If you were a basketball fan in the ’90s, you’ve heard of the Fab Five. The Fab Five was a group of freshman basketball players (Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson, and Jimmy King) who composed the entire starting five for the University of Michigan Men’s basketball team. Starting five freshmen was relatively unheard of for the time, hell it’s still rare now. But these freshmen were that good, and they had style and swagger to boot. They altered the way people dressed to play basketball. The fab five made it cool to wear long baggy shorts, low cut black socks, black sneakers and they helped usher in the bald shaved head look that was so in with African American males in the 90 ’s. The fab five brought a hip hop style to college basketball which was never seen before. Every little kid across America was imitating the fab five’s style on playgrounds across America.
The fab five not only looked good on the court but also played well as they lead Michigan to the NCAA title game against Duke. Duke was a juggernaut in its own right. They were the defending NCAA Champions, who knocked off another juggernaut, the UNLV running Rebels the year prior for the Championship. Duke team consisted of such notable College and future NBA players like Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley, and Christan Lattener. The Fab five though extremely talented were no match for the experienced and formidable Duke team; Duke beat Michigan 71-51 to claim its second consecutive national championship. Even with some members of the fab five like Chris Webber being possible high NBA lottery picks, they all choose to come back to try to win the NCAA title again.
Michigan made it all the way back to the NCAA title game the following year in 1993 where they faced the University of North Carolina (UNC). It was a contrast of playing styles with the talented, brash, fresh and now sophomore fab five against the old school, conservative, play the game the right way approach of UNC and then head coach Dean Smith.
The title game was a back and forth nail biter with neither team able to distance itself from the other. During a timeout, the Michigan Head coach informed his team that they were out of timeouts. He then drew up a play for them to run if UNC missed a free throw. UNC’s Pat Sullivan Missed the free throw, Chris Webber grabbed the rebound, and the game situation was unfolding just like Coach Fisher planned.
Michigan was down 73 to 71. Webber being a forward was looking to pass the ball to a guard who usually does most of the ball handling on a basketball team. All the guards were guarded by UNC exceptionally well, so Webber was forced to dribble the ball up the court. Webber then traveled with the ball! (traveling is a basketball infraction where a player takes more than two steps without taking a dribble) UNC bench went crazy when the violation happened, miraculously the referees did not call the infraction, and the play was allowed to go on. At this point, Webber was being pressed by 2 UNC basketball players as he was trying to dribble the ball up the court. Usually in a basketball game when a team is pressing another team, the team that is being pressed wants to keep the ball in the middle of the court, to give it the best options to beat the press. Webber did the exact opposite, he drifted to the sidelines with the ball. You never want to float or head to the sidelines while being pressed because the other team, can use the out of bounds line as an extra defender against you. Webber now was not only against the sidelines but also being pushed in a corner, the absolute worst spot you would want to be in that situation. With the time dwindling down (only 11 seconds left) and Webber about to be trapped in a corner with no way out, Webber did the smart play of calling a timeout. With a timeout, the team could regroup, get out of the trap situation and draw up a play to score. There was only one problem with Webber’s strategy… Michigan was out of time outs! When a team calls a time out, and they don’t have any left, the other side is awarded a technical foul. A technical foul is when the other team not only gets to shoot two free throws but then also gets possession of the ball as well.
The referees called a technical foul on Webber, and UNC sent one of its best free throw shooters Donald Williams to shoot the free throws. Williams makes both free throws making the game 75-71, but more importantly, UNC got the ball back as well. With only 11 seconds, and UNC in possession of the ball and Michigan trailing by 4… Michigan was forced to foul. UNC made its free throws and yeah Michigan lost the game. Webber’s gaffe essentially cost Michigan the national title.
We will never know that even if Webber had executed the play properly would Michigan have been able to score. What we do know is that Webber’s gaffe permanently ruined any chance Michigan had of winning the game. Chris Webber went on to become the Number one pick in the following NBA Draft, NBA rookie of the year, named to 5 NBA all-star teams, named all NBA 5 times and arguably the best player in Sacramento Kings History. He should be in the NBA hall of fame, why he is not yet is a mystery to most NBA Fans. Even with all of those accomplishments the number one thing most people know Chris Webber for is his time out gaffe in the NCAA title game, while he was at college. In the sense of irony, Chris Webber and the fab five’s accomplishments were wiped away from the NCAA record books due to Webber taking improper payments while he was a student-athlete at Michigan. Though wiped off the record books the time out gaffe lives on in infamy in memory and video forever.
Mistakes Were Made
An unforced error is defined as a mistake in play that is attributed to one’s own failure rather than to the skill or effort of one’s opponent. Though Webber was pressed, the traveling error, dribbling to the sidelines and forgetting how many timeouts his team had, were all errors of his own making. With some people in life, all you have to do is apply a little pressure or make a little doubt, and they will either fall apart or make critical errors all on their own. Unfortunately, Webber made a slew of unforced errors on national tv while playing in a national championship game, for the whole world to see.
Mental resiliency is a critical trait that is valued in sports and in life in general. It’s the ability to keep your wits and think clearly when things are falling apart around you, or things are not going to plan. As we know in life things, rarely go to plan, but we have to keep on going. What Webber did is not unlike what millions of people do daily or sometime in their life, fall apart when things are not going as scripted or planned. But these errors though embarrassing are valuable life lessons that will make you more resilient when the next situation (and it will happen) does not go as planned. The only issue is when the person doesn’t learn and grow from the mistake and instead keeps repeating the pattern. Unfortunately for Webber he never made it back to another Championship game. My Lakers blocked his best chance of getting there in the early 2000s, so we never learned if Webber learned from his collegiate mistake.