ANN ARBOR, Mich. — There was a basketball game at Crisler Center on Friday night. A few thousand people showed up. Michigan played Division II Northwood in an exhibition. Two hours came and went. A few dunks stirred the crowd. Michigan waltzed to victory, 90-58.
I couldn’t help but spend the night with one eye on the door. Not because I wanted to leave, but out of curiosity. Maybe he’d show up. Maybe he’d walk through that baseline tunnel, and the building would buzz, and iPhones would fill the air, snapping pictures. He would wave and Michigan players on the bench would crane their necks, looking to catch a glimpse. Afterward, maybe he’d walk into the Michigan locker room, address the current stock of Wolverines, offer some sage advice. It would be a moment in time — Chris Webber appearing in Crisler Center and being part of Michigan basketball for the first time since his estrangement with the university.
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Webber is in Ann Arbor this weekend as a guest of Jim Harbaugh. He’s set to serve as honorary captain for Michigan football’s highly important home game against Penn State on Saturday. While there were lingering questions all week whether the homecoming would truly come to fruition, pictures of Webber on campus began popping up Friday afternoon on social media. A program spokesman confirmed Friday night that Webber’s captainship is indeed going to happen Saturday.
It should be quite a scene. It’s difficult to imagine Webber receiving anything other than an overwhelmingly positive reaction. Those were the marching orders from Harbaugh, at least. The day will be depicted as a reconciliation. Webber’s disassociation from U-M — an NCAA-mandated punishment stemming from the Ed Martin debacle — ended in 2013, but his relationships with both Michigan and his Fab Five brethren has remained mostly noxious in the years since. He and Jalen Rose lobbed jabs through the media and, when it really came down to it, Webber always existed on an island all his own. So when he walks across that field and a sea of maize pom-poms pulse with his every step, it will be lauded as a resolution.
And that, unfortunately, will be comically naive.
Webber’s captainship is a vanity project. This isn’t to say that the man, himself, does not deserve to be honored and applauded. Webber is a transcendent figure and, as far as raw materials go, is the best player in program history. So, yes, he should be saluted. Anyone thinking this is happily-ever-after, though, is off-base.
Chris Webber returning to be honored at Michigan is a different thing from Chris Webber returning to Michigan. Saturday is the former, not the latter. This is not Webber’s resurrection as a figure in Michigan basketball. This is not a dalliance that will lead to the Fab Five reuniting or any banners returning to the rafters.
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The current Michigan team — a group of 18- to 22-year-olds who watched the Fab Five documentary and came to U-M, in part, because of the massive brand that Webber and Co. helped create — will not even meet Webber, unless a last-minute change occurs. Earlier this week, there was internal chatter of a possible gathering, but that is apparently off the table, according to multiple sources.
Saturday is only coming to fruition because Harbaugh went rogue and, unbeknownst to anyone in the basketball office, put the offer out to Webber in June. This is an arrangement between those two men, not Michigan and Webber or vice-versa.
Ignas Brazdeikis, a Michigan freshman, was startled to learn Friday that Webber was currently on campus. He didn’t know any of this was happening. “Wait, he’s here now?” Brazdeikis said. “Damn, I’d love to meet him.”
Meanwhile, a few hours early, Webber was snapping pictures with Matt Dudek, Michigan football’s director of recruiting
C WEBB IS BACK!!!!! pic.twitter.com/WwZlri7T44
— Matt Dudek (@Thee_Matty_D) November 2, 2018
After Friday’s win, John Beilein declined to talk about what was or wasn’t happening with Webber’s visit. He left it at this: “I honestly think this is a good first step.”
That’s all well and good, but it’s like a first step that took years upon years and is likely be followed by a longer road over an uncertain horizon. Barring an unexpected outbreak of common sense, this is more of a beginning than it is an end. Webber’s relationship with the Fab Five appears no closer to rectification than it has any other time, and that — not Webber’s twisted ties with the school — is the real fracture here. Until that bridge is crossed, and those adult men have adult conversations, this is little more than a celebrity appearance.
In October 2016, Michigan hosted a public forum dubbed “The Fab 5 at 25,” to open a discussion about the legacy and impact of a team that changed the school and shifted the sands of college basketball. It marked the first time since the scandal that the university hosted members of the team and publicly acknowledged the Fab Five’s place in its history. It could’ve been a big deal. Rose joined Jimmy King and Ray Jackson onstage at Hill Auditorium, along with University of Houston professor Billy Hawkins, journalist Kevin Blackistone and U-M professor Yago Colas, the organizer. Juwan Howard couldn’t attend due to duties as an NBA assistant coach and sent a video message.
Webber? He was invited by U-M’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. He never replied.
It was more of the same Friday night at Crisler. Chris Webber never walked through that door.
( Photo: Susan Ragan /Associated Press)