Webber’s Game Hits MVP Level

We interrupt this city’s ongoing question of Kobe Bryant or Shaquille O’Neal to pose another one: Kobe Bryant or Chris Webber?

As in, who is the most valuable player in the Western Conference?

The early nod goes to Webber, for the simple fact that the Sacramento Kings are doing better than the Lakers. He’s averaging 26.8 points, 11.6 rebounds and 2.3 blocked shots--among the league’s top 10 in all three categories. The Kings are 29-12 and atop the Pacific Division.

And there’s more to it than just the numbers.

“You have to see Chris behind closed doors,” King center Vlade Divac said. “He’s the leader of this team. He’s very vocal. If you watch the practices, he’s working the hardest of everyone. He’s leading by example and he’s a vocal leader.”

Webber’s game has progressed so much since he first came into the league . . . can it really be almost eight years ago? Now, instead of making things up as he goes along, Webber has a calculated plan of attack every time he gets the ball. He sticks the jumper and still gets some mean dunks. And he’s adept at finding any of the Kings’ numerous weapons, including Divac, Peja Stojakovic and Jon Barry.

“The guy’s really having an MVP season, if everybody would look at it objectively and honestly,” Clipper Coach Alvin Gentry said. “With the record they have and the year that he’s having, you would have to definitely talk about him as an MVP candidate.

“Right now I think Allen Iverson would have to be the MVP of the league, with the way his team is going and the year he’s having. But I think Chris would have to be a close second.”

I’m not sold on Iverson’s candidacy, simply because his team plays in the weaker Eastern Conference. And of the primary arguments in Iverson’s favor--that he’s trying to do less by himself and trusting his teammates more--also serve as a case against him. If the team is really better off for his reduced role, does that make him an MVP?

Bryant has improved his game this year, but the Lakers aren’t necessarily better for it. Even though Bryant might be the top player in the league--a different category than most valuable--it hasn’t been enough to cure all that ails the Lakers. He might have a chance to show his value if O’Neal’s foot injury keeps him out for a stretch of games. It will be Kobe’s show, much the way Shaq used Bryant’s absence at the start of last season to establish his MVP credentials early on. Bryant had a 33-point game Sunday, but it didn’t mean much in the Lakers’ 91-81 loss to New York.

Webber’s stats aren’t a huge departure from last year’s (24.5 points, 10.5 boards), but his team’s success makes him look that much better.

“It’s a blessing just to have your name mentioned with the best,” Webber said. “That makes you feel good, just being mentioned.

“I feel like the team is winning a lot more, so that has a lot to do with it. My teammates, the way we’re all playing together, I think it’s more the overall season we’re having as a team.”

And what does Webber think of Bryant?

“He’s definitely one of the great players in this league and somebody I love to watch,” Webber said. “I love his competitiveness. He’s not just flash. He works hard and he does the basics. I think that’s what a lot of guys don’t understand in this league. When you get the basics down and the fundamentals every night, then everything else will come. I love watching his game, I love watching the things he does with the basketball. I’ve really enjoyed watching him grow the last couple of years and becoming the player he is.”

OK, then. Kobe or Webber?

“I’m not really worried about that,” Webber said. “I’m just trying to go out and play and get my team to win. Hopefully we can beat them if we meet them in the playoffs.”

Right now the Kings and Lakers would be seeded for a second-round matchup, with the Kings holding a formidable home-court advantage.

And Webber will probably feel right at home on Feb. 11, when he takes the court as an all-star starter at the MCI Center in Washington.

In 1997, the building was brand new, the Washington franchise had a new nickname (the Wizards) and new uniforms. Webber was the best player on what was supposed to be the up-and-coming team in the Eastern Conference. His likeness adorned a giant mural promoting a shoe brand on a building across the street from the MCI Center.

“I would take the opposite street, just so I wouldn’t see myself,” Webber said. “I liked it being up, but I didn’t like seeing it on the way to games.”

By the end of the year it was painted over, after Webber went through a couple of off-court scandals and the shoe company dropped him as an endorser. Then Webber himself was gone, traded to Sacramento by a team reeling from disappointing performances and poor publicity.

The team that once had Webber, Rasheed Wallace and Juwan Howard now has only Howard--the worst of the three and untradeable because of his salary cap-clogging contract.

Does Webber allow himself to think about that squandered potential in D.C.?

“You tend to think about that, and ‘what if?’ ” Webber said. “But it kind of hurts, so, no, I don’t want to think about that.”

Meanwhile, Webber keeps taking the all-star trip down memory lane and the site of his previous teams.

“Last year, going back to Golden State, this year in Washington,” Webber said. “It’s good just being a starter, how things have changed. I’m just more happy about that than anything, than going back anywhere.”

Webber will be a free agent this summer, and where he’s going next will be the major story of the off-season. It’s quite possible that whoever gets him will be signing the reigning MVP.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected].