Chris Webber: Michigan AD Warde Manuel apologized for 2003 fallout
After years of friction with his former school, Chris Webber said the University of Michigan took a step toward reconciliation with a simple gesture: an apology.
Webber, the Fab Five star who will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday, told ESPN that Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel privately apologized to him for the way the school handled the fallout of an investigation surrounding claims that Webber had accepted money from former booster Ed Martin.
Manuel, who was hired as athletic director in 2016, played football at Michigan from 1986 to 1989 and worked for the school in the early 1990s when Webber played in Ann Arbor.
"I was told by the athletic director at the University of Michigan that he was sorry," Webber said during a wide-ranging interview at his home in the Atlanta area ahead of his Hall of Fame induction. "And he wasn't even there at the time [I was playing]. He told me that he did his research and that he needs to apologize. His exact words [were] he needs 'to apologize to the 18-year-old Chris Webber because we didn't protect him.'"
In 2003, Webber pleaded guilty to a criminal contempt charge in federal court and admitted -- after a previous denial to a grand jury -- that he had repaid Martin more than $38,000 for what he said was a loan he accepted while he was a player. Martin had testified that he had given Webber and three other Michigan athletes more than $600,000 combined throughout their careers.
Entire article:
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...higan-ad-warde-manuel-apologized-2003-fallout
Let me get this straight, Webber knowingly committed NCAA violation(s) by accepting money from a booster, got scUM multiple NCAA penalties, and was even guilty of a criminal charge; and the scUM AD apologies to Webber.
