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Chris Webber will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Saturday and believes his rivalry with Michigan is well behind him.
Wolverines sporting director Warde Manuel, however, appeared to rekindle that beef on Friday.
Manuel, days after Webber said he received an apology from him for the way he was treated during an investigation into allegations that he accepted money from a recall to the school and possible dissociation, refuted Webber’s claims and said he never really apologized.
“I enjoyed the conversation with Chris when we first met several years ago,” Manuel said in a statement. “But I can assure you that I didn’t offer Chris any apologies and, for those who might be curious, I never asked him to apologize to the University of Michigan. I only wish Chris the better and I’m glad he’s inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. “
Webber said Michigan AD apologized
Webber played Michigan on the Fab Five teams from 1991 to 1993 before his 15-year career in the NBA.
Webber was investigated in 2003, and then pleaded guilty to a contempt of court charge while admitting that he repaid a recall of more than $ 38,000 – which he said caused him was given in the form of a loan when he was a player in Michigan. .
As part of the deal, Webber and Michigan cut ties for a decade and removed all of its stats from the school’s record books. He was the only one of the Fab Five caught up in the scandal.
“I was the lowest fruit,” Webber. “I had the biggest name. I knew it then, so hopefully some of the things in [my book] will reveal what happened, how things went and hopefully life can go on [on] or it can just go back to normal that way. Hopefully, once we get to all of these good things, we’ll come back to it. “
Since the end of the decade, Webber’s relationship with Michigan has improved dramatically.
Manuel was hired as the school’s athletic director in 2016, having played football there in the 1980s and working at the school in the 1990s. Although he was not involved in the investigation, Webber said Manuel actually apologized to him.
“The athletic director of the University of Michigan told me [Manuel], that he was sorry, “Webber.” And he wasn’t even there then [I was playing]. He told me he had done his research and had to apologize. His exact words [were], he has to ‘apologize to Chris Webber, 18, because we didn’t protect him.’ “
Now, as this is apparently not true, only time will tell if Webber and Michigan are really things of the past.
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