Interview with Steve Francis

One-on-one with Houston's Steve Francis
By Sean Deveney - The Sporting News


It hasn't been quite the season the Rockets were expecting. Starting with the year-long injury to Maurice Taylor last summer, Houston has experienced a series of injuries and disappointments that have ruined a once-promising year. Perhaps the most devastating of the losses has been the injuries to star guard Steve Francis, who sat out with plantar fasciitis early in the season, and has missed several games with migraine headaches. In this edition of One-on-one, TSN's Sean Deveney talks with Francis about his migraines, his disappointment with this season and his alma mater (Maryland) in the NCAA Tournament.

TSN: How are you feeling these days?
SF: All right, pretty decent.

TSN: The headaches are better?
SF: Getting better. A lot better.

TSN: Is it something you are doing or are you just getting used to it?
SF: Well, for the first time, I have some medicine. They gave me medicine, a water solution pill that clears the salt from my body. They're trying to clear that all out, because they think that it triggers the headaches. I have to cut out salt from my diet.

TSN: That is working for you?
SF: Not 100 percent, but it is getting better.

TSN: It seemed like you were trying everything to figure those out.
SF: Everything in the book, man. Everything they could think of.

TSN: Did you get a lot of suggestions from people?
SF: A million. Every person I ran into had a cure, and at first you're like, "Uh, well, that does not sound so good." But then after you try everything else, it's like, "Why not?" Every city I went to everybody I met said they know somebody who has had it or they have had it and this or that worked for them. The good thing was that everybody was offering up this advice for free. I didn't have to pay for nothing.

TSN: This season has not been quite what you expected. . .
SF: Not at all.

TSN: Well, what were you expecting?
SF: I knew we were going to the playoffs. But with injuries, all the losses we had and it just brought more frustration. It really has hurt. Beginning of the season, we lost Maurice (Taylor), then Glen (Rice) went down, then I went down. For me, that was my first injury of that magnitude. A lot of disappointment there. But you have to suffer to get better.

TSN: And you guys have done a lot of suffering.
SF: Oh yeah. Hopefully this is it, hopefully we don't suffer past this. We can't have luck this bad again, it is just impossible. Now we are at the point where, we may be young and inexperienced but we have been through a lot. Next season we have to make it happen. It's time to put up.

TSN: How has Rudy been holding up?
SF: You can't imagine. He had a lot of expectations. He had to try so many different lineups, so many rookies, that is hard. We have not been in the playoffs now, this will be the third year. That is something we are not used to doing. You kind of feel for him. But he says the same thing, he is learning to deal with adversity like that.

TSN: So you all have to bounce back.
SF: No choice. And it has to start with your leader.

TSN: And that's you.
SF: I think I can definitely step up and say that. It has to start with me.

TSN: You seemed to have a little temper in the early part of your career -- a lot of technical fouls, and you thought maybe that held you out of the All-Star game in the past. But you cut back a lot this year.
SF: I probably got five or so this year, and a couple of those were just to help motivate my team. I don't think technicals are just automatically bad. There is a time for them. Coaches get techs to motivate the team. I got a tech with a minute left against Minnesota, and it really helped us to start playing defense and be more intense. We came back and won the game. They're not always bad.

TSN: What was your All-Star experience like? Enjoyable?
SF: Hmm. I would not say enjoyable. It was different. It was new. In the game, I barely scored. I scored in the last minute. I was not prepared for that. And all the media, you spend most of your time dealing with media. You have to be at places where they want you at their time.

TSN: You sound like that surprised you.
SF: It did. I can see where some veterans get tired of it. I thought we would just be thinking about the game. I wanted to think about what it was going to be like when they call my name and the guys I was playing with, stuff like that.

TSN: And the parties.
SF: Well, that is overrated. There is not as much time for that as people think. I had a good time though, it was a good experience.

TSN: You were on the floor for John Stockton's 15,000th assist. One of the greatest point guards ever. What do you remember about that game?
SF: I hit the game-winning shot with one second left. (Laughs) A 3-pointer. That was the most important thing.

TSN: Of course. And I am betting I know who you're rooting for in the NCAAs.
SF: Ohhhh, man. You know it. Oh my goodness. We are going to do it. We have the experience. We have the same team as last year, except for Terence (Morris). We're not happy just getting there. We are going to win it.

Sean Deveney is a staff writer for The Sporting News. Email him at sdeveney@Sportingnews.com.

I guess the headaches are doing well. I just wish he could shoot again.Steve shot has been horrible since the headaches started and now seem to be doing better.