Getting your education, working hard and never giving up was the message from legendary, now retired point guard, Spud Webb.
Webb was the featured speaker at the Ector County ISD AVID Celebration Tuesday at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.
Lisa Wyman, senior vice president at Complex Community Federal Credit Union, made the contact to bring Webb to Midland.
The celebration was for AVID students in seventh through 12th grade. District AVID Director Amy Anderson said about 1,200 tickets were given to AVID students and about 1,500 people were expected.
Webb did a meet and greet before the celebration began. He played at Midland College, helping them to win a National Junior College championship. He then went to North Carolina State to play for the late Coach Jim Valvano. Webb led NC State to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament in 1985.
Webb played in the NBA for 12 years. He was with the Atlanta Hawks for seven years, four years in Sacramento, a year in Orlando and a half a year in Minnesota.
He became famous for winning the Slam Dunk Contest beating Dominique Wilkins.
Webb said he and Wilkins became good friends and remain so to this day. They play a lot of golf together.
“I lucked up and beat him,” Webb said.
His teammates told him not to say anything to Wilkins because he was “pissed.” But their coach, Mike Fratello, blurted it out, “Spud is the man. We’re going to run the place with Spud. You’re not the man. It was hilarious.”
He works with Jason Kidd as well.
“We’ve been friends forever. He’s one of those coaches that he coached in the Milwaukee system, in LA when they won the ring, so he knows what he’s doing. I think what happened to us Mavericks this year is that we traded away all our defense,” Webb said.
He said Michael Jordan was an incredible player as is Luka Dončić is a franchise player and was as good as he is now at age 14.
A native of Dallas, Webb is now president of basketball operations for the Texas Legends, the Dallas Mavericks G League team. He has been with them for 10 years.
He has a daughter and grandson.
“I love it. You get to meet new kids coming out of college, keeping their dreams alive or working for a professional team, or you keep some guy that’s trying to get back to the NBA or play overseas. Our team keeps that dream alive of playing sports, learning sports, coaching, front office, learning about the organization and what they do. It’s fun stuff,” Webb said.
Webb added that he practiced all the time and you have to do everything better than the other guys.
“If you don’t go out and work on it, it’s just not going to happen to go out and play professionally,” Webb said.
He worked on his game tirelessly.
“You definitely have to pay smarter (at) point guard, if you use your quickness so that’s what I tried to use,” Webb said.
He said he would tell the AVID students to work hard, study and get the proper education so they can do whatever they want in life no matter where they come from or where you’ve been. Webb said education is something you’ll always have.
“Any possibility that you could make it in this world today is right there,” Webb said. But you have to study and hang around the right people.
“And being a professional athlete and working in a front office you can’t tell them it can’t happen for any kid. If you put your mind to it, anything’s possible if you want to work hard for it. It’s not just going to happen,” Webb said.
Mike Mills of ACCESS said he remembers watching Webb play.
“Just to meet him in person is exciting to see and to hear his stories. What a thrill,” Mills said.
“He was inspiring because he was so small and he had such a fire and watching him through the years I just knew he had to have a tenacity that was above everybody else to play at the level he played at. It’s really neat to have him here and to know he came from Midland College, too. It’s kind of neat how that circle connects, so it’s like he’s coming home,” Mills said.
Cooper Cordle, a 16-year-old Compass Academy Charter School student, said Webb was a cool guy and it was nice that he came to West Texas.
Jason Berridge, president/CEO of Complex Community Federal Credit Union, said they have partnered with AVID for the last 14 years.
“Back when we first started the AVID Celebration, we wanted to make sure we bought more meat to the program, so we started bringing in some keynote speakers to help bring home the message to the kids that you don’t always have to be the perfect student or the perfect person. We’ve just partnered with them and enjoy the opportunity to be able to help educate the kids, help bring in life lessons from people outside of the community,” Berridge said.
He added that he thinks the celebrations get a little bigger every year.
“Amy and the schools do a great job promoting AVID. It’s a great program for the kids to learn, so the more kids we can get involved the better off we all are,” Berridge said.
