NBA legend Chris Webber reveals what the Sacramento Kings mean to him in new memoir

As Chris Webber reflected at Golden 1 Center on his life and the release of his new memoir, he credited former Sacramento Kings executive Geoff Petrie with convincing him as a young basketball phenom to come and play in the River City.

Because of where he was in his career and life at that time, Webber said, he didn’t feel that Sacramento should be his next stop in the NBA after leaving the Washington Wizards.

“We all have plans for ourselves, right?” he said. “And we see how we’re gonna get there, and another part of God’s grace is kind of letting go and understanding and taking advantage of the opportunity where you are.”

Webber would play a key role in making the Sacramento Kings one of the top franchises in the National Basketball Association, helping the team to secure berths in the coveted NBA playoffs for six consecutive seasons.

Stopping in Sacramento to promote his book, “By God’s Grace,” Webber spoke with media Friday.

Webber said that publishers offered him deals in the past for his memoir, but that he turned them down. They wanted to start his story with moments like the time he called a timeout during the 1993 NCAA basketball championship when his team had none remaining. The mistake resulted in a technical foul that allowed the North Carolina Tar Heels to clinch the game.

“When I was offered big deals to do the book, everyone wanted to start with the timeout or something else,” he said, and I wanted to start with (my) life because if you understand my life, you’ll appreciate the timeout and bouncing back from it.”

After retirement, Webber finally got to the point where he was ready to tell his story on his own terms. He created his own publishing imprint to do it at a time when he said schools are limiting the aspects of Black U.S. history that they teach.

“It’s important to empower yourself and tell your stories and not let people that don’t know your story define you,” he said. “When I grew up, there were five channels 2, 4, 7, 56 and 62, so you couldn’t tell your story. Whatever they said was true about you.”

His company, Webber Publishing Group or WPG, will be announcing book deals with other athletes that will allow them to tell their stories their way. “By God’s Grace,” which runs more than 400 pages and features 100-plus photos, is already on sale through the company’s website for $50. Autographed limited editions are $100.

Retirement also afforded Webber the opportunity to interview family, friends and other influential people in his life, he said. His parents had played a huge role in shaping him, he said, and he felt people should get to know them and his family history.

“My father worked in GM for over 40 years, didn’t graduate from high school, grew up on a plantation,” he said. “My mother was a teacher in Detroit for over 40 years, lost students to gun violence. … I have friends that aren’t here. Before my first AAU game, my best friend was shot and killed at 12 years old.”

Webber, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021, said that “the book is about acknowledging what I had to go through, being thankful that I got through it and really enjoying the ride and explaining how I got over it, so that it can be more than a vanity piece. It can inspire people that are going through it every day.”

Does the book address some of the widely reported controversies in his life? Yes, Webber said, for instance, he does talk about his relationship with Ed Martin, the University of Michigan basketball booster alleged to have made loans to Webber that violated NCAA regulations.

“I talk about everything in the book, and so that relationship in high school, what happened, what was unfair,” he said “I spoke to the judge. I went back and I researched and talked to many people, including lawyers and others, and so I do address it. But the great part about it is that the fans that supported me or others that want to know the truth, it’s not ... sensationalized because it’s part of a story.”

The fork in the road that brought Webber to Sacramento ended up introducing him to so many people he described as better angels who lent him strength and kept him focused as a player during a period when coverage of the UM scandal heated up.

There was Kings Assistant Coach Pete Carril, who died in 2022, he said: “A lot of the teams winning championships now use his offense.” There was Petrie, and there were also teammates like Jason Williams, Mike Bibby, Vlade Divac, Peja Stojaković and Hedo Türkoğlu.

Webber said he was fortunate to play with some of the best point guards in the game — Williams and Bibby — and it was Williams who helped him rekindle his love for the game of basketball when he got to Sacramento.

Then, something magical happened for Webber, he said, and he found the home he’d been seeking, a “place with crazy fans, fierce people.”

He hopes his memoir will serve as a reminder to people going through life’s most difficult moments that they have the inner strength to handle it.

“Everyone battles something,” Webber said. “We’re all going through things as we aspire to reach our goals and, it’s OK. When you know it’s OK, you can approach life with the same fierceness but not with that anxiousness. Hopefully, people can see through my life and some stories that relate to theirs, it’s about the journey and the process. … Just keep the faith and persevere.”