Can Webber Be a Money Player?

This is what he wanted, remember? Chris Webber wanted exactly this shot. He wanted to be at this place in this moment with this much riding on the outcomes of the games, and we know it because he said so.

Webber’s return to the Kings last summer was predicated on any number of things, but in the end, the fact that Sacramento probably gave him his best angle on an NBA championship ring stood atop the list. We know it because he said so.

And now it’s time to watch Webber in the crucible. It is time to see the big man in the biggest games of his career.

And, not to be too indelicate about it, it’s time to check ye olde return on investment.

Granted, we’ve always thought the money angle with Webber was the wrong way to go. He received more than $120 million from the brothers Maloof last summer, it’s true; and now the team is salary-heavy beyond recognition, and that gets us to Mike Bibby and ticket prices and trade possibilities and everything else you’d care to name. Webber’s contract has become the convenient scapegoat for all messy matters financial, and you could see that coming from the moment he sat down to sign.

People look at the money with Webber and see red. Wrong response.

The right response is this: Elite players elevate teams, don’t they?

Elite players elevate teams, and Chris Webber is the player, and the team is this one. The Kings can’t wait to see how things develop in another season or two. They’re on a great growth pattern, certainly, but the only sure thing is that they stand four victories away from the NBA Finals.

And Webber, it says here, is going to have to get at least one of those wins personally. These are the Lakers, not the Jazz or the Mavericks. Four victories against L.A. can feel like a dozen against anybody else. The Lakers get their pound of flesh.

Sacramento is a deep team and a solid team and, coming out of last week’s stunning trip to Dallas, seemingly a changed team. But it is still so much a team about Webber, because Webber’s game has such a direct influence on everything else that happens out there.

Webber can star in games without taking them over, which is part of the Kings’ overall appeal. But if he doesn’t take over at least once against the Lakers, this series will die an ignoble death. Elite players elevate teams, even the balanced ones.

The Kings lost Peja Stojakovic in Dallas without losing the series. That became part of the lore. But finishing the Mavericks absent Peja and beginning against the Lakers are two quite different propositions, and that brings us very quickly back to the All-Star who remains.

Webber was as good as his word in Dallas. That’s part of the compelling nature of this theater.

Chris Webber is that rare top-shelf player who is perfectly willing to acknowledge his career won’t be complete without an NBA title. And beginning today, he has to reach for the blasted thing himself.