Mike Bibby and Chris Webber chatted it up with Jay Leno in front of a national late night audience.
photo courtesy NBC

The following is the transcript of Chris Webber and Mike Bibby's appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno from June 7th, which also featured actor James Garner

---

Jay: I’d like to welcome my next two guests, the star players of the Sacramento Kings basketball team. The Kings challenged and nearly beat the Lakers in the NBA playoffs. Keep your eye on number 10 and four as they combine efforts in this winning shot in Game Five. Take a look.

(cuts to Mike Bibby’s game-winning shot from Game Five)

Jay: Please welcome Chris Webber and Mike Bibby!

(crowd cheers)

Jay: A standing ovation in LA, that’s very good.

Chris: I’m surprised about that.

Jay: Don’t be surprised, you guys are champs, you played like champs. But still, is it a bummer, does it just hang with you a long time?

Chris: Yeah, you know, I haven’t been able to watch much of the championship games.

Jay: Really…

Chris: Yeah, I mean it hurts, it hurts a lot because you put your heart and soul into it. But I was encouraged by the fact that we played well, and we’ve got this guy (points to Bibby), and we’ll be back next year. So I feel good.

(crowd cheers)

Chris He’s (Bibby) trying to hide from you. He wanted me to answer all the questions, but he’s the point guard, he’s got to talk.

Jay: (To Bibby) Now there’s something about your face looks like you’re still carrying this. Are you still carrying this?

Mike: Yeah, I’m upset, but I think we have many more years of this, and I think we did the best job that we could do when we were out there. But I think this tandem is going be for years to come.

Jay: Even Phil Jackson said you guys deserve to win. What did you think when you heard that?

Chris: It’s hard to believe anything he says.

Jay: Ohhh, man.

Chris: No, no, I think he’s a great coach, don’t get me wrong. I think that’s why it’s hard to believe what he says, because I think great coaches, they only say what they want to say when they want to say it. So him complimenting us, that’s really not the Lakers style to compliment somebody else.

Jay: Well he’s kinda known for doing the whole mind game thing, isn’t he? Does that get to you? I mean do you listen to what he has to say, or do you zone out?

Chris: Well, you know, Coach (Adelman) will say something he said, and we’ll laugh about it in the locker room. Because he’ll say something perfectly to make it get to us, and we know the purpose and that the media is gonna pick it up or whatever. So, we just try to not let it affect us. But when you win as many championships as he has, you’re doing something right; a lot of things right.

Jay: Does it get to you?

Chris: No, not really. I mean it’s funny…(crowd groans)…No, no, it really doesn’t. I mean it gets to me like if my brother asks something. It’s like if someone keeps poking you, but it doesn’t matter.

Jay: Now I saw your coach, Rick Adelman, he was on last night, and he still looks…they had him on the news and he looked like he was just churning. Is he taking this the worst of everybody?

Mike: I’m pretty upset.

(crowd laughs)

Mike: You know this is my first time in this situation, and I felt like we could have went the whole way. The whole team did.

Jay: Let me ask you. What’s more upsetting, losing by one where it could have gone either way, literally just a flip of the coin, or down 20?

Mike: Losing down 20.

Jay: I mean it’s really a roll of the dice that you guys aren’t in the Finals this week, I mean it really is. I think everyone watched that and went…it was probably the greatest final game ever. Isn’t this the first time it ever went into overtime?

Mike and Chris: Yeah.

Jay: I mean it’s probably the greatest game ever played...

Chris: Well, it’s great for the fans and for everybody in basketball, and it gave good memories and stuff, so we’re happy about that. But, you know, it’s almost like everything has to be right; the moon, the stars, and sometimes you just get frustrated by, you know…

James Garner: the officials!

Chris: He said that, I didn’t say that!

(Crowd laughs)

Chris: But I love the fact you said that.

Jay: Since your attorney brought that up, we can open this line of questioning. Let me ask you about this. Now even Ralph Nader, Ralph Nader, says he wants to have…and believe me, getting Ralph Nader involved in basketball, you don’t want that…but he said he’d like to have some sort of official inquiry into the refs. What do you guys think about that?

James Garner: If he does that he’s gotta to go back many years, because there has been a lot of them, a lot of them. It’s an inexact science, right Bibby?

Mike: Right.

James Garner: It’s an inexact science, officiating.

Jay: Do you think the refs were perhaps not as accurate as they could have been?

Mike: Well…(crowd laughs)…I really can’t say too much about it, but other people seen what happened.

Jay: Now is that some signal, rubbing your eye with your finger, does that mean something? What does that mean?

Chris: Let our lawyer speak for us (pointing to Garner).

James Garner: They’re not allowed to speak about it…

Jay: Oh, ok.

James Garner: …cause they can get fined and get in trouble and next year they’re in a lot of trouble. Obviously, it wasn’t the best officiating I’ve ever seen.

(crowd laughs and cheers)

Jay: Oh look at this, look.

James Garner: (pulling up his sleeve to show a Lakers wristwatch)...I do have to go see the Lakers game later.

Jay: He’s got a six-dollar McDonald’s Laker watch.

Chris: That’s just like a lawyer, turning his back on you.

Jay: Now Chris, you covered Shaq, what was that like?

Chris: I don’t know. For the average person, if you could pick somebody three times your body size, weight and height, and just stand there with your eyes closed and let them just run into you as hard as they can and stand up. That’s just what it’s like trying to guard Shaq.

Jay: Did any of you guys try to step on his toe, he injured his toe? Did any of you guys think, ‘Oh his toe is there, I’m going to step on it’?

Chris: I really did try, you know, but…

(crowd laughs)

Chris: …it didn’t work.

Mike: I don’t think it would do anything if I stepped on his toe. I’m too light for him.

Jay: No, his toe is bigger than you!

(crowd laughs)

Jay: Well, you know the big story down here a few weeks ago was this whole cheeseburger…you know, the whole thing with Kobe. And rumors were flying about that. So we’ve got this picture of the guys from the kitchen…(pulls out a picture of the Kings’ starting line-up super-imposed in a kitchen, wearing chef hats)…These are the chefs!!

(crowd laughs)

Jay: You might want to take this back home!

Chris: Yeah, you weren’t supposed to find that.

Jay: But see, that’s what I mean. I love when those kind of rumors start, people saying, ‘Oh there was a guy in Sacramento, he planted this.’ It’s so stupid, isn’t it?

Chris: You know, we have great fans in Sacramento. But they love great basketball. They love good basketball no matter who it is, and to hurt a player or to try and make someone intentionally sick… I would hope that people wouldn’t do that just like I would hope the refs didn’t call that game in anyway on purpose.

Jay: Maybe they should make the refs sick, that would be better…

(crowd laughs)

Chris: He said that, I didn’t say that.

Jay: Now to me, what’s got to be very distracting, you’re playing the game and I know that you date one of the most beautiful women in the world, Tyra Banks, she’s at the game. Now you’re going out and you see her sitting, how do you not…(crowd laughs)…how do you not do that second glance?

Chris: Man, I mean, it’s hard. We just concentrate on the work at hand and try to do the best you can…

(crowd laughs)

Jay: Now Mike, your mom, is she critical? Does she give you advice on the game?

Mike: Yeah, when she wasn’t up at the game in Sacramento, she would call my brother and my brother would meet me in the hallway and supposedly tell me what I was doing wrong.

Jay: So you’re mom wouldn’t call you directly?

Mike: She would after the game…

Jay: Oh, I see.

Mike: During the game, she’ll call my brother at halftime. And when I see my brother in the hallway, I knew she had called.

Jay: Was she right, was she pretty good at calling it?

Mike: Yeah, but a lot of it out there is instinct. If you think about something then you really don’t play good.

Jay: How about the Maloof brothers? These two guys, we had them here, and they seem like great guys. How are they as bosses and owners? Are they cool guys?

Chris: They’re the best as bosses. Actually, today they left a message on my answering machine, thanking us for how hard we played this year and just hoping that we wouldn’t give up, and continue to come back and play hard. I’ve played for a lot of owners, and a lot of bad owners, and these guys really care about everyone. From the people that sell the tickets to the basketball players, everyone. So they’re great guys to work for.

Jay: Now Mike, you’re a free agent now right?

Chris: Naw, he’s not a free agent.

(crowd laughs)

Jay: I thought you were?

Chris: I’m his lawyer on this…

Jay: Oh you’re a lawyer now. Really, really. You’ve got things handled?

Chris: Yeah, we’ve already got it handled. Me and him are going to Vegas tonight to work out the paperwork on the deal…

(crowd laughs)

Jay: You gonna be making that Chris Webber money?

Mike: I hope so, I’m gonna have him do the deal for me.

Jay: Oh that’s smart, yeah…

Chris: As long as he stays, we don’t care what, he can everything, he can take my deal too.

Jay: You got a prediction? A prediction for the Finals?...

(no response)

Jay: Well let me ask you this, a lot of times, people want to see the team that beat them win, because it’s sort of a validation. Do you want to see the Lakers win or the Nets?

(no response again, with the crowd laughing)

Jay: I think I know Mike’s answer, go ahead.

Mike: I don’t want to see either of them win, they’re our enemy. To see them get what we want is kinda bad.

Jay: You’ve got to let it go, you can’t carry this. You know, we’ve got to get you on Dr. Phil.

(crowd laughs)

Jay: Well you’re going to win next year right?

Mike and Chris: Yeah.

Jay: Come back next year, and when you win next year it’ll be that much sweeter, right?

Mike and Chris: Yeah.

Jay: Ok, listen, you guys are true champions and real gentlemen. You played a hell of a game, thank you guys.

(crowd cheers)