It is an NCAA March Madness moment that will never be forgotten. In the 1993 national title game, with Michigan trailing North Carolina 73-71 with 19 seconds left in the final half, Michigan center Chris Webber gets a rebound and travels, but it is not called as the North Carolina bench goes crazy about the no-call.
Webber then hustles up court, gets cornered on a double team in front of the Michigan bench and called timeout with 11 seconds remaining. With the final buzzer, Webber and the rest of the Fab Five came up short again in the national championship game.
Despite that one mistake, Webber went on to a fantastic career in the NBA.
Born Mayce Edward Christopher Webber III in Detroit, Chris grew accustomed to being recruited by colleges across the country since playing AAU basketball at a young age.
He attended the prestigious basketball school Detroit Country Day and won two state championships for the Yellow Jackets. He was named McDonald’s All-American and the top player in the recruiting class of 1991.
After considering schools like Duke and Michigan State, Chris decided on Michigan.
Webber, along with Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson, led Michigan to the 25th spot in the polls to begin the season and won the first four games.
Michigan got up to 18th when it faced top ranked Duke in Ann Arbor and lost in
overtime 88-85.
The Fab Five led Michigan to a 25-9 record with a sixth seed in the NCAA tournament.
Michigan went through Temple, East Tennessee State, Oklahoma State, Ohio State and Cincinnati to set up the match against Duke in Minneapolis. Duke crushed the five freshman starters in a 71-51 victory.
Michigan started the next season as the top ranked team, only to lose to Duke in its second game. Michigan returned to the NCAA tournament as the number one seed to beat Coastal Carolina, UCLA, George Washington, Temple and Kentucky. After the loss to North Carolina, Chris declared for the NBA Draft and was selected first overall in the draft by Golden State.
With Chris Webber declaring for the draft after his sophomore year, Rose and Howard went to the NBA the following season. Jackson and King played their senior seasons in 1995. But the legacy of the Fab Five would be in question long after all five players left Michigan.
In 1997, the NCAA investigated and found Webber and four other Michigan players were given money by Michigan booster Ed Martin totaling $616,000. It was also reported the Webber family got money from Martin during Chris’ days at Detroit Country Day. Martin was found to have acquired the money from an illegal gambling ring while he was a retired electrician at Ford Motor Company.
The NCAA and Michigan imposed several sanctions on the basketball team, including two years probation, vacating the 1992 and 1993 final four appearances and disassociation of Michigan from Webber until 2013.
Webber was convicted of perjury after he denied having a relationship with Martin, resulting in Chris paying a $100,000 fine and a community service sentence.
Webber ended up playing one season in Golden State and went to the Washington Bullets (now the Wizards) for four seasons. The majority of his career was with the Sacramento Kings and he then played in Philadelphia and Detroit before ending as a Golden State Warrior in 2008.
After 15 seasons, Webber’s final stats include 20.6 points per game, 8,124 rebounds
and a 47.9 field-goal percentage.
Chris Webber, currently working as an analyst for NBA on TNT, will certainly be remembered for his involvement of starting a revolution in college basketball as a member of the Fab Five. Webber and the rest of the Fab Five changed college basketball in many ways from the black socks and long, baggy shorts to the high-flying, power-dunking. He was part of what many consider the greatest recruiting class of all time with a team of five phenomenal freshman of which might never be seen again.
