while i don't sympathize with francis b/c he still can't miss the flight. that is my feeling as well. ha, i'm going to make y'all miss the superbowl b/c, well, i can. too bad. and Texas Stoke, maybe b/c rudy wasn't as big of an egomaniac as jvg? this may have never even come up in the first place under rudy. jvg likes to be in power and let everyone know he is in the papers.
How is this? He didn't skip a game. He didn't skip a practice. He delayed flying for several hours. That doesn't mean he doesn't care about the team or doesn't care about winning. I will grant it demonstrates some disregard for Van Gundy's authority, but very little of that. I think the bigger deal is how much disrespect for his players it shows in Van Gundy. Francis got what he deserved: a 1-game suspension. The Rockets will beat Phoenix anyway, Francis will return and play well, cf posters will bash the hell out of him, and all will continue as before.
Not sure if it's only the black players, I'm pretty sure people have called Jason Williams (Memphis) the same thing.
Did Francis stick around for some post game festivities or did he immediately hop on the next flight to Pheonix?
I think you are absolutely, ridiculously wrong on both counts. It shows a lot of disregard for van Gundy's authority. Van Gundy did not show any disrespect for his players by his decision not to fly on the day of the game. Could he have made a different decision? Maybe. Does this give a guy that gets $ 100 mio. just to play basketball the right NOT to make a very small sacrifice and fly a few hours earlier with the rest of the team? Absolutely not.
After having League Pass last year and listening to opponents' announcers, it was clear that they held Francis is low regard. His childish behavior on the court (taunting), his selfish behavior on the court (prefers personal highlights over team accomplishments), his prima donna attitude off it (Vancouver and now Super Bowl), his run-ins with the law (DWI), and the fact that he is amongst the league leaders each year in technical fouls support this characterization quite well.
This Jeff Vangundy is some evil ogre crap is ridiculous.... 610 Sports just reported that the team flight was originally scheduled for 4:00 o' clock sunday afternoon but Jeff Van Gundy re-scheduled the flight in the early afternoon so all his players would have plenty of time to get to their hotel in Phoenix and all watch the game together
Who gives SF3 such an authority? This is a NBA team who have lost 3 streak games in which SF3 may be thought as a leader. Ridiculous~
If the assumption is JVG personally declared they were flying at that time, well surely he did it for a reason. By default, then, Francis' ignoring it hurts the team. How can Van Gundy be expected to do his job effectively if his players don't listen to him?
You can forget about free agents wanting to come here now. Say what you want about Rudy, but everyone wanted to play for him. When you're recruiting that next star free agent, I'm sure he's going to remember what a hard a$$ JVG is being about the Super Bowl. And he's not going to want to come.
What free agents did we get when Rudy was here? Scottie Pippen ? Maurice Taylor? Please, I take Jim Jackson over both of them, and he came under the JVG system.
You're just wrong, here. You think people didn't know JVG's attitude towards using the media towards players before? Pfft. It was one of the most common complaints on this very forum when he was hired. Moreover, everyone knew he was a strict disciplinarian. If you're an all-work and no-play type guy... that kind of coach might appeal to you, because you know he's not going to put up with any **** from players less dedicated. JVG got Jim Jackson this summer. That's the kind of guy he's going to attract. He's not going to attract the Moochie Norris's of the world. You think someone like Tim Duncan would give a damn about any of this? I really doubt it. I'm sure, though, that it might hurt Houston's chances of signing Allen Iverson, should he become an FA anytime soon. Darn.
Good post, this is interesting how all evil JVG wanted to do is have his whole team together so they could watch the game together & hopfully play with some "heart" in the game. Yupp, he sure is a mean bad bad coach!
OK, I am now officially anti-Steve Francis. I have defended this guy during the game time chats but will do defend him no more. His priorities are clearly not the team, winning, or even playing basketball. Rox better trade him as quick as possible. We would be lucky to get a guy like Bobby Jackson for SF, but Sac wouldn't do that trade no way.
OK, after the game we should have a new thread and poll on trading Francis. The only problem is who would be stupid enough to take him.
