WILMER, Texas — The legend Spud Webb had his jersey retired Tuesday night at Wilmer-Hutchins High School.
The shortest man to ever win the NBA's slam dunk competition, and the best player to ever take the floor for the Wilmer-Hutchins Eagles, Webb is a Dallas-area legend.
So, WFAA's Mike Leslie really only had one question for Webb Tuesday night, just over an hour before the halftime ceremony that would retire his #4 forever:
"How have they not done this already?"
"Hahaha," chuckled Webb. "Well, it's a long story behind that..."
The story is... they kind of already did.
"We know that his jersey was retired," Webb's old teammate, Vee Collier, said before the game. "I believe in '91, '92, somewhere around in that time frame."
But apparently, it didn't quite stick.
"The funny thing is, I came to a game, and there's a guy running around with #4 on," Webb said with a smile. "And I was like, didn't we retire that?"
So, Tuesday night, they made it right. Nobody is going to wear #4 anymore.
"We're saying that this belongs to Spud Webb," said Collier, who introduced Webb during the halftime ceremony. "He earned it. He earned it. And he deserves it."
Oh, he most certainly deserves it. Webb is like a folk hero - listed in the NBA annals at 5'6". Webb will tell you 5'7". A ruler would probably tell you he's shorter than both those numbers. And yet, the things Webb could do just don't make sense. For example, his performance in that 1986 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, at Reunion Arena in Dallas.
"He's just phenomenal," Collier said. "He just got that gift. I think God gave him a gift... Playing with him is like playing with Michael Jordan. Because you can bet your life that it's gonna [sic] be a show."
Webb put on a show for 12 years in the NBA. But the '86 dunk contest is the touchstone moment of his career.
"People didn't know that the night before, I was on Johnny Carson," Webb said.
He was in Los Angeles for the taping of the show, and didn't get back to Dallas until the early hours of the morning. So, he did the dunk contest on almost no sleep.
"Once I got off the plane, I got a little rest," he said. "And then, lucky I was just 22 years old. I just went out and whatever dunks came to my mind, I just went out and tried to execute."
Now, nearly 36 years later, they're making certain at Wilmer-Hutchins, #4 is Spud Webb, forever.
"That's the best thing you can ask for from your neighborhood, for them to try to recognize you as one of their own," said Webb.
Not just one of their own. The very best one of their own.