SACRAMENTO -- Chris Webber, one of the NBA's most
sought-after free agents this summer, says he's still a free agent and hasn't finalized his plans for next season.
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"I just wanted to say that I haven't agreed to anything," Webber told The Sacramento Bee on Sunday before traveling from Miami to Detroit.
The newspaper quoted Webber's consultant, Fallasha Erwin, as saying Webber was close to re-signing with the Sacramento Kings on a seven-year deal.
Webber told The Bee that he saw a television clip Saturday reporting he had agreed to a free-agent contract with the Kings. He wanted to make sure that the report had been refuted.
Members of Webber's family met with Pacers coach Isiah Thomas over the weekend in Detroit.
"We met with his family at their request," Pacers president Donnie Walsh said Monday. "But any speculation of Chris becoming a Pacer is premature because it would involve a sign-and-trade, and the decision to do that rests with Chris Webber and Sacramento, not the Pacers."
Webber is still in contact with a few other teams and had received several calls inquiring whether or not he had agreed to a deal with the Kings.
No one at the Kings' office responded to a message left by The
Associated Press on Saturday requesting comment. Erwin told the Associated Press on Saturday that nothing was resolved.
"Right now, we don't have anything finalized," Erwin
said. "There are a lot of questions still to be answered,
things like length of contract and signing bonus.
"We have indicated to everyone that before a contract is
finalized, we have to get clarification on what the maximum would
be for Chris, to see how the signing bonus would be handled."
Erwin said he was waiting for union officials to return from
their annual meeting in the Bahamas.
"Chris is looking to see what Sacramento is going to do,"
Erwin said. "He feels he owes that to the fans of Sacramento."
Erwin told the Bee that Webber had deliberately kept quiet about negotiations over the All-Star power forward's future until he had something
positive to report.
"Things are looking well, and I think we'll soon have something
to say that will be positive for Chris as well as Sacramento,"
Erwin told the Bee.
The Kings were offering the 28-year-old Webber a contract worth
more than $120 million over seven years -- the largest possible deal
under the NBA's salary cap. Only a few teams could offer Webber
anything close to that amount.
Webber has said 12-15 teams have contacted him since July 1.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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