By Michael Wilbon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 18, 1996

Even before The Trade had been announced or even completed, there was hysteria. The Washington Bullets didn't have enough people to answer the phones or take the requests. People were walking up to the front door and pulling out checkbooks, credit cards. A guy from Pennsylvania called and bought four full season tickets -- that's all 41 home games. Lawyers and pols and VIPs called wanting in. Maybe USAir Arena isn't so far after all. More than 500 season-ticket plans had been sold by 9:30 last night. At one point, hours before anyone knew whether Chris Webber would be coming to town, a Bullets sales staffer stood up and said to anyone who could hear above the screaming telephones, "The town's on fire!"

The Washington Bullets have a superstar. Someone to put on posters and billboards, someone whose jersey fanatic teenagers will want, someone whom people will happily pay to see, someone who looks at Shaq and Barkley and Kemp and Pippen without blinking, a legitimate all-star prospect who can take a team deep, deep into the NBA playoffs. You think Washington is just a Redskins town? It isn't. It's a town long suffering for a Young Hoop God. It's a town where people will write a check for two seats at $1,200 each to see Chris Webber in uniform, or even at a news conference.

You should have seen the Bullets sales offices in the wake of the news. The Capitals sales people, idle as they are, had been reassigned to help out. Every phone was ringing, people were running everywhere and trying to be heard above the din. Long dormant, it was suddenly the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. People couldn't get their first choice, or their second, but by 8 p.m. they were lined up at the arena, willing to take anything, just to get in the building to be a part of the rebirth. "I just became a marketing genius," club president Susan O'Malley said.

Life for the Washington Bullets just took a 180-degree spin. O'Malley, who had remained calm by refusing to believe The Trade would happen, called it "unimaginable." Yep, that's the word. John Nash, the team's general manager and architect of The Trade, has been saying for years that it was silly to get depressed about not winning the lottery because things even out after a while. After waiting the longest while of any team in the NBA, it started to even out yesterday when the Bullets -- in sequence -- signed rookie draft pick Juwan Howard, then traded Tom Gugliotta for Webber. Making either move alone would have been a boon; to make both in one day was, as O'Malley said, "unimaginable."

Webber and Howard for a franchise that has seen only futility the past 10 years? No wonder Abe Pollin was beaming like a proud new papa, constantly calling the day "one of the greatest days in the 30 years I've owned this franchise." A lot had to happen to pry loose Webber, the No. 1 pick just 17 months ago, from a Golden State Warriors team that figured to reach the Western Conference finals this year. Webber wouldn't be on his way here if he and Coach Don Nelson had a better relationship. The Warriors wouldn't have been interested had the Bullets not had a player like Gugliotta, a versatile forward who can step right in and keep his new team in first place. But most importantly, Pollin had to come up big. He had to hit it off with Webber and convince him that he could be happy leaving a certain championship contender for the uncertainty of life with a team that has lost 50 or more games for five consecutive seasons. He also had to convince Howard. If that isn't enough, Pollin has to make a huge financial commitment.

For all of us who have taken shots at Pollin -- hard shots -- today is the day to offer unqualified praise. Personally, I won't mention Kenny Green and Karl Malone in the same sentence again. Pollin (with Nash's help) has put on the floor a megastar and a team that will get to the playoffs, deep into the playoffs soon enough.

Incredibly, knuckleheads have been wondering how Jim Lynam will find enough playing time for Webber and Howard and Big Gheorghe and Kevin Duckworth. Say what? Obviously, people around here have been deprived of good basketball for so long they've forgotten how many players it takes -- big players especially -- to contend for an NBA title, especially when you play in the Eastern Conference. Did Detroit have a problem playing Bill Laimbeer, James Edwards, Rick Mahorn, John Salley and Dennis Rodman in two positions? Of course not. Did Chicago have a problem splitting those same minutes between Bill Cartwright, Horace Grant, Scott Williams and Will Perdue or Luc Longley? Yeah, three championships worth of problems.

With Webber, Howard, Muresan and Duckworth, the Bullets can stand up to Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason, Charles Smith, and Herb Williams. Or Shaq and Horace Grant. The Bullets not only can match up with other good front lines, but now can create matchup problems. Don MacLean will not be guarded the rest of his career. All the Bullets need now is time, not much, maybe until the all-star break. From now through Christmas is like training camp. Trying to incorporate, from scratch, Webber and Howard isn't going to be difficult, but it will take time during the regular season. By spring, the starting five of Skiles, Chapman, MacLean, Webber and Duckworth, plus Cheaney, Muresan and Howard coming off the bench is the nucleus of a really good team. How many teams have a No. 5 pick (Howard) and a No. 6 (Cheaney) coming off the bench? Or Mitchell Butler and Doug Overton as the ninth and 10th guys?

We end with another man who made this all possible: Gugliotta. I don't understand for the life of me why people are saying, "I feel for Googs." Huh? All Gugliotta is doing is going to a team that's going to at least the conference semifinals. All he's going to do is play with the best point guard in the league (Tim Hardaway), with one of the best shooters of all time (Chris Mullin), with one of the best two-guards in the league (Latrell Sprewell), for a coach (Nelson) whose system fits him perfectly. A passing big man who can rebound and run the floor out west? He'll step in and score 13 points and grab eight rebounds every night and never cause anybody a moment's worth of trouble. Gugliotta ought to be the envy of every forward in the league.

And the Bullets, with Webber and Howard aboard, are the envy of a lot of teams in the league, the Nets, the Cavs, the Sixers, the Celtics, the Bucks, the Heat, while moving into the neighborhood with the Hawks, Bulls and Pistons. And suddenly, the Bullets don't have to squint to see the East's elite -- the Pacers, Knicks, Magic and Hornets -- way up ahead in the distance. Unimaginable indeed.