Credit the man for his demeanor. There hasn't been a single issue with Webber's attitude, his blending into the locker-room atmosphere or his relationship with coach Don Nelson. He badly wants to fit in. It would have been nice. But if you saw the thrilling victory over Phoenix on Wednesday night, you saw the Warriors as they must be from here on out.

Remarkably, Webber wasn't even in uniform. Nelson didn't trust him to make an appearance against a team that epitomizes the appeal of NBA basketball (to this point, anyway; we'll see if the Shaquille O'Neal acquisition blurs the picture). If Webber plays and makes an impact Tuesday in Utah - the Warriors' first game after the All-Star break - it will be the worst possible development, because it will deceive people into embracing a fantasy.

Webber's old, his knees are creaky, he's not in shape and he won't be in shape, OK? Get a grip on that. The Warriors can't have one style (Webber starts, depression sets in, team falls behind by 12) and then another (a madcap scramble to get back into the game). Forget the slow-down tempo that characterizes every postseason; for the Warriors to beat anybody, they have to do it on raw speed and the belief that character, in the form of Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson, gives them a mental edge. They may not go far, but Webber wasn't going to make the slightest difference on that front, anyway.

Former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy, an ESPN analyst Wednesday night, made the key point about Webber: "He doesn't solve their basket-protection problem." In other words, his defensive contribution will be zero against the league's frontcourt giants. If the Warriors are in this for some Webber nostalgia - "Hey, nice pass" - they have to be kidding. Nelson, deep down, has to know this. I'm betting he won't let a fractured whim ruin the season.

Dallas gets smarter

The Jason Kidd deal has to go down, because the Mavericks have no other choice. They can't bring back five players they had deemed expendable. They can't let Devean George anywhere near the arena, not after he and his agent blocked the deal (all you need to know about George: out in public after the deal was put on hold, he shot 0-for-11 against Portland). They also need Kidd, badly. Forget the statistical comparisons that seem to favor Devin Harris over Kidd; if you base anything on statistics in the NBA, you have no value as an analyst. Put down the stacks of paper and watch the game. Tells you everything you need to know ... Just to view it realistically: A major trade gets trashed over George? That's like shutting down a rocket launch because a squirrel got angry ... This deal is all about expiring contracts, the "Larry Bird exception," a subtle loophole that players aren't supposed to actually talk about (allowing Jerry Stackhouse to return to Dallas in 30 days), and possibly adding a retired player (Keith Van Horn) to make the salary-cap thing work. Only devoted insiders have any idea how an NBA deal goes down, thus preventing most fans from having informed conversations on the topic. That's an embarrassment to the league ... The Western Conference is all about leadership: Tim Duncan, Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Deron Williams, Davis and Jackson. The Mavericks, so terribly soft against the Warriors in last year's playoffs, finally have their own leader in Kidd ... Put it this way: Every NBA star who joined Kidd on the U.S. national team last summer, and saw him take charge of a smooth-flowing team, would kill to have him on board ... Not that the flip side can be completely ignored. The Mavs lose out on the defensive end, and with DeSagana Diop out of the picture, that leaves Erick Dampier (dreadful) as the Mavericks' most significant presence in the middle ... The news on Bryant, by the way, could ruin the Lakers' season. A hand specialist advised him to have hand surgery to repair a torn ligament in the little finger of his shooting hand. Bryant, an old-school battler, plans to play through it - but it wouldn't take much contact to further aggravate the injury. If he does submit to surgery, and misses 6-8 weeks, who knows how well the team recovers? ... Weak showing by ESPN's Mike Breen, generally one of the best, Wednesday night. It was midway through the second quarter before he informed fans that Webber was in street clothes, and why.

As globalization grips the major sports, there's talk of playing Premier League soccer games in the U.S. Yet another terrible idea. You'll witness the best group of stars in the world, but if you want to experience the Premier League - to hear it, feel it, let it change your life - you need to be in England ... Great stuff from J.T. Snow with KNBR's Ralph Barbieri this week. He confirmed that the Barry Bonds-Jason Christiansen fight did happen (in 2005), said it began over Christiansen's belittling Bonds' intrusive entourage, and revealed that Bonds' stooges were known to dive into the postgame spread - often leaving no food for players arriving late. The latter-day Bonds in a nutshell ... It's an acceptable show of respect that Barry Zito starts on Opening Day, but a better glimpse of the fans' anticipation would be Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum lining up against, say, Johan Santana and Pedro Martinez ... Scraping the absolute bottom of the barrel for steroids-related interviews, we're planning a visit to the San Diego Zoo and the rare striped hyena, sometimes known as the "scourge of the Serengeti." With front legs much longer than the rear, this enigmatic beast is said to have a rather distinctive walk. Last on our list: John Rocker.

E-mail Bruce Jenkins at bjenkins@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle