Chris Webber retired yesterday. I've followed his career for almost my whole life, and along with Alan Trammell and Steve Yzerman, was one of the most influential sports figures of my youth. He was a star in high school, pretty much a local celebrity. I've seen him play since he was 14 years old and I was 7. That's a long time. And yet I'm still not sure how I feel about Webber.

There was so much promise in him from the beginning. For a time, it really looked like he would be one of the greatest players ever. The Fab Five era was amazing, and the other four guys were incredible athletes, but was there ever any doubt that Webber was the leader? I was 13 when he announced that he'd be declaring for the NBA draft. I know that I didn't understand then how or why you were allowed to leave college early. By the time Jalen Rose and Juwan Howard left a year later, I knew everything about the process.

Webber got drafted by the Magic and traded to the Warriors, got a mammoth 13-year contract, and promptly had a falling out with Don Nelson. At the time, the Warriors might have been my favorite NBA team (I sported the Timberwolves Starter jacket - that was a Pooh Richardson-influenced purchase), but it should have been obvious that it was not to be. The Run TMC days were gone. Sarunas sat out the season. Billy Owens was still considered a star. It seems like a long time ago now.

By the time he was traded to the Bullets, my family was living in Virginia. Webber's trade to DC was a huge deal. The Bullets were bad. And then they went out and got Webber. And then drafted Juwan. Was Jalen next? Would they sign Jimmy King and Ray Jackson the next year? No. And no. With what seems now like a pretty good roster, the Bullets were a mess. Sort of unbelievably. The 1987 NBA All-Star team would have lost 50 games with the Bullets. It was like they were cursed.

And so it went for Chris. The Kings made it to the conference finals in 2002 with him as the leading scorer. It was all downhill from there. People hated him in Philly. His return to the Pistons received a, well, mixed reaction. And the Don Nelson reconciliation was strange. Webber looked horrible on the floor this year for the Warriors. He can barely run. It's a sad way to end a career.

What I haven't mentioned is the cash and the image. Yes, Webber took huge amounts of money from a UM booster. What was sad is that Chris never needed the money. His dad was a well-paid auto worker and his mom was a high school teacher and later, a college professor. He would claim to be "from the 'hood," when that wasn't exactly the truth. His press conference to announce that he'd be going to UM was during the state finals, which his team had been eliminated from. A lot of people got punished because of Webber's actions, whether in HS or college or the NBA. He was one of the most graceful big men in the history of basketball, but once a half-dozen banners are taken down because of you, a lot of people forget things like that. And as my dad would say, "He's laughing all the way to the bank."

Mick McCabe's brilliant piece on Webber in today's Free Press: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080327/SPORTS06/803270393/1048/sports

So, um... I'm back.