It seemed to be timed just right as Chris Webber entered the Palace floor at a timeout in the first quarter of the Pistons – Timberwolves game. He was spotted immediately by the fans as he and his father started to make their way to their front row seats under the basket.
At first just the fans in the immediate area of the Palace tunnel saw the new Piston walk into the building, but as they started to cheer for him, more and more fans caught on to what was happening. The cheers grew louder and louder while Webber made the short walk to his seats with his father and Palace security by his side. By the time they showed Chris on the jumbo screen most of the Palace crowd was cheering loudly and standing proudly for the hometown boy who would soon be wearing a Pistons uniform.
There was a buzz in the air as the cheers grew louder and louder and Webber’s smile grew wider and wider. He looked a bit choked up and even a bit surprised from the warm ovation he received. It couldn’t have been a better greeting for Webber who has always wanted to play for the team he grew up cheering for. If this was any indication that his hometown was ready and willing to put the past behind, this was it. Right now it’s got to be clear to Webber that he made the right decision.
Although he left his seats before halftime and didn’t return, I am sure Pistons fans passed the test. Webber tested the waters and now he has nothing to worry about when he finally suits up with the Pistons and plays his first game for a team he always dreamed about playing for. Webber gets to come home and the Pistons get the services of an All Star who already has his heart with the team. He wants nothing more than to win a championship, and what better place for him than Detroit. Now that would be a true Hollywood ending.
I look forward to seeing him in that Pistons uniform. I hope he plays Wednesday against Utah.
I’M SO F**KING EXCITED!! yeah I hope he plays against utah also. anybody heard what # he is going to run with?
If it were me I would go with 44 or maybe even 14.
he actually did end up coming back natalie…..towards the end of the game they showed him sitting in front of joe D and that other big name dude who I forgot……Up in the box where joe D always sits…….But I didn’t see him come and sit down in the first or hear any news on it until I turned on the t.v about 8 mins left in the 4th….did anyone know he was going to sign before the game? or did he just come and sit down and then everyone realised.
I didn’t look into Joe’s Box, I just didn’t see Webber go back to the seats under the basket.
I don’t know about anyone else but I knew he had made his decision before I left for the game but I am sure some people weren’t sure. It was a pretty cool moment.
well your up late nat…..What do you do for a living besides this site?
Yes late night…I am trying to get the Pistons to hire me but they aren’t biting.
Ah, isn’t that sweet.
Grrrrrrrrr
I still don’t think this will work. I hope he proves me wrong. Read this this morning, it more or less sums up my concerns:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/marty_burns/01/15/webber.reax/index.html
I posted the below comment in Webber is Coming Home and will post it here so the person who thinks I am a bandwagon jumper can read it forsure. I am not a bandwagon jumper and never be I will be a pistons fan until the end no matter where I live. I have always been one and when everyone was big on the bulls i was just becoming a pistons fan. I will never forget my first game I watched when I was 9 and will never forget becoming a pistons fan. I owe it to joe D and grant hill for me being a big fan. I unlike the person who made the comment do not live in mich and am still a pistons fan as are other people around the world. Just because a person moves does not make then a bandwagon. I moved for my job and I still buy pistons season tickets cuase I go to games when I am home and I give them away when I can’t go. I don;t even sell them I give them away. Now do not call me a bandwagon jumper cause I many so not one. I own everythign pistons and both my home here out west and back east have piston things all over.
I live out west for a year never lived in mich. have been a pistons fan for 16 years since I was 9 years old. I have never lived in mich and have been a ticket holder for 5 years. I will still buy the tickets and give them away as I always do. I am no bandwagon jumper and never will be. It had to go out west becasue my company asked me to go. I will be home in 2 years and will still be a pistons fan. I come home twice a month for the most part and go tp games. I again do not live in mich and never have so the pistons are not my home team.
to add to my note I do not live in LA I live in Den. now
Sorry to all but it makes me angry to be called a bandwagon jumper just because I do not like one player and feel he is only coming to the pistons to get a ring as so many players want to come to detroit for. I do not blame them but at the same time if we were not winning and had no chance of a ring no one would want to join our team.
He’s a douchebag who helped ruin Michigan basketball for a decade. They still haven’t recovered from the ruin from the wake of this greedy bastard who couldn’t wait a little bit for his payday. He gets away with it while the innocent were punished. I have no respect for him at all and will not root for him as an individual.
I can’t and won’t root against the Pistons but his career can’t be over soon enough to please me.
To the Pistons fan in Denver….True Pistons fans know your not a Bandwagoner, you don’t need to explain yourself. You are a true fan and your cool with me, if that counts for anything.
To “anonymous” who posted right above Natalie:
Chris Webber started taking allowances when he was in high school. He was just a young kid. From what I understand, this was a common part of basketball culture at the time. Webber wasn’t the only one taking allowances, he was one of very many in the state of Michigan alone.
My question to you– would you want to be marked for life for mistakes you made when you were as young as 15?
At first, I didn’t like the idea of signing Chris Webber. But I couldn’t be happier now, having had a change of heart over the weekend before Webber was signed. And I couldn’t be more excited to see him in the red and blue. Where before he was against me, the colors he now wears earns him a place amongst my heroes…
Go Pistons. Welcome, Chris Webber. Welcome back, Chauncey!
big ben yes he well if he was here monday and will sign today then yes he will play.
from:sheed rules
dom i think ur thinkin of rick mahron
84? I’d rock that jersey. you think thats his # or just something for the press conference
chris webber is sexy! anyone else think so???
I’m really exited that Webbers coming but what about nazr. He needs some valuable minutes. come on, if someone needs to leave its got to be coach Saunders.
chris and sheed played together before??
is it possible to get ride of Flip Saunders?
yes C-Webb and Sheed played together as Washington Bullets.
Natalie, do you have any footage of Webber’s entrance to the Palace and the loud standing ovation from the fans? I heard the reaction was very warm, I want to see how great it was when he came in.
junior no what ever his #was in the press conference thats what number he will be
His Jersey # is 84
Alrighty now… Chris Webber has come home to win a ring. What’s wrong with that? It isn’t like he’s going to try to do it in Cleveland, or any other NBA town, as he could have. Be happy; Pistons’ fans want another championship in 2007. I’d be against his quest if he wasn’t a Detroit Piston, but he is, and I’m glad he is.
I love Sheed, and I’m glad he doesn’t have the same degree of hometown love and passion for Philly, as Chris Webber has for Detroit. I respect him for the courage to sign here, knowing full well, that he’d have to face criticism that he wouldn’t have had to playing elsewhere. He doesn’t owe any apologies or explanations, but I’m sure that he wants to be a part of bringing Piston fans another crown this year, to make amends to anyone he’s offended in the past; clearly, as a pro athlete from Detroit, he is also a great Detroit sports fan, and always will be, I believe! Kudos to Joe D. for this changing of gears on the fly.
Now there will be other decisions to make, and the fans will have to display some patience with those who remain part of the team, the new pieces, and the coaching staff itself. What we have now is some new optimicism, and time will tell whether Webber or any other changes will propel the Pistons back to the Central title and Eastern Conference Finals. Whether it’s been the absence of time for things to mesh, a playing chemistry mismatch, the injury to Chauncey without a credible backup PG… things haven’t been working out the way we all like to see them, with our rightful spot atop of the Central, instead of it floating further within grasp.
It’s a clean slate now, and the team has been given a shot of enthusiasm. All that matters now is that the Pistons need to WIN. Webber might help out with that, so I’ll be one of his biggest supporters.
Fan from Den. thank you very much nat. I love this site and come it everyday. Keep up the great work.
LETS GET RID OF SHEED!
yeah, getting rid of sheed probably won’t happen. if anything it’ll be nazr.
Whoever anonymous in Denver is, make sure to go to gobluecolorado.com early in March. The Michigan club will be getting seats for the Nuggets game, come sit with a bunch of Pistons fans.
Thank you Kevin I will do that
Garold, I like what you have to say. You should join the forum and chat with us.
hey anonymous up there, who said lets get rid of sheed, why don’t you use your real name…punk
SHEED SUCKS, I AGREE WITH THAT GUY UP THERE, HE HAS SEEMED UNINTERESTED LATELY AND SUCKED YESTERDAY GOING 1-11 WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS NAT!?!?
hey anonymous, why don’t you use your real name when you tell me to
I hate sheed
Sheed has proven to me he’s one of the best PF in the league, everyone goes through things like this but at least Rasheed has the Skills and the Heart to make up for it. Yes he was 1-11 yesterday but did you watch him lockdown Garnett ever minute he was out on the floor? He couldn’t make his shots so he did other things.
As for the footage of Webber walking into the Palace, there is no video on it. When I got back from the game and watched the recording all that they showed was him already sitting down.
Garold, I disagree that Webber does not owe any apologies. As an alum I will not single him out in the Michigan scandal but he did play a major role. I saw him do an interview with Dan Patrick about a week before the hearings started where he insisted he was innocent and would never do anything to hurt the school. I don’t buy into the argument that he was young and he made a mistake. In a way, yes, he was young and made a mistake. That would be the play that made him the Bill Buckner of March Madness. Taking money was the kind of mistake that you normally have to do time for. Watching Webber walk out of the courtroom a guilty but free man did little to restore my faith in the American legal system. What angered me the most was that what he and other players did hurt kids who weren’t even related to that era. The year that Michigan issued its self-imposed sanctions their team would more than likely have qualified for the tourney. There were seniors on that team that never got a chance to play in the postseason. All will be forgiven in my eyes when I hear that Webber took time to track down each member of that team whereever they’re currently playing in Europe to apologize for his role in wasting their hard work and dedication. And this is what I hold against the man before we even talk about his lack of mobility on defense. We needed a change to shake things up, I still don’t think this was it.
As long as we’re talking about Webber, the Sixers were able to buy their way out of his huge contract. I’m assuming we didn’t give Murray that much when he signed in the offseason. Given that I don’t think we’ll be able to package him in a trade and management won’t send him to the NBDL or Europe, how much would it cost to buy him out? There are a lot of Pistons fans out there, if we all average $20 bucks it’d only take 180,000 of us to get him 3.6 mill. I figure Michigan based fans can do that alone getting Meijer refunds from all the extra cans of beer they have to drink to make his game look respectable.
Sorry about the long post, working late with lots of down time.
Kevin, it’s your right to disagree. My point is aimed strictly at the success of the Detroit Pistons in 2007. It’s also my right to disagree with fans who voice the booing of Detroit Pistons, while calling themselves Piston fans. Drudging up the past to make it’s players feel uncomfortable does nothing to achieve that goal of winning. I respect Joe Dumars, and he calls Chris Webber a fine addition to the team, along with many other accolades; that’s good enough for me. As far as his mistakes at U-M, it’s an unrelated topic to me, but one I’ll devote a few comments to add a little perspective. Today, I suspect that protecting those who escaped without ridicule is still a priority; perhaps an agreement reached.
I worked the Michigan games during the period in question, and many days watched the players filing into the parking lot at Crisler for practice, in their $50,000 vehicles. Anybody with a clue, not only knew that something was going on, but that it was being condoned; everybody around knew. There were bigger fish to fry here, and some fell on the sword to protect those others, and limit the damage. It wasn’t the players who ruined the reputation of a basketball program. First go get your apology from someone who suffered no consequences; you go to the big fish. Try to be patient; it rarely is a good thing to know all that you think you want to know. All you think that is deserved will surface someday, but not likely in the timetable that you deem feasible. That’s all I have to say on the subject.
Go Webber, and go anyone who dons the Piston uniform!
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This guy is one of the smartest posters on this site.
This is super…welcome back Chris Webber!!