Mark Kreidler: Webber situation is baffling
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
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He flew on the team charter from Sacramento to Los Angeles, then didn't show up for the Kings game against the Clippers on Monday. Curious.
He won't be joining his teammates at any point on their 10-day, six-game road trip, despite having been far enough along in his rehabilitation to have practiced with them as recently as Saturday and -- in the eyes of two observers -- looked good and strong doing so, if still somewhat limited. He'll be staying instead in L.A. all this week. Curiouser.

Chris Webber may well be, as we've been hearing since December, this close to rejoining the Kings.

But from the look, the sound and the occasional silence of things, he remains distant in any number of critical ways.

Throw out the Webber-return timetables, by the way. They were optimistic fictions, every one. It's all hunches and back-room guesses now, and the smart money doesn't have the Kings power forward back on the floor until well after the All-Star break, suspension time included.

And maybe there's no crime in that. There is no one on earth, save Chris Webber, who can know exactly how he is progressing in his rehabilitation to NBA form after a serious knee injury. No one can tell Webber how much it hurts -- not the coaches, not the trainers, not his teammates. They can only tell Webber that they like what they see, that they see him looking stronger and more mobile every day.

They can't tell Webber when to play.

The problem: Judging off recent events, they can't tell him much of anything.

Webber's absence from the Kings-Clippers game is one of those classic superstar black holes. No one seems to know where he was. Webber isn't volunteering anything. Even Geoff Petrie, the team's observant president of basketball operations, didn't realize Webber was a no-show until the day after the game.

Was Webber sick? Certainly not: He walked into a Thai restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, accompanied by Tyra Banks, shortly before 7 p.m. Monday. The Kings and Clips tipped off at 12:30.

Did his rehabilitation take a sudden backward step? Not that anyone will acknowledge. Petrie saw Webber practice Saturday and came away generally upbeat. Webber still isn't running with his pure, natural gait, and he clearly isn't in NBA-game condition; but in those things that he attempted to do in practice, Webber performed well.

Does Webber really have to show up at every game while he's on the injured list? Well, of course not. But when you hop on the team plane to another city, there is at least the expectation that you might drop by the arena just to, you know, say howdy.

It's inconceivable that Webber, as savvy a professional athlete as I've ever met, doesn't understand what a ridiculous thing his no-show was. It was a slap in the face to a team that has done its dead-level best to remain at an elite peak for the months that Webber hasn't been on the floor. With a heavy assist from Brad Miller, it has accomplished exactly that.

Some of those close to Webber suggest that the man is simply weary of encountering the same questions in each new city on the road: When you coming back? What's the time frame? Who goes to the bench?

Perfectly understandable -- but beside the point. Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Karl Malone and Rick Fox all traveled with the Lakers on their three-game road trip this week, and none of them is expected to play a single minute. You think Bryant wouldn't mind avoiding a microphone? But instead he's with his team, grabbing some physical therapy when he can get it, doing some pregame work, taking a seat alongside the uniforms when it comes time to play.

It's basic stuff for a player still actively involved in his team's fortunes.

All of which certainly leads me to question how close Webber really is to returning.

As much good as I've seen Webber capable of doing, as many times as I've seen him thoughtful and dynamic and considerate, the man has an amazing habit of putting himself in awkward situations while proffering perfectly reasonable explanations for his actions. I wouldn't call it a gift, but it's becoming a characteristic.

Since their renaissance in 1999, the Kings have been largely defined as a team with excellent chemistry, and Webber is a big part of that. This current thing is maybe a molehill, not enough to topple that chemistry. But chemistry is a fragile, beautiful thing. You mess with it at your own risk.

Though Webber did not reply directly to questions sent his way Wednesday, he did make it clear via back channels that his priority in Los Angeles is in continuing his rehabilitation. He worked with trainers in the L.A. area last summer while rehabbing the knee, and he visits Buzz Braman, a shot guru with whom Webber is working on regaining his touch after not having played a compe ve game since last May. Maybe Braman refuses to fly to Sacramento.

For that matter, Petrie noted that Webber has unquestionably put in serious, ongoing work toward getting back onto the court and suggested that the team's limited practice schedule on the road trip makes it reasonable that Webber should stay behind. But, of course, Webber isn't in Sacramento, making use of the team's ample facilities in the fancy practice building the Maloofs put up three years ago.

Nope, he's down in Los Angeles, a strange place to be at this particular juncture in his personal voyage. When a friend got through to him Wednesday, he was on his way to work out, an All-Star alone,, by choice. Curiouser and curiouser.