"What the hell happened to Steve Francis?"-June 2010 SLAM Magazine article

Look with this arrogant SOB said in the interview:

Kevin Durant right now is way better than Steve Francis in his prime, and KD hasn't even entered his prime yet.

Steve, you're never gonna make it in live with that piss poor attitude.

 

STEVY, BLAME T-MAC & JVG PLZ LAWL

 

QFT, greatest post ever.

 

I think this shows how stupid the AI era of b-ball was. Len Bias, the overhyped dude who died of drug abuse before he even stepped on the court? The bonedhead trifecta (AI, Starbury, Francis) ushered in the dark ages of b-ball, where highlight reels were the only thing that mattered and slamdunks were the only skill people had.

 

The problem with Francis is he never really developed any skills or worked on his game his entire career. If you look at his skillset when he first started out and now that his career is over I don't think you'd see much of an improvement. Teams are smarter now, and generally avoid pgs who can't shoot straight and don't know how to run an offense.

 

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I hated his attitude and dumb playmaking from the start... because I was from Vancouver. He was partial responsible for screwing up my Franchise and then went to my fav team the Rox.... The only bearable seasons were when he was playing with Yao to be honest.

Rockets in the last 20+ years has 2 of my top 5 fav.... Olajuwon and Yao...why he had to be in Houston ruining another my fav team?

 

Too much sugar in his tank. :grin:

 

SF3 is one reason why teams are afraid of drafting 6'3 and under guys who have never played the point. While they may be fantastic players and scorers in college they often are unable to adapt to running a team.

That was part of SF3's problem was he didn't have a high basketball IQ. He got by for so long on being able to out quick and out jump other players that other parts of his game suffered. When he lost his freak like athleticism he had nothing to fall back on.

 

It is ALWAYS about the money. Don't be naive and believe a player when he says it's not. This is a job. A job that might be fun as hell, but it is a job, and like all of us common folk, they are too looking to a job that pays the most money. That being said, he must be making decent money in his businesses. He will never play in the NBA again but if SF3 wanted money all he has to do is go play in China.

I'm glad he put his money into something useful. I'm tired of hearing about so many former players that end up with no money. It's ridiculous.

 

I loved having Francis on the Rockets, but this just shows how out of touch he is. In hindsight, his refusal to play in Vancouver was a bad sign. What looked like a gift for the Rockets was really just an indication of a selfish, entitlement, loser's attitude that is the reason he's not still playing. Folks can criticize McGrady all they want; his attitude was never this bad.

 

I don't think Steve is a bad guy, not like the manipulative T-Mac, I just think he's stubborn and prideful. In truth, it was all downhill for "the franchise" the day the Rockets landed the number one pick in the draft. Yao was simply too skilled (and too tall) not to be the center of the offense, and Steve couldn't accept that. It's why Yao didn't get enough touches his first season to win ROY, and it's why the easy going Rudy T was replaced with JVG, who is anything but easy going.

BTW, it's never mentioned, but I think Rudy, CD, and Les should have known it wasn't going to work out and traded Steve while his value was still off the charts. Wow, how things might have turned out different if that had happened.

 

I just recall a brief time when he played with Olajuwon. And on the team bus to the game he was dressed up pretty inappropriate. Hakeem had to go up to him and say something. Hakeem said something that this is a business and if he dresses the way he does it shows a lack of respect to the team and the game.

 

SF3 got on-stage at the Bun B concert Wednesday. Very few of the people in the crowd knew he was. I'll post pictures later today.

 

Good post, agree 100%. Steve's actually a really nice guy in person. He just didn't work hard enough and wasn't in it for the right reasons. His was well-liked by his teammates in most cases.

T-Mac was a delusional, me-first, self-absorbed prick who put himself above the team in all cases. Very divisive player, and professionals like Yao and Battier even called him out.

 

Lots of NBA players are a bit delusional. Comes with being told you were talented and having dominated on the court since age 11 or 12, maybe even earlier. Hell, there are guys who had glorious HS careers who never sniffed the NBA who probably are thinking "I should have made it except [insert excuse], I was just as good as the guys on TV." Don't blame either Francis or McGrady for it, but it sure makes a coach's job a lot harder.

 

Exactly. Next time someone hates on a player for not being loyal, remember Francis and how we shipped him off twice, even though he was dying to stay here.

 

I agree there are some similarities but upon sitting down and reading the article I found that Francis had a sense of self entitlement and alot more full of himself than McGrady. I'm a big fan of both and you can call
me out on a mcgrady bias but mcgrady is still working out hard, the end of skillzlab was not the end of mcgradys effort to get better.

To the OP:
I remember Baron Davis saying Francis was great and it also mentioned he was still playing and training

 

So we should've kept him, even after it became obvious we'd never win a title with him as our focal point?

It's great if someone gives 100% (most of the time, in SF's case) and is loyal and wants to play for your team, but I would prefer a championship to a bunch of happy players with no trophy.

 

Rudy always credited Steve with being a big time gym rat

Agreed

Label - Giving money to friends who say they can rap and sing
Constructon - Building new houses for himself firends and family
Clothing - Custom cloths for himself family and friends
Boxing - Giving money to friends who say they can fight

I loved Francis when he was here.

But I loved the TMac trade at the time too....