Chris Webber Revisits Those Epic (Controversial?) Kings-Lakers Playoffs Series

Chris Webber does not need much prompting to go back to the Kings and Lakers, and all these years later, the wound is still close to the surface.

The conversation turned to Game 6 of that Kings-Lakers series, the one that still carries a whiff of controversy. The framing was careful, with talk of allegedly shady stuff and not wanting to get sued. Asked whether he and his teammates sensed something was off as it played out, Webber did not hedge much.

"You knew something was off at the end of that game," he said. "It was the only game I'd ever played where, in the back, you felt something's off. And so yeah, that was terrible."

He has made peace with it, but only to a point. Sacramento had a Game 7, and Webber is honest about what happened there. "We did not execute. We didn't hit from the free throw line. We lost the game," he said. "That game mattered and it took it and it stole it. However, we had another chance and we didn't play our best in that game."

That is the part he refuses to let himself off the hook for. "I can never blame not having one just on that game," Webber said. He used to needle Kobe Bryant about it anyway, joking that Kobe might as well let him hold the ring because it was theirs. Then the honesty returns: they had their shot and did not take it.

Ask him for a favorite memory from those wars, though, and the bitterness gives way.

"My favorite memory from those series is playing against the best," Webber said, listing Shaq, Bryant and Phil Jackson. "Knowing their dominance and knowing what it would take to beat them." Whoever survived that series, both teams believed, was winning the title. "The West Coast was dominant at that time."

The other half of the answer was the place. Webber called Sacramento a second home and credited the people for it.

"We matured there together. It was us against the world there together," he said. "Representing the small city against big brother in LA, and actually we were better than them, we felt at the time."

He rattled off what those Kings meant to the city: the first Sacramento team to make the playoffs, the first to win a series, the first to reach the Western Conference Finals. The fans were the proof. They showed up before his run with Jason Williams, Vlade and Peja, and they stayed long after.

"It's true loyalty," Webber said. He wanted a title for himself, but he wanted one for them more. He compared their hunger to the New York fans going crazy right now, the kind of devotion he loves to see.

That brought the conversation to Madison Square Garden, and Webber lit up. His favorite night there came in a Wizards uniform alongside his teammate Juwan.

"We were beating them, throwing alley-oops," he said. The crowd was its own show. Spike Lee was there, and so were Eddie Murphy and Denzel. For a player that young, performing in front of that made you bring extra. "We're in the Mecca, living our dream, and beating up on the Knicks. That was pretty fun."