00:00One month after a disappointing 98 season, the Wizards shipped Chris Webber and his legal troubles to Sacramento for Mitch
00:06Richmond and Otis Thorpe.
00:09This was one way to look at the trade.
00:12But there was another way, too.
00:15Mainly, the Kings might have just pulled something off.
00:20At the expense of Wizards fans.
00:22I did not write this Reddit post, but as a D.C. suburb native of a certain age that I'm
00:27not going to reveal, it is almost exactly my experience.
00:31With one trade, Washington not only stomped their first glimpse of relevancy since the 1970s, sending themselves back into the
00:39depths of the league for years and years and years.
00:42But they also created a new Western Conference title contender that rivaled the Kobishak Lakers.
00:48In other words, the Wizards' trade of young for old, of big for small, of Chris Webber for Mitch Richmond
00:55was a big deal.
00:59The Secret Base Patreon has bonus stuff every Monday.
01:02So if you like stuff that's fun and cool and interesting and maybe a little weird, might be worth checking
01:07out.
01:08Alright, back to the action.
01:12After the 97-98 season, the Wizards had a problem.
01:15Or many problems.
01:18Partly because one year prior, they were on top of the world.
01:22The height of the world is a sliding scale when you haven't seen the playoffs in nine years and haven't
01:26been over 500 in ten years.
01:28So yeah, a playoff berth where you're swept but only lost game three by one point.
01:33And by the way, you're playing the defending champion Bulls, was the top of the world.
01:38Didn't hurt that Michael Jordan was impressed.
01:41The Wizards' big three was the engine.
01:42There was speedy Rod Strickland, unbelievable off the dribble.
01:46Juwan Howard, an all-star in 96, a reliable scorer, a cornerstone of the frontcourt along with...
01:53There he is.
01:55Chris Webber.
01:56Washington's sole all-star of 97, he led the team in scoring and rebounding.
02:00A big man who could pass with finesse, post up, or handle the ball.
02:04So quick, he averaged as many steals as his point guard.
02:07With a new name, a new stadium, and a new trajectory, the Wizards were ready to take a huge step
02:13forward in the 97-98 season.
02:16Oops, a step backwards, the new name is stupid.
02:19Oops, a bigger step backwards, no all-stars this year.
02:22Oops, oops, oops, guys, you're running backwards, actually.
02:26What happened?
02:27Well, 7-7 center George Miroson was out all season because he got hurt filming a movie called My Giant.
02:35Unfortunate and also embarrassing.
02:39But wait, there's more.
02:41Teammates fighting.
02:43Required stitches, did it?
02:45Great, great optics.
02:47The team needed some leadership.
02:49So how about the leading scorer, leading rebounder be the leader?
02:55Only looks at his own stats.
02:57Okay, perhaps he's not interested in the role.
02:59Anybody else?
03:02Oops, careful, guys, you don't want to make a pattern out of off-court trouble because management might get super
03:09pissed.
03:09Because, see, Rod Strickland wasn't the first on the team with a DUI.
03:14Juwan Howard was charged in 96 and...
03:17Wait, oh my god.
03:20Could that be why they changed their name from the Bullets to the Wizards?
03:24Like, I know Howard didn't do anything with guns or whatever, but it's still like,
03:27We love the law.
03:29Forget what he did.
03:30Look over here.
03:31We're casting spells.
03:32Moons and stars.
03:33Hooray!
03:34Ooh, uh-oh.
03:36Pulled over for speeding ever so slightly on his way to practice,
03:39cops found less than half a joint in Weber's car,
03:42and then the face of the franchise got pepper sprayed because he allegedly assaulted a police officer.
03:48PR-wise, not ideal.
03:51Actually, anything-wise, not ideal.
03:54Oh, sixth-highest payroll.
03:56Good, good, good.
03:57That's probably not something management mumbled to themselves as they read the previous headline.
04:01How many playoff spots are there?
04:03Eight?
04:03Seems like we should have gotten one.
04:05It's actually 16 if you count the whole league,
04:08which you are when you say sixth-highest payroll.
04:11But that's a bad one.
04:13Like, on a human level, this fucking sucks.
04:16And it was kind of the nail in the coffin for the hopes and dreams of the Howard Weber wizard's
04:21rise from the graveyard.
04:22I think it's important to say off the bat that a grand jury investigation found that no charges should be
04:28brought
04:28and this case was closed without prosecution.
04:31However, that conclusion wasn't reached instantly.
04:34And owner Abe Polin and GM Wes Unsel didn't want to wait around and see how big their problem really
04:40was before they started solving it.
04:43Polin, in particular, was eager to act quickly.
04:45And that act was going to be trading Chris Weber.
04:48Everyone knew D.C. was likely to break up Juwan Howard and Weber.
04:52They'd been together in college as part of Michigan's Fab Five,
04:55and reuniting on the Wizards was supposed to bring more success than off-court embarrassment.
04:59The legal run-ins were an issue, but there were also basketball reasons to break up the duo.
05:05For example, they were both power forwards.
05:08When Weber was hurt in 96, Howard got to play power forward all season, and it worked out pretty well
05:14for him.
05:14So if Weber was gone, could Howard return to all-star form?
05:18And look, while they had that one promising year, if you remove the sliding scale of Washington's success,
05:25having two highly paid guys for four years and never winning a playoff game is not ideal.
05:31Even Howard knew the writing was on the wall.
05:34One of them was leaving.
05:36And it wasn't going to be Howard, who had a massive, untradeable contract.
05:41Now, you might be thinking, why don't they just trade him for a different massive contract guy?
05:46And if that's what you're thinking, you might be well-suited for a career in late 90s basketball journalism,
05:51because there was chatter about the Wizards doing exactly that.
05:54David Robinson's name was floated in the press.
05:57He was expensive.
05:58And maybe San Antonio didn't want him after rookie Tim Duncan's impressive debut.
06:03Plus, the Admiral was 33, and he had a bad back.
06:07Now, of course, we know that trade didn't happen.
06:09Perhaps because the Spurs knew they could use both big men effectively.
06:12Or perhaps because they didn't see the value in trading an eight-time All-Star
06:17for a one-time All-Star with a drunk driving arrest and zero playoff wins.
06:23Was using this picture too mean?
06:25I'll change it.
06:26Howard was untradeable because he had a massive contract,
06:29and he didn't deserve a massive contract.
06:31So it had to be Weber who left.
06:34But did Weber's replacement have to be Mitch Richmond?
06:37Look, the guy had been quite good earlier in the decade, but, uh, he was about to be 33 when
06:43DC got him.
06:44And spoiler alert for something that happened decades ago, he was not one of those guys who could defy age.
06:51So who else was out there?
06:53Latrell Sprewell said he wanted to play in DC just a few months prior.
06:57Oh, that's because he wanted to play with Chris Weber again.
07:01And considering some unpleasantness in December, it's possible he would not do wonders for the Wizards' image,
07:08nor provide the leadership they needed.
07:11There were rumors of Weber for Penny Hardaway,
07:14two guys who'd actually been traded for each other before,
07:17and also Weber for Grant Hill, who was from the DC area.
07:20But little birdies can be wrong.
07:22They're dealing with a pretty steep language barrier.
07:25There wasn't a lot of reporting on options other than the Richmond trade,
07:29because the Richmond trade happened really fast,
07:31just a month after the Wizards' season ended.
07:33So maybe there would have been a better deal if Abe Polin had waited a bit before pulling the trigger...
07:39Oops, sorry, I said trigger.
07:40I mean, before he waved the magic sparkle trade wand.
07:44Now, after the Weber-Richmond trade went through,
07:47we heard about some other options and got to imagine an alternate timeline to the life we live.
07:51This trade potentially had a lot of benefits for both sides.
07:55Let's discuss.
07:57The Lakers used Campbell alongside Shaq, but the guy was a true center.
08:01Hey, that's exactly what Washington needed ever since George Mirosan got hurt filming a movie.
08:07Well, hurt himself not wearing his orthotics while filming a movie.
08:11My God, can we buy a non-embarrassing moment.
08:15DC had even expressed interest in Campbell earlier that year.
08:18There had been Howard for Campbell talk back at the February trade deadline.
08:21But that didn't happen, in part because everyone still believed in the Weber-Howard combo.
08:27Man, that trade would have preempted the sexual assault complaint,
08:31maybe helped the Wizards win some games, maybe saved us all.
08:35But it's not what happened.
08:37Let's stay on track imagining a different alternate world that Wizards fans can only dream of.
08:42Also in this world, I'm a millionaire somehow.
08:44If we're dreaming, why not dream? Nobody knows how the butterfly effect works, not even Ashton Kutcher.
08:49Where was I?
08:50Right.
08:51Eddie Jones.
08:52A shooting guard.
08:53So, Lakers won't be needing him much longer.
08:57And the Wizards don't need their disappointing former six-over-all pick now.
09:02Sorry, Calvert-Chaney.
09:03You were really good at not getting into PR trouble, though, to be fair.
09:07Nick Van Exel was a great point guard, but maybe L.A. would ship him to free up more touches
09:11for Kobe?
09:12Why would the Wizards need a great point guard? They already had one.
09:16Well, Strickland was 32, and Van Exel was 26, and why not have lots of good players?
09:22That sounds great. Doesn't sound like a major problem to me.
09:25So, this alternate reality trade looks great. Why aren't we living it?
09:29Could have been a million reasons, but Weber had a simple theory.
09:34Spite.
09:35And off to the Sacramento Kings he went.
09:38In the summer of 98, Sacramento had been so bad for so long, they were likened to jail and or
09:44jail-adjacent entities.
09:46And hey, Mitch Richmond proved to be a disappointing replacement.
09:49But in the summer of 98, he had some plus sides, especially if he couldn't see the future.
09:54He was coming off his sixth consecutive All-Star appearance.
09:58He finished 15th in MVP voting.
10:00But even without fortune-telling abilities, you could have predicted that the Wizards were kind of fucking their future because
10:07DC had given up three first-round draft picks to get Weber in the first place.
10:11So even if Richmond hadn't gone all grandpa on us out of the gate, he would have eventually, and the
10:17Wizards had no easy way to add young talent for that eventuality.
10:21In the immediate aftermath, Wes Unsel was like, I get how this trade looks bad.
10:26But Washington was desperate for maturity and leadership, so that was that.
10:32Also, as a side note, look at this ad for a knife and gun show with a door prize of
10:38a rifle.
10:38Is this ad placement teasing Wizards fans?
10:41Like, haha, your team sucks and the rest of the country gets to talk about bullets but not you?
10:46For the record, I'm anti-gun but pro my team being called the Bullets.
10:50In his first season as a Wizard, Richmond began his descent.
10:54Jawan Howard did not return to All-Star form, even though he was in his natural power forward spot.
10:59And I guess the team was more mature.
11:02But all that did was take away an excuse for their abysmal performance.
11:07That summer, Washington both drafted a promising young two-guard and made Richmond the highest-paid two-guard in the
11:13league.
11:14Kobe, Reggie, Ray Allen, try putting up a career-worst shooting percentage and maybe you too can secure such a
11:21bag.
11:22Oh, the Wizards also traded away Ben Wallace that summer.
11:25When researching this story, it was around this point that I simply googled,
11:30When the hell was Wes Unsel fired?
11:32Only to learn he was never fired.
11:34He retired of his own accord in 2003 because owner Abe Pullen was a uniquely loyal guy.
11:40In the world of the cutthroat-in-it-to-win-it NBA, Abe Pullen was a decent man.
11:46Isn't that nice?
11:48I'm being salty, but look, I have reasons.
11:51The Wizards eventually paid Richmond $10 million to go away.
11:54They bought out his contract.
11:56Meanwhile, Chris Webber flourished in Sacramento,
11:59making a super team, albeit a temporary one, out of a perpetual league bottom dweller.
12:06Exactly what he was supposed to do in Washington.
12:09But outside of a D.C. perspective, this is a pretty happy ending.
12:14It's not often a team goes from the Siberia of the NBA to the conference finals in just four years.
12:20It's even happy for Mitch Richmond, who had a deep bench role on the Laker team
12:25that beat Webber's Kings in the 2002 Western Conference finals and then won it all.
12:30And honestly, even from my perspective, there's a happy ending angle.
12:33I was in middle school when all this went down.
12:36Don't do the math to figure out my age.
12:38That's not fair.
12:39And middle school is a time notorious for sapping the self-confidence of young women.
12:43But you know what's good for a preteen's confidence?
12:46Being like, wow, I'm smarter than an owner and a GM.
12:58Thanks to our patrons.
12:59Thanks to everyone for watching.
13:01We got a little personal with this one.
13:03Gave you a little glimpse into my childhood.
13:05Hope it wasn't TMI, as they say.
13:09All right.
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13:14For Secret Base, I'm Clara Morris.
13:16Good night and good game.
