piksi said:
Also Vlade was there for 6 years and CW was waiting for him to leave to say something instead being a "leader" (self proclaimed) and taking care of "issues" while there was time to change things.
Well that all depends on how you "interpret" what went on last year.
My own best guess is that the process was something like this:
1) When Webb orignally was traded here, did not want to be in Sacto. Reported + played hard, but always had his eye on the door. So he was the best player + personable, but as often as not he let Vlade determine locker room personality + be the leader. Webber joined in as a lieutenant/co-captain, but he'd always been a follower + of mostly unsavory types (Jalen Rose, Spreewell, Rod Strrickland) and was not sure if this was "his" team or not.
2) when Webb resigned with the team he realized his championship would have to come with the Kings. First step forward for him as a leader, first time he began to shrug on responsibility for the team.
3) when Peja went down in the 2002 playoffs and Webb and Bibby carried us right to the very brink of a championship, accelerated the change. Webber began to believe in himself and the team.
4) the next season (02-03) for the first time in his life Webb begins to make clutch shots -- confidence continues to grow. He subtly steps forward as our "main" leader because we still had a lot of veteran leader/cooks int he kitchen. When he was lost in the Dallas series, this only becomes more obvious as the team looked lost and scared without him. Predictable if you lose your leader int he playoffs -- we quit believing. And the unfortunate side effect of having an injury prone leader.
5) with Webb out to begin last season, an aging Vlade makes a fateful decision. He steps forward as the team leader + the team really takes on his personality. In the absence of Webb he also finally breaks the delicate balance he has always kept between Webb as friend/co-captain and Peja as protege + chooses Peja. Vlade makes a concerted effort to make Peja into a true star before the old man's time in the NBA runs out.
6) Webb notices this. Not sure how explicit it was, but I recall the first rumblings of trouble when sometime in Jan/Feb there was an article talking about how Webb was upset because he felt "certain players" didn't want him to come back and did not feel he was necessary. Later events would suggest those players might well have been Vlade, taking sides and knowing that his Peja project would be threatened, and Peja following Vlade's lead.
7) Webb comes back, and that dynamic probably makes his push to reestablish himself as "the man" more violent that it had to be. Comes back determined to make it his team and "his" personality, and there is basically now a quiet power struggle between Vlade and Webb. Webb defines this as soft vs. hard. Peja fans as Peja vs. Webb. Whatever. Talking about the same thing + think Peja is more or less incidental -- as always mostly a passive pawn rather than a true player in the battle.
