Sporting News: Francis changing game for his betterment

Francis changing game for his betterment
By Sean Deveney - The Sporting News


Oh, no. Prodigious leaper Steve Francis is in the air again, and deep in the subconscious of the Rockets' coaching staff, there's a familiar panic rising: Oh, no. It's quite a predicament. On one hand, much of Francis' talent as a basketball player is tied to that ability to get into the air, so it's not something his coaches want to curb. On the other, those close to the team have come to see a more fragile side of Francis in the past year, and there is the impulse to worry, an impulse that makes the coaches want to place feather mattresses under the basket every time he jumps.

Francis is a tough kid, a 6-3 point guard who is comfortable scrapping with bigger guys in the paint, unafraid to challenge centers and power forwards with drives to the rim. He prides himself on his toughness, and he rebounds like a forward, averaging 6.9 rebounds per game. Tough as he is, though, Francis also is suffering from a mysterious inner ear problem, Meniere's disease, which has no cure. It is unpredictable, and it triggers debilitating migraine headaches.

Francis continued to improve last season, making the All-Star team for the first time in his three-year career, but the migraines made it brutal for him off the court, especially because he did not know what was causing them. There were times when Francis could not get up to answer the door at his home, times when it hurt just to have the lights on. Some nights, he would lie on the training table, sick, minutes before tipoff. He'd get up and play anyway.

Now that he knows it's Meniere's, things are better for Francis. The disease won't go away, but he can take steps to ease the effects. Headaches come, but they are rarer, and the problem is a little less frightening.

That is, unless you are a Rockets coach and you are watching Francis beat Blazers guard Jeff McInnis off the dribble in the third quarter of an early November game in Houston. Francis has a clear path from the perimeter to the basket. He drives, then jumps toward the rim. This is where the "Oh, no" reaction kicks in.

Portland's Rasheed Wallace tries to rotate over to help, but he is too late. His hand gets caught on Francis' elbow, and Francis loses his feet and goes parallel with the ground. There's a hard fall coming, and if you're a Rockets coach, you sure hope that a hard fall is not on the list of triggers for Meniere's. What if he hits his head? Francis lands, hard on his back, and does not get up at first, leading to a breathless moment at the Compaq Center. He soon stands, limping but smiling. Nothing to worry about; his rump took the brunt of the fall. As coach Rudy Tomjanovich later points out, "Luckily, he fell on some cushioning."

Francis knows he might not always be so lucky. The Meniere's disease and the inherent physical danger that comes with his high-flying style make for a potentially painful and damaging combination. "Does it scare me?" he says. "Hell, yeah. I still had stiffness from (the fall against Portland) a week later. I don't know what would happen if it was my head. But that is how basketball is played. It is not a soft sport."

Francis is about as soft as thumbtacks and has played that way since his arrival in the league. He is willing to absorb hits like the one the floor gave him after he tangled with Wallace, but Rockets coaches want him to learn that he does not have to play that way. During his first three years, Francis was a bundle of jitters, neglecting open jump shots and safe passes in favor of drives to the basket among bigger, burlier players. He was comfortable with that because it's what he does best. But there are easier ways to get two points, and Francis is beginning to see that.

"One of the toughest things we've had to do here is to convince the guy he is a good shooter," says assistant coach Jim Boylen. "He was always able to take guys off the dribble, just shake guys and get to the rim and dunk. But he is a good shooter; we have always told him that. And he'd say, 'Well, I know, but, but, but . . . Then he'd go out and try to dunk again. He has changed that."

He has changed many things. He is healthier, having gotten over the foot injury that afflicted him last winter and recovered from shoulder surgery in May. To help control the headaches, Francis had to change his diet, cutting down on salt. That meant no fast food, so Francis hired a personal chef. He was awarded a six-year contract extension by the Rockets in the offseason, which should pay him more than $80 million but isn't likely to change his reputation for being one of the most generous players in the league when it comes to taking care of friends, family and team personnel. He moved from suburban Sugar Land to a house a few minutes from the Compaq Center so that he could practice shooting whenever he was in the mood. There is a lot changing off the court for Francis these days, but he's doing a lot of changing on it, too.

The night before every game, Francis meets Boylen on the court for 20 minutes of shooting. For home games, they meet at the Compaq Center. On the road, they meet in the hotel lobby and ride to the arena together. It's a light workout, but it's part of the alteration in Francis' approach to the game. He wants to know what Boylen has seen from the guy who will guard him, whether the team plays much zone, whether there are matchups the Rockets can exploit. Sometimes, he and Boylen talk basketball for a few minutes, then talk about whatever is on Francis' mind. Boylen stresses the need for Francis to play in the moment without thinking too much. These sessions help "make sure that all I am thinking about is what's ahead tomorrow night," Francis says. The Rockets will play 82 games; Francis plans to take each one seriously.

Step one toward that goal is to not rely on what comes naturally to Francis -- driving to the basket, using his quickness, ballhandling skills and jumping ability to drive the Rockets' offense. Francis tended to do that early in his career, because of his youth, and he played that way last year, because the Rockets were so addled by injuries that he had little choice. Now, he is more concerned with being a cog in the offense. His scoring average (24.4) is higher than ever, but that fact seems to annoy him.

"I have been passing more, trying to make smarter passes," Francis says. "But teams have not been double-teaming me, so I am supposed to shoot. I am not out there putting up shots that are out of the offense. I am scoring more, but I am not trying to. I am doing it in the flow of the offense."

In a game last week against the Clippers, with the Rockets down three, Francis drove from the 3-point line on the left side to a spot near the free-throw line, 16 feet from the basket. He pulled up his dribble, with 6-8 Elton Brand in front of him and 7-0 Michael Olowokandi helping. Instead of forcing a shot over the defenders, Francis dumped a pass back to Glen Rice, who was wide open and made a 3-pointer. Excitable Rockets color man Calvin Murphy, overcome by the sight of Francis' newfound wisdom, hyperbolized, "That's the best pass Steve has made all season!"

"He has been making good decisions all season," Tomjanovich says. "He is our best player, so the ball is going to be in his hands, and he is going to get more scoring opportunities. When he has them, we want him to take them. But he is making the right passes out there."

Francis has picked a good time to emerge as a team leader and smarter all-around player. He is 25. Rookie teammate Yao Ming is 22 and already blossoming into a top center, securing Houston's future at the two toughest spots for NBA teams to fill. Yao and Francis figure to be a long-running tandem, and they're only now developing an on-court rapport.

"It's fun to watch," Boylen says. "With Yao, Steve has someone who is a real inside threat, someone he can dump it to. What's great is that Yao is starting to look for Steve more, too, because Steve is a smart cutter and Yao will hit him with the pass. Steve was not looking for Yao at first, but he is more now. There is a chemistry that is getting started there."

It has not gone unnoticed. "That could be a dangerous combination for a long time," Trail Blazers coach Maurice Cheeks says. "In a couple of years, they will be something." That would be a nice change for Francis -- making other coaches say, "Oh, no."

E-mail staff writer Sean Deveney at sdeveney@sportingnews.com.