Chris Webber was at the peak of his NBA career when he was told by the Washington Wizards that he was being traded to the Sacramento Kings. At the time, the Kings were viewed as a bad team and it was definitely not a franchise that Webber wanted to be a part of.
In fact, Webber had even planned to sabotage the trade by not reporting to the Kings. Eventually, C-Webb gave in and joined the team in 1998.
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Webber was convinced that it wasn’t gonna work out for him. However, it all changed when he took the time to really see what his teammates were capable of. All of a sudden, Webber’s doubts dissipated and a new synergy was formed.
“One practice,” Webber told NBA.com in 2021. “I looked around and said, ‘This is going to be nice.’ Because we’re playing like nobody else was playing. You could see it that first practice what (we) wanted to do. And it felt like home, man.”
C-Webb was cut for Sac-Town
The Kings were coming off another underwhelming season when they traded for Webber. They finished the 1997-98 campaign with a 27-55 record and failed to make it to the postseason.
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On paper, the Kings didn’t really pose any threat to other teams. However, Webber was moved by how his teammates and the organization welcomed him. The instant connection he had with his new teammates gave him a reason to embrace his role as the team’s leader.
“The purity of the game came back for him in Sacramento,” former Kings guard Doug Christie said. “He was around players he respected and liked. We were brothers, had fun, played hard. It was basketball nirvana.”
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C-Webb also saw it in the actual game
In a separate reflection on his trade to the Kings, Webber recalled desperately demanding to be shipped to the Los Angeles Lakers. At the time, he was still grappling with the idea of being the main guy for a bad team and joining a winning team as a secondary star.
After some time, C-Webb understood that joining the Lakers wasn’t going to be a reality. To his surprise, he and the Kings clicked in their very first regular-season game.
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“So, [the trade to Lakers] it didn’t happen and I remember coach just bringing me into his office and he disarmed me,” Webber once recounted. “I mean, I was a King after our first practice because he said to me, ‘I understand, I don’t care about what happens before or after. You’ve got a clean slate here and we really, really want you.’ And what could you say after that?… I tried to fight it in my head, but I was watching our game against San Antonio, the first game that we ever played together and I knew right then. You could tell right then.”
With Webber leading the charge, the Kings took off. By the early 2000s, they were viewed as championship contenders. It was also in Sac-Town where Webber played the best years of his NBA career, having named All-Star in four consecutive seasons.
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That being said, it’s safe to say that being traded to the Kings turned out to be not the worst but the best thing that happened to Webber.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Oct 3, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.