Plenty of guys can claim to be the best of their respective hometown, and many have flights of fancy, tales of playing like Magic Johnson in their heyday. “He’s the crown jewel out of Detroit,” he said of Webber, without hesitation.Ĭhris Webber, shown during a 2005 game, will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday despite never winning a championship. Thomas and Johnson each ran summer camps that brought out all the best high school talent, which the likes of Webber, Jalen Rose, Derrick Coleman and Steve Smith - among others, attended.īut Thomas is clear about who the best homegrown talent is, out of a talent-rich city. But Chris Webber was doing it in high school and then college.” Everybody was trying to do it like Magic. “OK, Magic was doing it at 6-foot-9 in the pros. “Snatching it off the glass, bringing it up the court, no-look passes and dunking on people,” Thomas said. Thomas often took his teammates to games during off nights, and since he was well-connected in the city, he was well aware of Webber. He’s strong, I couldn’t do anything with him. “We’re riding back and Laimbeer goes, ‘Holy s***,’” Thomas told Yahoo Sports with his trademark laugh. But there’s a difference between seeing a ballplayer at Detroit Country Day beat up on teenagers and doing it against men in their 30s, champions.Įnter Bad Boy Bill Laimbeer on a court in Ann Arbor when Webber was a freshman at the University of Michigan, before the Fab Five became famous. Provided by Basketball-Reference.Isiah Thomas walked into a suburban Detroit gym to see a high school prodigy he’d known about and later mentored.
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