Soul food restaurants? We don't need no stinkin' soul food restaurants.

	Webber wanted to skip town, but who can afford him?

Chris Webber can build one himself now and stock the menu however he wants. Crow, to be served to everyone who predicted his immediate departure from socially-challenged Sacramento. Scapegoat, for those playoff performances not close to deserving franchise-player money. He can afford to do whatever he wants now. The owners said long ago they would mow his lawn, right?

It will be up to the NBA capologists to decide how to charge that against the cap -- good thing Joe and Gavin Maloof didn't do something really scandalous, like try to make a donation to charity with some connection to a player -- but the NBA as a whole has already determined the bottom line.

Webber did not want to be a King.

It was tough enough to avoid that thought in Sacramento, a city that waited with angst and did its best to analyze every sign. What did that look around Arco Arena as he walked off the court after the second-round loss to the Lakers mean? What did it mean that he didn't return the Kings' call for several days after the free-agent courting began? What did it mean that he stayed in town to work out after the season, indicating he didn't hate it so much after all? (Answer: Nothing. He did the same thing a year ago and still bagged on the place.) There were doubts in the place that wanted him back.

	EXCLUSIVE CLUB 20 ppg/10 rpg/3 apg last 3 years
	Player	Pts	Rebs	Ast
	Shaq	28.5	12.6	3.4
	Webber	24.4	11.3	4.3
	Garnett	22.1	11.3	4.8

Everywhere else, it wasn't quite so, um, strenuous.

"I know he wants to win, and I don't know if he believes he can win in Sacramento," Pacers coach Isiah Thomas said. "I think he wants to play with people he can win with, but I'm not sure he knows how to do that. I mean, there is the sign-and-trade and wages he wants to earn and the system is set up for him to do that by staying in Sacramento."

Or as Billy Owens, a friend and former teammate, told the Detroit Free Press in the final days of waiting: "He has been unhappy with his situation and he's looking for some happiness. It's like you've read in the papers, he can't even find a soul food restaurant in Sacramento. I think he's a little confused right now. Confused might not be the right word. Obviously, money is important, but he wants to be happy, too."

And those were the on-the-record comments. Otherwise, speculation among teams was commonplace that Webber was trying to reach the eject button, only to find some things getting in his way.

Reality, for example.

	O'Neal

	Robinson

Orlando didn't have the cap space, and Webber was a fallback option for the Magic anyway, after Antonio Davis. Indiana didn't have cap space, and the Pacers wouldn't include Jermaine O'Neal in any sign-and-trade package. Detroit had the kind of space to sign him without a sign-and-trade, assuming Webber could have handled accepting $90something million instead of the $123 million that he eventually got, and the appeal of playing in his hometown with a team that will be improved after acquiring rookie Rodney White and veteran Clifford Robinson, but Detroit also had the demands of playing in his hometown. And so on.

The options were limited, to say the least. Webber said 12 to 15 teams contacted him, but few of those ever amounted to much. To think of all the trees that gave their life since the start of training camp in the name of New York newspapers alone, since the hot speculation always was that C-Webb wanted to be reunited with buddy Spree in tabloid heaven, and since there have been unconfirmed reports that Gotham has nightlife and diversity, only to find in early-July that it was a path that led nowhere. The Knicks never were serious players.

This is not about the new NBA, either. The looming luxury tax may be a hammer, but these were all roster decisions in Webber's case. As in, no one would turn their's over to get him, the way the Magic maneuvered a year ago for Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady and would have hustled to get Davis (Mike Miller, Bo Outlaw and Darrell Armstrong were available, Hill was not) and the way a lot of people will move mountains to get in the Vince Carter Sweepstakes. Besides, doesn't all talk of this supposedly sudden wave of fiscal responsibility end with word that Eddie Robinson (17.9 minutes a game in 2000-01) got a $30-million offer sheet from the Bulls and Tyronn Lue (a career-high 38 appearances last season before barely making the playoff roster) got two years and $3.6 million from the Wizards?

	Christie

In the end, there came a day unlike few other in the history of the league: the Kings, a small-market team in a city with little corporate support and an outdated arena that doesn't generate nearly the revenues from suites compared to many other places, committed $171 million to two players. That was Wednesday, when Doug Christie signed for seven years (six guaranteed) and when word came from Webber that he would be staying, solidifying the roster that is coming off a 55-win season and will be even better in 2001-02 because of the upgrade at point guard (Mike Bibby in place of Jason Williams) as well as the projected, and continued, improvements of starter Predrag Stojakovic and key reserve Hidayet Turkoglu.

Actually, word came from Webber's negotiating team, namely his consultant, Fallasha Erwin, and his brother who has handled many of the comments, Jeffrey. In the moment of celebration for the franchise and the city, given the Kings' great prominence and popularity in Sacramento, in the moment he had waited three years for, given his desire to become a free agent almost from the very instant he was shipped to Northern California by the Bullets/Wizards, he chose to say nothing to the fans who had supported him and had waited for the puffs to rise from the smokestacks.

There will be comments later, but there will also have to be some fence mending.

He will appear at a press conference Friday or Saturday, but he will have to appear earnest about wanting to be in Sacramento, as opposed to wanting the Sacramento contract.

The early read on the mood in what could be his town, depending on how he recaptures the fans who would love to embrace him at every opportunity, is of joy. It's not difficult to see that this is a team that has all the players in place for two more seasons, before Vlade Divac becomes an issue, and everyone else for much longer and now goes nine or 10 deep and lacks only to learn how to play with an attitude. So if Webber stands at the podium at that press conference and says this is where he wanted to be all along, that he just owed it to himself to look around, so much of the past comments about the social life and the past performances in the playoffs will be forgotten in an instant.

And dozens of other teams and cities will get a good laugh.

Scott Howard-Cooper covers the NBA for the Sacramento Bee and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.