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Sunday, March 24
Updated: March 31, 1:02 AM ET
 
Webber: Indictment means nothing

ESPN.com news services

Don't ask, don't tell?

That appears to be the stance Kings forward Chris Webber has taken in regards to a federal indictment released Thursday that alleged Webber received payments of approximately $280,000 over a five-year period from a former Michigan basketball booster.

According to a report in Sunday's Sacramento Bee, Webber said he didn't have to comment on a released federal indictment that accused Ed Martin, a retired Ford Motor Co. electrician, of making loans to Webber, Robert "Tractor" Traylor, Maurice Taylor and Louis Bullock totaling more than $600,000.

"That's something people have been fishing and trying to get quotes on for 10 years," Webber told the newspaper after not speaking about the matter the last two days. "It's 10 years ago, you know what I mean? I've said too much by even having a quote on it. It's nothing."

Webber also added that he had nothing to hide.

"It's not that I didn't want to talk about it. It's something I don't have to talk about. It's my life. You mean because somebody says talk about this, then I have to talk about something? No. No," Webber told the Bee following a team practice. "I've done everything I've had to do. I've gone to court and we talked about it and everything is done. So, why should I talk about it? To give y'all something to talk about? There's nothing else to do."

Martin, 68, and his wife, Hilda, 72, were arrested Thursday on charges of running an illegal gambling business, conspiracy and money laundering. They pleaded innocent and were released on $10,000 bail.

Webber, who testified before the grand jury in Martin's case in August of 2000, was alleged to have received money from 1988 to 1993, starting in his freshman year in high school through his sophomore and final season at Michigan.

Webber may have finally responded to the matter with the media Saturday afternoon, but he wasn't necessarily happy about it, and at times cut off questioners in mid-stream because he said he "didn't like the basis of the question."

When asked how he would respond to what people might say, Webber said "Don't care, don't care, don't care."

"I don't care about college players entering the NBA," Webber added. "I'm not the sounding board for that. So I don't care what people think about anything. I'm not the spokesman, so all that, somebody else can tell you what they think about that."

Webber also told the Bee that the indictment wasn't really unfair, but that it was "annoying."




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