A Time Out Call Forever Remembered

With a national championship on the line, Chris Webber called a timeout his team didn’t have.  

Chris Webber (photo, Pinterest)

It was the 1993 NCAA Men’s Division 1 National Basketball Championship game between the Michigan Wolverines and the North Carolina Tar Heels. Michigan had its “Fab Five,” led by Chris Webber.

The previous year the Wolverines had lost to the Duke Blue Devils in the national title game. They were hungry for the 1993 title. But what’s remembered most about that game is what happened as the game wound down.

Webber rebounded the ball after a foul shot under the Tar Heels’ goal. He stood for a moment thinking about passing the ball but knew he had to hurry down the court.

Time was running out! Webber shuffled his feet, but the refs missed that gaffe.

Michigan was down 73-71 at the time. Webber dribbled the ball to the corner. Two defenders were attempting to double-team him.

Webber called timeout. None existed for Michigan.

NCAA college basketball rules state that if a player or team calls timeout with no timeouts left, the penalty is a technical foul. And that’s exactly what happened. North Carolina shot a foul shot and then retained possession. That’s all UNC needed to run out the clock and win the championship.

Webber was able to overcome that mistake. He had a long NBA, playing for the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings, among other teams.

But no matter what he did on the court or how well it did it, “that timeout” is what many people remember. His father even had a license plate, “Timeout.”

And while Webber has been understandably reluctant to talk about the incident, he did make light of it during a 2008 episode of Inside The NBA. Webber was asked: “In college basketball, how many timeouts do you get in a game?” Webber laughed and said: “I still don’t know the answer.”

What do I think? I think we should remember Chris Webber for his dominance on the basketball court, not for a mental error he made nearly 25 years ago.