wolverine. That's what he's coming home to.

♦ Having said all that, I wonder if Michigan basketball coach Tommy Amaker might be misreading the situation by saying he'd welcome Webber back to Crisler Arena. After all, quite a few banners had to come down because of the money that he and his contemporaries accepted. And of course, there's also that infamous time-out he called in the 1993 national championship game.

Sure, I understand why Amaker would want Webber stopping by practice, appearing at games, and maybe sitting behind the U-M bench. Young players who either remember C-Webb from his "Fab Five" days or know him from the NBA would take notice. That's a hell of a recruiting tool for a program in sore need of a draw.

And maybe Amaker looks at a half-empty Crisler Arena most nights, with a city and campus that doesn't seem to care much about his program, and questions whether or not it's worth placating some hard feelings in the area. In his eyes, maybe he doesn't believe people could even be bothered to express outrage at this point. So what is there to lose?

♦ If you're wondering why Webber made the bizarre choice of 84 for his uniform number (we know he wasn't getting #4), he explained during the presser that his six-year-old nephew saw him wearing #84 in a dream. And at the end of that dream, the Pistons won the game. So that's what's going on the back of his jersey.

And here I thought it might be a tribute to the '84 Tigers or former Lions receiver Herman Moore. Oh well.

(Thanks to Kevin Antcliff for the link. More on KA tomorrow, by the way.)

♦ Sports Illustrated's Marty Burns isn't a fan of the Pistons signing Webber, largely because of his defensive shortcomings. Among the people he quotes in this article are a Western Conference scout who says "he's awful" and "can't play anymore," an anonymous Chicago Bull who thinks Detroit would be "crazy" to trade Antonio McDyess to make room for Webber, and various San Antonio Spurs who don't seem to care about the move.

♦ And finally, while looking up some stuff to possibly make a Thomas Wolfe (You Can't Go Home Again) reference, I was reminded that the main character in Wolfe's novel is named George Webber. Think about that when you close your eyes and try to fall asleep tonight.