Jail time unlikely for Webber

Kings star pleads guilty to criminal contempt on eve of trial

Chris Webber admitted to taking money in high school, but claimed he could not remember if he took money in college. Allen Einstein/NBAE via Getty Images

DETROIT (AP) -- It isn't known whether a felony or a misdemeanor will be on Sacramento Kings star Chris Webber's record after his guilty plea to criminal contempt, but that isn't likely to affect his basketball career.

Webber pleaded guilty Monday in a deal with prosecutors that is expected to allow him to avoid prison time. His federal perjury trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds will decide Sept. 16 whether the charge is a felony or misdemeanor.

If it is a felony, Webber may violate the morality or conduct clauses that are written into the uniform player contract every NBA player signs, although it is unlikely the Kings would invoke it. The NBA is expected to review the plea and sentence.

Webber's defense attorney, Steven Fishman, said he didn't know how the guilty plea would affect Webber's career. The Detroit Free Press reported that if Edmunds concludes that Webber is guilty of a felony, it could result in sanctions from the league.

From FindLaw: Plea Agreement (U.S. v. Webber) Original indictment

Kings owners Gavin and Joe Maloof have publicly supported Webber. The team didn't issue a statement Monday following the plea. The owners knew the case was looming two years ago when they signed the former Michigan player to a seven-year, $123 million contract.

"I understand that [Webber's] lawyers would be concerned about that," Steve Kauffman, a sports agent for the past 26 years, told The Detroit News. "As a lawyer, you get paranoid about everything and you want to protect yourself. But I would doubt that [the morality clause] would be invoked in this case."

Contracts say teams and the league can punish players if they "at any time, fail, refuse, or neglect to conform his personal conduct to standards of good citizenship, good moral character [defined here to mean not engaging in acts of moral turpitude, whether or not such acts would constitute a crime], and good sportsmanship, to keep himself in first-class physical condition, or to obey the team's training rules."

Webber's endorsement deals may be more at risk because they are governed by separate contracts and morality clauses. He has reduced his endorsements to essentially one -- Dada, a sports equipment and apparel company of which he is part owner and head of the company's basketball division.

 

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