We're asking ClickOnDetroit users to select the MVP of Detroit's sports modern era through an NCAA-style bracket tournament.
The West Region's 4-13 contest between Fab Five-era Michigan star Chris Webber and Wolverine football great Anthony Carter is a surprisingly competitive match-up.
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The 4th-seeded Webber, whatever one may think about him personally, was unquestionably the state's best pure college basketball player since Magic Johnson. As a freshman and a sophomore, he led Michigan to two NCAA finals.
The knock against Webber and the Fab Five is they never won a title. That's true. Hindsight tells us Webber's legacy would have been greater if he returned for his junior year and led Michigan to a championship. At the same time consider what that team accomplished as underclassmen and also consider Webber was the NBA's number-one overall draft pick in 1993. Oh yeah, the Fab Five was also cultural phenomena. Webber was the straw that stirred the drink.
In his two years at Michigan, Webber averaged a double-double with 17.4 PPG and 10 RPG. He also shot 58.9% from the field and, incredibly for a big man, 30.6% from three-point line.
Anthony Carter may be the underdog in this maize-and-blue battle but he was no slouch on the field. Carter really was the first dominate receiver in Bo Schembechler's run-heavy offense.
In four seasons in Ann Arbor, AC caught 161 passes for 3076 yards and 37 touchdowns. He finished fourth in the 1982 Heisman voting. More importantly, he was part of the 1981 Rose Bowl champion team. Carter caught five passes for 68 yards and a touchdown in that 23-6 win over Washington.
Initially considered too small to be an NFL receiver at 5'11" 168 lbs., Carter went to the USFL. In two seasons with the Michigan Panthers, he caught 90 passes for over 1600 yards and 13 touchdowns.
More importantly, Carter led the Panthers to the 1983 USFL championship--Detroit's only pro football championship since the 1957 Lions. Following the USFL's implosion in 1986, Carter joined the Vikings. He proved the "too small" knock wrong with a ten-year NFL career.
So what's your call, the pure basketball talent of Chris Webber or the championship legacy of Anthony Carter?