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WASHINGTON - All of the big-man, little-man pairings in the East aren't going quite as well as Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade. Their Batman and Robin routine could take the Miami Heat to its first NBA championship, depending, first and foremost, on O'Neal's physical condition the rest of the way.
The Sixers, are a long way from the Heat, especially when it comes to their big-man, little-man pairing. Not long after a first-round loss in the playoffs to the Pistons, Chris Webber confided to several close friends that playing with Allen Iverson drove him crazy.
"I can't play with him," Webber told one old friend. "He dribbles too much."
That's not exactly Shaq telling Wade before the Big Fella sat out Game 3 of the Miami-Washington series with a bum thigh, "you're the best player on the court. Now go out and play that way." As Wade later admitted, after putting the Wizards in a 3-0 hole with another eye-opening performance, "that's the kind of confidence you just can't buy."
Webber apparently isn't very confident that he and Iverson can make a successful tandem starting next season. After lamenting Iverson's me-first approach, he told his pal: "I'd take a pay cut to get out of there."
But the pay cut isn't happening, nor is Webber's imminent departure. It will be more than a little difficult for the Sixers to break up the Iverson-Webber pairing, meaning finding Webber a new team. He makes $63 million over the next three seasons, his knee isn't getting any better and next March he turns 33. So their ability to work together on the floor to help the Sixers improve on their 43 wins and seventh-place finish in the East is going to be Topic A when they go to training camp in October.
It's not as if Webber wasn't warned by people in the know that it would be close to impossible to work with Iverson. When he first became a Sixer at February's trading deadline, he ran into an old Big Ten pal, Glenn Robinson. The Sixers had once hoped that Big Dog would be the running buddy who would taking scoring pressure off Iverson, just as they once incorrectly envisioned Keith Van Horn in that very same role.
But Robinson, who also had problems with Iverson, shared some prophetic words with Webber.
"You won't able to play with him," the Big Dog warned.
It's not your fault, Chris. Nobody can play with him. |
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