[Basketball News]

"It’s definitely special, I never thought that I could be here as a Piston at this point in my career. So, for me and my family, it is a total surprise and total shock and I feel great. I feel renewed and I am excited. I’m energized. I haven’t felt this good about the game in a long time and being able to come home, and come to a team most importantly, to play with some great player and good people in the organization. So for me, that’s what I’m really excited about. Being home, I am here in the summer, but being home on a great team, that’s what makes me feel good." -- Chris Webber on signing with the Pistons

Transcription of Chris Webber Press Conference

[Basketball News]

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Joe Dumars hasn’t had a lot of anxiety-free moments watching his basketball creation go about its business since Chauncey Billups went down with a leg injury in late December, but one of them came during the second half of the Pistons’ blowout win over the Hornets on Jan. 4 in Oklahoma City.
The Pistons were ahead by 20 points or so in the second half when a good moment got even better for him. His cell phone rang and on the other end was Aaron Goodwin. As he always does when a prominent agent calls, Dumars ran through the Rolodex in his mind of Goodwin’s clients.

When Goodwin asked his interest in Chris Webber, Dumars’ ears perked up a little more. Told that Webber and the Philadelphia 76ers were negotiating a buyout and that Webber’s first choice was to become a Piston, the team’s president embraced the idea - wholeheartedly and immediately.

And if he needed any selling, the core players on his team gladly would have provided it. When Dumars told Chauncey Billups of the possibility of Webber becoming his teammate, Billups enthusiastically endorsed the prospect of adding a five-time All-Star who ranks as one of the premier passing big men of his generation.

Back Home

[Basketball News]

There are certain players who produce big numbers and are legitimate superstars that don’t always make their teammates much better. The great players are always going to make their teammates better, but there are some guys who bring their teammates up two notches. And that’s the thing that’s best about Chris Webber. He seems to have a great feel for the game, he’s not a selfish player, he has great hands and I think, as a guy who is a scorer-rebounder, he knows about position on the court and he ends up setting up his teammates out of the post in the proper positions. I like that about him maybe more than anything.

Nobody, especially if they’ve been through a serious injury, is going to be quite physically where they were as a young player or as a player in his prime. But Chris is the kind of a guy who’s cerebral enough to make subtle changes in his game and stay closer to what he was, at least in terms of productivity, and being an asset t to his teammates than lot of people would. Can I put a number on it? His agent thinks, health-wise, he’s back to 95 percent. I’d take Chris Webber at 85 percent and he’d help you win a championship.

A Great Move

[Basketball News]

The Pistons fired the first shot across the bow, snagging Chris Webber for the NBA equivalent of a bag of peanuts. There’s no leaguewide consensus on how much Webber has left, but even the skeptics are a little queasy at the thought of a team with this much firepower adding a potential future Hall of Famer to the mix.

But it would be foolish to project how the Webber addition shakes up the power structure of the East where the playoffs are concerned, because Webber to the Pistons is just the start of the feeding frenzy that doesn’t shut down for another month. From now until the trade deadline, every contender in the East - and that’s pretty much everybody in the East - will be baiting a hook, casting a line and seeing who bites on what.

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