Michael Ventre

Come with me now as I take a journey along Chris Webber’s memory lane. The advice here is to wear steel-toed boots and a helmet, because it’s rough going:

There was the infamous timeout when his team didn’t have any left at the end of Michigan’s loss to North Carolina in the NCAA championship game in 1993.

There was the personality clash with Don Nelson at Golden State, which led to Webber being traded to Washington.

There were the scrapes with the law involving marijuana and driving while living in D.C.

There were the lies he told to a grand jury investigating Ed Martin, a former Michigan booster.

There was his complaint that Sacramento had no good places to eat, which didn’t sit well with Sacramentonians.

And there was his stay in Philadelphia; to put as positive a spin as possible on it, at least he is appreciated there more than Terrell Owens.

When you’re a professional athlete and all you have are lowlights, then the lowlights become the highlights of your career.

This is where Chris Webber is today. He’s almost 34, suffering from ankle and foot problems and, no doubt, mental fatigue both from the Allen Iverson trade watch and aftermath, and the indignity of playing for a team that has the worst record (9-26) in an awful conference.

To make matters worse, the Sixers have now reached a buyout with Webber, which means events have become so toxic there that the team simply said, “Just get out. We’ll pay you most of the more than $40 million we still owe you. Just get out.”

Clearly, Webber has reached his nadir. In a movie, this is the end of the second act, when the main character has reached his lowest point. Think George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” being ridiculed by Mr. Potter and then contemplating his own demise in the icy river.

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What matters now, of course, is what he does next. A suggestion to this lost, miserable soul: Give the Lakers a call. Mitch Kupchak and Phil Jackson just might be your guardian angels.

Does Chris Webber have any basketball left in him? Good question. Webber is the only one who can answer that. This season he’s averaging just over 11 points (the worst of his career) and eight rebounds per game, down from 20 and 10 last season. He has also not played in 10 of the Sixers’ last 13 games.

This could be because his body is breaking down and he’s ready for retirement. It could also be that he’s so mentally and emotionally drained after 13-plus NBA seasons full of strife and disappointment that he just doesn’t care anymore.

So why would the Lakers want a guy like that?

They wouldn’t. But they could use a revitalized and rejuvenated Webber who suddenly is excited again about playing basketball.