Passing notes in seventh grade: "Hey, I heard that Stevie really likes Cat, and Stevie and Cat are tight with that dude, Lamar, but none of them like this geeky foreign exchange student, Yao. Yeah, they won't invite him their cool parties or hang out with him or nothing. I think Yao's OK and Stevie's being a jerk, and if he can't accept him, he should just go to another school and leave us all alone." By the way, did you check out the bazombas on that new substitute teacher? Oh, and AC/DC freakin' ROCKS!!!!" How about a little perspective? Public opinion on the BBS has turned on Steve Francis -- an All-Star point guard and the cornerstone of the Rockets' rebuilding effort -- because he went on a local sports talk show and gave the folllowing response to a question about Yao Ming: "I've never been able to play with a guy like that so it remains to be seen how it will help my game ." For that he gets page after page of hatred? It isn't as though he said, "I'm not playing with that #@*%$ Chinaman, and if they draft him, I'm leaving!" There was no rejection of Ming, nothing to imply that he won't eventually welcome Yao and help him adapt his game to the NBA style. I]"I've never been able to play with a guy like that..."[/I] It's true. There were no 7-5 players at Maryland. In the pros, his centers have been an aging Hakeem Olajuwon, an unmotivated Kelvin Cato, an ancient Kevin Willis and an untalented Jason Collier. At this stage in their careers, none of them is anything like Yao Ming, so the first part of Stevie's statement is indisputable. "...so it remains to be seen how it will help my game ." OK, we all want Stevie to be the team leader of the Rockets, and this isn't a very "team leader"-like thing to say. But posters on this BBS are making way too much out of it. There will be plenty of time to look at the big picture once Yao arrives. Stevie, no doubt, is wondering how he is going to adjust his game because of Ming's presence. We may call it selfish, but it's perfectly natural to have those thoughts, and they happened to slip out in Saturday's interview. I think that once Yao joins the team, Stevie is going to love the ways it will help his game. Ming can draw big defenders out of the paint, giving Stevie a lot more driving room. He will often demand double teams, creating more open shots for everyone. He should make the Rockets a vastly better rebounding team, reducing the need for the guards to hit the glass. That, in turn, should create more fast break opportunities and less of the boring isolation plays we all came to hate last season. We may have preferred for Steve to say something like, "We know Ming is going to make us better, and we're happy to have anyone who's going to help us win." But instead he said what was on his mind -- I don't know what it's going to be like playing with Ming. I'm not sure how it will affect me. It may not be a rah-rah, team spirit type of answer, but it's no reason to ship him out to Cleveland or New Orleans. Even if Steve is immature, as many on this board have charged, he is still a special player and wouldn't be easy to replace. You don't abandon your plans and blow up your team just because a player says something that deviates slightly from the party line. We may not like everything the players say, but we should recognize that they are free-thinking individuals, and they are adults with the right to form their own opinions. We should try to act like adults, as well.
Don't know about your thread title, but I agree with you somewhat...and I must say.... Your BBS name is one of the best I have ever seen. Carry on !! DaDakota
Isn't it a play (singularization) on the name of a team in one of those annoying NIKE "1975" commercials?
I am very much in agreement with you mr. raygun. I've been trying to say the same thing in as many threads as possible. I've been defending Francis, but with this, you turn it around and ask the steve haters to look in the mirror. Brilliant! Keep up the good work and welcome to the BBS.
I must have missed that one. The only Nike "1975" commercials I have seen on the TV totally kick ass!
Ehehe I love your post but I got to beat Oski to posting a post defending Francis so I'm the original Steve defender! j/k [he beat me cept he lost his post ] Couldn't have said it any better. Steve is more mature than I am, and so I shouldn't be calling him so... xcept I just wait for the day when he is a true PROFESSIONAL... then I will only speak continuous postitives. Regardless, only love for a man who plays with so much heart. (And I don't care about his so-called defensive shortcomings, his positives far outweigh his negatives for me) Steve, please prove my sig wrong and let the new answer be you!
I understand where you're coming from. Francis just wants to win. He's just as sick of the losing as we are. The guy is frustrated thats all. I would be too if I had to deal with a foot problem then migrane headaches. Before last season the rockets were serious contenders having just won 45 games. Steve just like the rest of us dosent know if Yao is going to be a bang or a bust. We just have to have faith that Rudy and CD are going to make the right moves.
It's funny how so many agree with defending steve and then there are still so many posts against him.
this makes sense to me... i certainly don't blame steve for having these feelings...my only concern is that these feelings might fragment an otherwise tight team. (not tight in the hype way meaning, "cool", but tight meaning close as in relationships!) I mean, Steve and Cat SEEM to be really second-guessing CD and Rudy. I just wonder if this leads to HUGE problems later if the Ming experiment doesn't work as expected...the "I told you so" effect could be drastic for the rebuilding effort. the above is the among the worst case scenarios in my mind...
Well, I wouldn't worry about his comments if it wasn't for what happened in Vancouver. He whined and pouted saying he wouldn't play there, Vancouver thought he was bluffing...he wasn't, and Steve ended up getting what he wanted: a trade to a team in the U.S. without a point guard. There's no reason for me to bash him, but I must say that I am worried because of the things that have happened in the past. I don't have any questions about Steve's game. Some people want to trade him for the type of player he is, but looking strictly on talent, without all the extracurricular stuff, you've got to be out of your mind to want to trade Steve. I just hope he cleans his act up sooner rather than later. If he keeps these comments coming for too much longer I'm going to be jumping on the get-rid-of-Steve bandwagon myself.
I agree that he has a history, but what happened in Vancouver was in plain view for everybody to see. Here, he has yet to do anything that could be interpreted as demanding that it's his way or the highway. All we know for sure is that he doesn't believe in Ming. It's in this very BBS that the whole immature, racist, trade demanding, locker room fracturing Francis has emerged. This Francis that everybody is complaining about lately was created in here and since there isn't a hint of this in the national media or local news, he only exists in here as well.
