It's creativity you want? You got.... $122,777.44 to run up and a basketball court for 40 minutes. I'd hitch hike to PHX for that kind of money. And I'd be there on time.
I'm getting tired of defending Francis...He is suppose to be the leader of this team and this is ridiculous...He would rather party with his so-called peeps vs. being with his teammates... On one hand, I think it is stupid to schedule a flight on the night its in your host city,but still, he needs to be accountable for stupid decisions... Does he want to win, or party...obviously, both, but not with the Rox...
way off topic, but THAT is a fan...he could have said, "I saw Elvin Hayes and Calvin Murphy play", but he whips out Kevin Kunnert and Zaid Abdul-Aziz.
Please tell me your joking. You don't leave to Phoenix on the morning of the game so some players can attend the superbowl. Especially after you just lost three in a row. Hell most of the Texans player did not care to attend the superbowl. anyways, I'm pretty sure its league policy that every team flight leave the night before the game. But the fact is the rest of the team followed the rules and Steve Francis, who is being paid 60 plus million dollars plus, basically said "screw JVG, the team, and the rules, I'm going to the superbowl!" Well isn't that just freakin' fantastic!
dammit steve! now we're going to have to hear about this forever, and right after a good game. maybe steve was mad about the "no heart" comment and just wanted to show him up by showing what losing heart actually looks like. dammit, when we could use some wins to stem the tide of losing. thank God mj won't have to guard marbury (and yes that is way worse than steve guarding him). and if we're real lucky, amare doesn't play or is limited and we still get the win. sometimes i almost wish we would trade steve. 90% of it is i would like to read this board w/o 90% of it being filled with steve bashing threads. if for no reason other than to get some variety in here. 10% is just so he'll play well again and not struggle in jvg's for the most part clueless offense. 0% is b/c i think it would actually help the rockets (barring another all-star or very talented player who fits very well + something else). and mcga1c3mgcc23432cms, why do you always trade away rockets for crap? nve and dampier? lets see, a center when we don't need one, and (even though he passes and has a good ast/to ratio) a very shot happy guard. somehow they don't seem like what we need and i'm pretty sure francis gets us more than that (since the rest of the league doesn't hate him like this board).
PHOENIX -- Houston Rockets guard Steve Francis was suspended for tonight's game against the Phoenix Suns for skipping the team flight to Phoenix Sunday so he could attend the Super Bowl at Reliant Stadium Rockets' head coach Jeff Van Gundy said Francis "made a bad decision to miss the plane, to go the Super Bowl without telling me." "He made a decision, I feel it was the wrong one. I made a decision based on his decision," Van Gundy said of the one-game suspension. Francis, selected to start a third consecutive All-Star game, is averaging 16.6 points, 5.9 assists, and 5.6 rebounds per game. He will be replaced in the Rockets starting lineup by veteran guard Mark Jackson.
Probably so they could get a good night's rest before the shootaround and game. I can understand that a lot of the players would be bitter about having to miss the Super Bowl, but the fact remains that everyone sucked it up and made the flight to Phoenix. Everyone but Steve that is. The starting point guard for the Western All-Stars. A 5-year veteran in the NBA. And the so-called leader of this Rockets team. I'm sorry, but it's obvious at this point that everthing he says in interviews and in the locker room about wanting to win is BS. It's all lip service. Sure, I'll bet the guy wants to make it to the playoffs and win a championship. But I don't think he has anywhere near what it takes to achieve that level of success. To be a winner in this league, you have to want it to the point that not getting it kills you inside. After 4 straight lottery seasons to start his career, you'd think the guy would be more motivated than ever. Instead, he's having his worst year ever statistically. And he's skipping out on team flights to attend the Super Bowl. Now I'm not saying Steve is the only one on this team guilty of not having his heart completely in it. Certainly you could question the dedication of guys like Cat who openly admits to wanting his grill on billboards and roles in movies or Mo Taylor who for most of career has been out of shape and stoned or Kelvin Cato who has no interest in ever developing his offense or even Yao Ming who seems too timid to take over basketball games. But the bottom line is Steve's been here longer than everyone other than Cat and Cato. He's the leader of this team. And even though Yao is the future of this franchise, the success or failure of the 2003-2004 Rockets rests in his hands. If he doesn't want that responsibility or simply can't handle it, fine. Just say the word and Jeff Van Gundy and Carroll Dawson will ship him to the first Eastern Conference squad that comes up with a decent offer.
exactly. playing through a shoulder that should have gotten surgery, playing with migraines, playing through all sorts of other things means nothing. miss a flight and you don't give a damn. being so jealous of yao that they refuse to pass him the ball. since the 37 pt game he has gotten no passes from these 2 in scoring position well, except for the entire kings game, in which yao did nothing. the other games yao got the fronting treatment and of course was helpless to do anything as usual. as for the timing of the flight. it does seem a little weird to leave during the super bowl. i mean, it ended at what, 9? it's not like they don't take midnight flights and such all the time, how is a late flight one time going to kill anyone. you obviously can't miss the flight just b/c you want to if the team mandates it be during the super bowl, it still just seems weird to do it then. hell, schedule it well before the super bowl in the early afternoon or soemething (did they?) and just take care of the problem that way.
Well I did propose it rhetoricaly but it is valid. I don't know if the NBA collective bargaining agreement has specific rules about travel or if the NBA has rigid standards about travel and rest before games. But it doesn't sound to tough to me to say practice at Toyota Sunday at noon, allow players to go to the game, fly over this morning at 10 ish, walk through at 3 ish and play at 8. You have to admit that by imposing this travel time the Rockets allowing for a forseeable conflict and apparently they got one. Hell If I were in charge the team would have had a suite at Reliant, a bus to the airport waiting at the stadium and a charter to Phoenix waiting at Hobby.
you know we say steve doesn't play D, we say yao anchor's the D. we won't let steve do his thing on offense, but we're solely dedicated to getting yao off in the offense. everyone wants steve to defer defer defer, and yet as soon as things go wrong or we lose, steve is the leader and it's his fault. you can't tell the leader let this other guy do everything, but it's your fault if things don't get done. if you want yao to run the offense and get the ball all the time, fine. just don't say the success of the season then rests in steve's hands when you've effectively given the ball to yao.
he'd probably get lit up by barbosa anyway. I just hope this doesnt escalate to anything more than just a superbowl hangover.
Superbowl ended a little after 9, now let's imagine the chaos in trying to escape Reliant Stadium, (30 minutes minimum for a Texans game) no doubt way longer for the Super Bowl, not to mention all the post game celebration which certainly you don't skip! So let's be generous and say it took him an hour just to leave the stadium. Then make it to Bush or Hobby, easily another hour minimum, again being generous, because there will be all sorts of traffic madness (and no doubt many people rushing to airports to get home.) So it'd be 11 or 11:30 before he could actually get to an airport, at which point the team could well be IN Phoenix. (And airport security applies to NBA players too, so another 15-20 minutes of checking in.) Now could he have made other arrangements with Van Gundy? I bet something could have been worked out, however according to Van Gundy he just plain didn't tell him he was going to the Super Bowl, and that's where the problems come from.
best post in this thread has to go to chevytruck for expecting cat not to start. hilarious. "cat, steve missed the flight, you're not starting now."
This has got to be one of the dumbest posts ever. One has drug and depression problems, one went to the Super Bowl. How exactly do these things link?
it's amazing the excuses some are floating. Steve made a poor decision. How often had MJ, Bird, Magic or Hakeem missed flights due to some happening event? Never. They may not have been choirboys but they were leaders who knew when to zig or zag. This is pure immaturity & it's disappointing coming from a guy we all want to succeed as our leader. His history points to this selfish behaviour (see tears at daft day) but i'm still hoping for our 5th year boy to be ALL GROWNZ DUP
What is this supposed to mean, the All Grownz Dup. As far as Hakeem is concerned, he was accused of faking an injury.
