Webber confident in Kings
The Kings' healthy six-game cushion on the Los Angeles Lakers on March 2, after Chris Webber's first game back in the lineup, has been whittled to zero games exactly one month later. That pretty much explains why Webber was asked late Thursday to estimate the number of folks, Sacramento-based or otherwise, still on the Kings' bandwagon.
"I think my mom is still on it," Webber said.
With that, he let out a rare chuckle. There hasn't been a lot of laughter lately for Webber, who has been widely blamed for Sacramento's 8-8 record since his return. You'll note that contrasts a bit with Sacramento's 43-15 record while Webber was sidelined.
Webber, though, is trying to ignore the mounting panic, realizing that he's the King who has to lift the group emotionally out of its worst funk since maybe the spring of 2001. That's when the Lakers swept Sacramento out of the second round, and Webber looked around the arena as he trudged off the floor, not sure if he'd be back as a resident or visitor as he proceeded into free agency.
Three years later, Webber insists he hasn't asked -- and won't ask -- to be dealt in the offseason. He's still seething about the two booings he received recently at Fortress Arco, where he's apparently getting no grace period as he tries to work his way back from a 10-month injury layoff, but he's urging every King to simply get over it. This is a team that suddenly needs a big victory to launch the turnaround, preferably Sunday at Houston, and feeling sorry for itself isn't a winning strategy.
"I haven't asked to be traded," Webb said. "I think the [recent Sacramento Bee] article quoted a source close to me, and I can't say a source didn't say [that Webber would seek a trade in the summer]. But it's not from me. Everybody's emotional. Everybody's human. [The booing] disappoints me, yeah, but as far as me taking it to that level, no, it wasn't that serious."
The serious issues, Webber concedes, are the Kings' suddenly porous defense and unexpected depth shortage. Sacramento will have a dangerous rotation if its top seven players are healthy for the playoffs. At present, though, two of the Kings' best defenders -- Bobby Jackson and Brad Miller -- are out. And in a locker room bereft of Jim Jackson, Hedo Turkoglu and Keon Clark -- all sacrificed so the Kings could afford Miller -- there's no one apart from rookie Darius Songaila to step into the breach. Webber, meanwhile, is only starting to regain his conditioning, but now he must also deal with a nagging pain in his shooting hand that required two cortisone shots before Thursday's heavy loss in Dallas.
The worst of Sacramento's recent losses can be rationalized somewhat: L.A. and Dallas won handily when the Kings, still shorthanded, were playing on the second night of a back-to-back, and both times on the road. The bigger concern is that the Kings have played without passion lately, a signal that the when-will-it-end stream of injuries is finally draining away the team's will to fight after two-plus seasons of admirable resilience.
As he left Big D, Webber vowed not to let that happen, saying that he still believes that "we can do anything and accomplish anything when our effort is there." He also believes that the Kings' defense, quietly effective last season before turning Mavericks-like this season, can be sufficiently stingy in the playoffs once he and Miller get some significant court time together.
Of course, Sacramento has only seven games left to find some rhythm before the playoffs start, with the possibility more real than ever that they'll slip to third in the West -- to open against the Mavericks instead of Utah/Portland/Denver -- and show up to those playoffs with a mostly empty bandwagon.
"Maybe that's good," Webber said. "We played better a couple years ago when we thought everybody hated us. Maybe that's what you need sometimes."
What we're hearing
Vlade's Olympic pick? Take one guess
I have a little bet with Vlade Divac. I think he's going to end up playing for Serbia and Montenegro in the Olympics this summer, despite his recent vow to retire from international basketball. The 36-year-old insisted again this week that I'm sure to lose this bet.
Mind you, according to Vlade, I might not be the lone American-born loser this summer.
Divac insists, whether he's playing or not and no matter whom Team USA has on its roster-in-flux, that the Serbs are going to be hard to beat in Greece, where Peja Stojakovic is revered as a virtual demigod from his time with PAOK.
"If we bring the team I think we should bring," Divac said, "we're going to win."
That squad?
Peja, Dejan Bodiroga and Vladimir Radmanovic at the swing positions. Zeljko Rebraca, Predrag Drobnjak, Zarko Cabarkapa, Nenad Kristic, Kosta Perovic and Darko Milicic are the options at the power positions. Milos Vujanic, Aleksandr Djordevic and Marko Jaric can all play the point. That list doesn't even include the unforgettable Milan Gurovic, whose late 3-pointers in Indy knocked the United States out of medal contention at the 2002 World Championships. Don't forget, furthermore, that the above group's years of playing together is even more valuable than the names.
And if Team USA can't field its best squad, as it increasingly appears?
"They're going to have problems with us," Vlade says.
As for his role in Greece, Divac insists he'll be there as a cheerleader only. Divac claims he won't bow to public (or my) pressure to play for his country one last time, believing that his gold medal from the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis was a farewell too perfect to spoil.
We'll see.
The spot where you always find numbers
As of Friday morning, the Lakers were 21-4 since the All-Star break, tops in the league. The NBA's best and worst records in that span:
| Best records since All-Star break | ||
|---|---|---|
| Team | Record | Percentage |
| Lakers | 21-4 | .840 |
| Grizzlies | 18-4 | .818 |
| Pacers | 16-6 | .727 |
| Pistons | 15-6 | .714 |
| Heat | 15-6 | .714 |
| Worst records since All-Star break | ||
|---|---|---|
| Team | Record | Percentage |
| Clippers | 5-20 | .200 |
| Raptors | 5-18 | .217 |
| Bulls | 6-16 | .273 |
| Hawks | 6-16 | .273 |
| Magic | 6-16 | .273 |
As of Saturday afternoon, Freddy Adu will become the second-youngest athlete in the history of major American team sports to play in a regular-season game. It's a list that includes a kid named Jermaine O'Neal:
| America's youngest pros | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Year | Player | Years-Days |
| MLB | 1887 | Fred Chapman | 14-240 |
| MLS | 2004 | Freddy Adu | 14-306 |
| MLS | 2001 | Santino Quaranta | 16-207 |
| NHL | 1942 | Bep Guidolin | 16-362 |
| NBA | 1996 | Jermaine O'Neal | 18-53 |
Briefly ...
With no disrespect to Ben Wallace (and Rasheed Wallace), Ron Artest and Andrei Kirilenko are the favorites on my Defensive Player of the Year ballot. Not sure yet how I'm going to choose between the two stoppers, but Pacers coach Rick Carlisle made a persuasive Artest case when he told ESPNews' Brian Kenny: "When [Artest] went out for the [thumb] surgery, I really thought there was a strong chance that we wouldn't see him the rest of the regular season. He had a ligament that was torn from the bone on his left hand. By the way, he probably played a month and a half with the ligament torn, and then at a certain point it got to be too much. ... This guy's a different cat. I don't think that there's many players in this league who would have even thought about playing after a major surgery like that. And Ronnie was back in 12 days." ... Despite its recent 8-1 surge, Golden State awoke Friday on the verge of playoff elimination -- 5½ games back of the No. 8 spot with eight games left. Which means, of course, that Uncle Cliffy Robinson's streak of 14 consecutive seasons in the playoffs is barely breathing. You have to go back to 1986-87, Jim Calhoun's first season at Connecticut, to find the last sub-.500 team Robinson has played on. ... More public-service information regarding NBA TV's playoff coverage: If one of the network's eight first-round games is also scheduled for broadcast by a local network, it will be blacked out on NBA TV in the host city to protect the local rights, just like they do in the regular season. Just so you know. ... When Carmelo Anthony scored 41 points four days after LeBron James scored 41 points, it marked just the second time in the past 25 years that we've seen such a feat from rookies. Late in the 1997 season, Allen Iverson put up a 50 spot, followed by 40 points from Kerry Kittles the next day -- followed by 40 from AI the very next day. ... Carlisle, in response to the notion that O'Neal has no shot to beat Minnesota's Kevin Garnett in the MVP voting: "I have some issues with it, but I'm a little biased obviously. ... This year, Jermaine has proven to be that franchise-type player, and if he's not MVP, at the very least he's got to be first-team All-NBA."
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here. Also, click here to send a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.
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