Check this out from Sports Illustrated this week [12/29/08 issue]. On the Dan Patrick ‘Just My Type‘ page, Chris Webber talks about his time on the practice squad for the 1992 Olympic Dream Team while he was at Michigan.
IT’S NICE to know that even stars get nervous around their idols. Before the 1992 Olympics, Chris Webber was one of the players on a practice squad that provided opposition for the Dream Team. He shared a limo from the airport in Barcelona with Larry Bird. “I was shaking, calling him Mr. Bird,” Webber said. “He was very nice. It was a 10-minute car ride. I said, ‘It was nice meeting you.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, you can grab my bag.'” Webber left with more than just memories: “I got autographs, I stole socks out of their bags, I took everything, even jockstraps. I took one of Charles Barkley’s shoes. I was just a kid in a wonderland.”
That’s good stuff (as long as we’re way outside the statutory limit) and you can’t blame him for grabbing everything in sight. I remember reading about C-Webb working out with the team but I didn’t know he actually traveled to Spain. And how big of a pisser is Bird? I wonder if it was just a little reminder to Webber not to get too cocky.
