I can understand the decision to leave Francis off even though I disagree with it but let's take a look at our team so far. Iverson Duncan Lebron Marbury R Jefferson Carlos Boozer Amare Stoudamire Shawn Marion Dwayne Wade Ben Wallace Almost all our guards and especially our point guards are players whose main purpose is to score, and they do it in an one on one style. Yet at the same time all our forwards with the exceptions of Duncan are either players that needs the other players to set them up with easy baskets (Boozers, Marion [yes his game has digress enough that he can no longer be a threat by himself), Jefferson, Wallace). Call me crazy but I really really don't think a team like can work that well. Are they still more talented then all of the team in the world? Yes. But I really really don't think a team like this is going to work. I'm glad Francis isn't part of this team because this team is gonna stink, badly.
My god... Grow some comprehension skills. Regardless of what the Steve-hating part of your brain wants you to believe, Stu Jackson is 95% of the reason Steve is not on the Olympic team at this point.
BTW, I hope the US "Dream" Team gets just brutally raped in the Olympics this year. They deserve to (not for the players playing, but for the players not playing). I'm boycotting the NBA, next year, and not just because of this whole Olympics deal... Well unless Detroit takes down LA.
What about before? Back when Team USA was sent to the WBC? His stats were better back then. Yet, not invited then either. Davis and Miller were. So, maybe SF should be invited this time because he's been to two all-star games. You know. Popularity reasons; mad hops! Things like that. Not because he's improved his game; which he hasn't. Noooo, that can't be the reason. It's a conspiracy.
I guess Stu Jackson is also the one who has the final say on who goes on All-American roster, apparently Francis isn't getting any love there either.
DavidS, you're citing an instance of when Francis was deserving stats wise and didn't go to counter claims that Jackson's grudge is a factor? (Btw, go back and check up on Davis and Miller's abysmal performances in 02 -- that was a brilliant decision. But like you always argue incessantly through the night, form over substance) Once again, for you and wireonfire, I will post a quote from the article back on the first page: Now, this writer, for a Florida paper, could be a bs artist; however, this is more concrete than any of your speculation, ("Francis is the worstest bestest streetballer around, blah blah blah, sad, blah blah blah")
But that's just it. I don't think that Francis was "deserving" even stat wise. But some people like to use just stats only. I don't. I was showing that even with better stats, Francis still wasn't picked. What does he have today? Tenure? That's about it. Statistically he's down because of Yao and JVG new system. That is true. But couple that with his over-all game that hasn't changed since his rookie season, he doesn't have much reason to be accepted. Not comparatively to other players and his career history. As far as Davis and Miller performance. Yep. They did have abysmal performances. But the whole team was not prepared. The International teams had caught up, at least on a team scale. They beat us by playing teamball, not one-on-one. This is another problem all together... Could it have been different? Sure. Add Shaq, KG, TD, Kobe, and TMac. But they were not there. And we're seeing the same thing this year.
reading your post, i dont even think you know who Dwayne Wade is. If there is anyone in the NBA who is in the same mold as francis, it would have to be wade.. IMO they play the exact same game.. all i know is that francis is well-desrving of that spot.. i think he would play wonderfully in the olympics, he always plays well on a big stage.. i.e. all-star games, nationally televised games, playoff appearances... im just sad that he isnt mentioned
People take this non-voting status far too literally. There are 10 guys in charge of picking the players. They all know each other and have known each other for years. Moreover, almost all of them can empathize with Stu because almost all of them have managed teams. Just because Stu doesn't have a vote doesn't mean he doesn't have a lot of influence on the decisions they make. (Btw, they have some GM-ing talent (as well as some terrible duds) on this board. How is it that they are screwing this team up so badly? Is Kevin O'Conner calling all the shots?)
People are taking this Stu Jackson thing too seriously. Do you think all of those people would jump up at attention and go along with everything Stu says?
No, I think they're friends and will act friendly towards him. The same thing would happen in my line of business.
None of us know how the committee works, but generally in my experience the chair determines the agenda and runs the meetings. If I were a betting man, I would bet that Stu proposes a list of candidates and the committee debates them. That gives him a rather significant degree of influence, if what has been alleged by various basketball writers at various times re: the grudge, is true.
The "grudge" may be true but so far no one has produced any evidence that proves that Stu Jackson is behind SF not making the Olympic team. What I'm seeing posted here amounts to nothing more than mere speculation.
No, actually I didn't look at Wade's numbers. I admit that I haven't seen him play a lot. In the few games I saw, it struck me that his game looked very similar to Steve's. That's all. And who cares about Wade's stats in 5 years? We are comparing the current Wade with the current Francis. We are picking a player to play for the US team now. If you read this board regularly, you should know that I am no Steve lover. Yet I believe that there's no excuse taking Wade over Francis, especially if the argument is that Francis was a streetballer etc. They've picked plenty of "streetballers" on the team already. And Wade is another one, imho.
lol good try fish, but i dont think you could actually qauntify that writers statment as "evidence or proof" otherwise we'd have to regard everything justice and feign writes as incontrovertible also. lol
"I thought Steve had an outstanding year," Van Gundy said. "He showed improvements in many, many areas. I think novice fans will look at numbers and say he didn't have as good a year as in previous years. I would say he had a much better year. Helping us win more in a much more difficult and challenging Western Conference ... speaks directly to his impact on the team. I think Steve did a great job of playing well himself but also enabling others to play well."
Yes, I remember back when he said that. Someone posted it defense of SF's lower stats this year. But I could careless about his stats this year; SF was doing what he had to do within his knowledge (not very much). He had surendered to the *team game* by incororating Yao into the mix. Thus, his shot attempts went down and ppg. What also hurt was that he's a rhythm player. That means, he *needs* the ball in his hands to shoot better. He's not good at coming off of screens or setting up others. Those are PG skills which he's not that good at. Not really. So, "surrendering to JVG system" might make the team better (like JVG states above), but it hurts Francis. This is not good news for a PG. Because the other option is to go back to the more "iso" style that he played before. I mean, it's not liike SF has learned to pass better. Nevertheless, even when he was at 20/6/6 his game was still the same to me. He was still bone-headed, then, as he is now. The fact that his stats are lower just make him "appear" worse.
"I thought Steve had an outstanding year," Van Gundy said. "He showed improvements in many, many areas. I think novice fans will look at numbers and say he didn't have as good a year as in previous years. I would say he had a much better year. Helping us win more in a much more difficult and challenging Western Conference ... speaks directly to his impact on the team. I think Steve did a great job of playing well himself but also enabling others to play well."
