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Shaquille O'Neal: "I'm like President Bush. You may not like me, you may not respect me, but you voted me in." |
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HoopsHype.com Articles Chris
Webber: The game I'll never forget January
5, 2001
When I think about the most memorable games of my career, two come to mind. One is more of a team choice, and the other is a choice for me. My favorite game in a team sense had to be Game 4 of the first round in 2001, when we beat Phoenix to win a playoff series for the first time in Sacramento. Beating the Suns – the first playoff win for the Kings franchise in 20 years – was big. I remember getting traded to Sacramento way back when. It’s kind of distorted now, when everyone assumes we’re a great team after having made six straight postseasons, but back then nobody thought that way. Just to have finally won a playoff series for Sacramento, to me, was as big as the Denver Nuggets upsetting the Seattle SuperSonics in 1994. Nobody thought we were ever going to get there. But my most memorable game individually actually came earlier in the 2000-01 season, on January 5, 2001. We lost, 93-91 in overtime, even though I scored 51 points and had 26 rebounds, both my career bests. The game was against the Indiana Pacers and my mentor, Isiah Thomas, who was coaching the Pacers at the time. It had been a weird holiday week for us. The previous Saturday, the Philadelphia 76ers were in Sacramento (where we were unbeatable) and knocked us off, with Allen Iverson scoring 46 points. In our next game a few days later, again at home, we beat the Suns, 121-117, despite Tony Delk putting up 53 against us. Not that I stuck around to see much of Delk’s explosion; I was kicked out of the game in the first quarter. Both of those games went to overtime. A few days later, on Friday, Indiana came to town, in what would be our third straight overtime game. By the time of the Indiana game, I was completely out of sorts. My family was visiting me over the holidays and they were driving me crazy. God bless ’em, but they disrupted my routine something horrible. I’m no different than a lot of athletes; I’m married to my routines. I need to have two and half hours of sleep before every game, and I didn’t go to sleep at all that day. I just sat and listened to music, I was so restless. I always get to the game about 10 minutes earlier than everybody else – I’ve always prided myself on that punctuality. On this day, I couldn’t find my keys at home, so I arrived late to the arena. It was the first time in my career I’d done that. Having a career night seemed to be the last thing possible for me. Yet as soon as I got to ARCO, Vlade Divac started telling me, “I’m feeling good. You’re going to have a good game.” And all game long, Vlade continued saying that. Now, Vlade is a lot of things, but he definitely isn’t a soothsayer who was always predicting when guys would have good or bad games. He’d never told me anything like that before. But on this night, he just kept saying, “I feel good, Webb, you’re going to play good today.” Vlade tells a lot of riddles and jokes that don’t have a punch line, so this was a very different kind of behavior for him. Getting tossed vs. Phoenix must have had some kind of effect on me, because I came out smoking against Indiana. I had 16 points and 10 rebounds in the first quarter alone, and finished the first half shooting 10-of-19. I was getting a ton of layups, and missed a number of others. Vlade told me later that I missed 10 layups, tip-ins, easy bunnies like that. I know one thing; I was incredibly active, because I was tired as hell after the game. Unfortunately, my teammates weren’t as hot or active as I was. We trailed 52-43 at halftime, shooting 16-of-48 as a team; the other guys were an icy six-of-29 for the half. We continued to play flat in the second half and were down by 11 with about four minutes left to play, but we finally put it together in a furious run to tie the game. I’d scored nine points to fuel the rally, but unfortunately I got cold near the end and couldn’t help deliver the victory. I missed a couple of shots late, which led to overtime. My last point of the night had tied the game at 89 with less than a half-minute left. When I hit that free throw to complete a three-point play and go over 50 for the night, Vlade just said, “I told you.” He was so proud. It was like he scored the 51 points himself. Actually, that’s what made me feel the best about the performance, his pride in my game. Vlade kept saying, “So what if you actually did it…I got you ready for it.” He was beaming, and that made me feel good. In overtime, both teams were helpless: Indiana outscored us 4-2 and stole the game away. We missed our last 11 shots of the game. We had our chances. I was unstoppable in the paint all game long, and yet I missed two short hooks down the stretch that could have won the game for us. On our last possession, where we could have tied or won the game with a three, my fellow Fab Fiver Jalen Rose blocked one of Peja Stojakovic’s jumpers out of bounds. We had time for one desperation tip with less than one second left, and Jason Williams inbounded toward me, but my tip try on his alley-oop didn’t quite make it. At the time, all I could think of was the loss; it tarnished any career bests or records I set. Now I can look back on the game and feel proud. My previous high marks had been 40 points and 22 boards, which I destroyed against the Pacers. I shot 24-of-47 on the game and also managed five assists and three steals, which made for a pretty nice stat line. It wasn’t just Vlade who was proud; my entire family also took credit for my career-best effort. On the way to the game, boy, were they hearing it from me: “You guys are nothing but trouble! This is why I live alone – I’m simple and peaceful…” You can imagine that on the way back home after the game, I had to sing a different tune. They were saying, “So, what was it you were complaining about on the way here?” I pretty much had to swear off talking bad about them ever again. Having the game of your life will make you do that. That was the funniest day. Everybody took some credit for how I played. It wasn’t me, it was Vlade and my family that scored all those points. And you know what? Vlade was our second-leading scorer for the game – with 13 points. Another wrinkle was playing against Isiah. Whenever I am up against him, I always try to bring my best out. It’s my way of paying tribute: “I watched you. I know you. I am going to play the game with the same dedication that you did.” Back in my rookie year, I made a move on Isiah, a little skip like he would do on the court. I made the layup, and he fouled me. This was right before he tore his Achilles and had to retire. I remember Isiah gave me a look like, you son of a… On my 51-point night, he did exactly the same thing to me from the bench. After the game, he told me, “I love you, keep doing it.” That was enough for me. How can you do better than having your mentor praise you? You don’t play the game to have a Hall-of-Famer or All-Star praise you, but if it comes, what a feeling it is. I would have been happy with one of Isiah’s little smiles. That would have been enough. Overall, I learned that I should keep my game day routines and practices, but not to be too superstitious. If you are, you might be stopping yourself from an unexpected blessing. Brett Ballantini is a regular contributor to HoopsHype.com Tell us what you think about this article. E-mail us at HoopsHype@HoopsHype.com _____________________ |
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