I realize player/coach quotes should be taken with a grain of salt (half of what coaches and players tell the media is BS), but I would ask Jeff Van Gundy if you weren't surprised by the play of the Jazz guards, why were any of your players surprised? Do you watch tape and keep what your discover to yourself?
This reminds me of the comments Steve and Cat made after the Dallas game last year. Dallas proceeded to destroy us in the following game, the game after that, and the game after that. Talking trash or making guarantees doesn't do squat. The Jazz guys are now on a personal mission to stop Stevie, which the 2 of them can do. I don't think Steve is capable of stopping them.
Some of you guys are just looking for any excuse to bash Stevie. When I'm playing with my buddies, you better BELIEVE I know when the guy I'm playing opposite has more points, more boards, more assists, more hustle than I do. If we lose by 2 and my guy scored 3 more than me, then well, yeah, I take it out on myself. Steve's just being the same way. We lost. He got outplayed, and he takes the loss personally. He should.
My comments were not directed at Steve or any specific Rockets player (though I did direct one comment at JVG). -- droxford
I do know what I'm talking about. Since you are referring to '95, he still helped get the team to the finals, so I consider him a part of the team. Any other opinions/hate posts you can start in another thread. I will gladly respond.
I have absolutely ZERO prob with SF dominating... as long as the freakin' team wins. Hell if he can score 30 (not taking 25 shots, 15 bad ones to do it) and play with in a team oriented offence, more power to him. I always thought Steve's prob was cuz he was dumb. I had a hunch he was selfish too but didn't wanna admit it until now. But this shows all his characters.
I did not say it was one. I was merely suggesting I would gladly argue with you on anything you come up with that I think might/might not be wrong.
And btw, I haven't had a good day since the end of last season and I haven't had a decent day since the Raptors game. And this happens dispite of the fact that every OTHER aspect of my life is going amazingly well. So I'm sorry I sound a little F*CKIN' P*SSY right now.
Honestly, I have nothing to say about this thread except its a typical example of Francis critics twisting his words. If he says he didn't take it personally, you guys would say he doesn't care about winning or playing defense or whatever. The guy admits he his approach on the game was wrong, and you guys criticize him. He's in a no win situation, and it is no need to keep arguing about what Francis really meant in his quotes when people are just going to take the opportunity to bash him.
I have no problem with Steve goin' off for 30 and dominating his position. And I don't usually take shots at him (although I have before when I think he's deserved it), but when 2 guys on a team in transition, with 2 Hall of Famers gone and given no chance in the division before the season started take you to school... would it be too much to ask that you give them credit, keep the ego in check, say something more along the lines of, "We'll see what happens this time"... and then beat their a$$? Or look like you gave a good effort within the system the Rocks are still learning? Maybe play like the All Star he's been voted twice? I would rather he'd kept his mouth shut this time and talk on the court. He should take it personally. And he should show what kind of player he can be tonight during the game. What I think this interview highlights (and not for the first time, which is what ticked me off) is that Steve has a scorers mentality. The idea of Francis playing the two and getting a big, defensive PG who is a sound playmaker... with Cat being the first off the bench to give the other team no break at all... looks more and more appealing. I really would hate to trade Francis. The guy is a physical freak of nature. But I'm getting tired of the inconsistancy. And pgabriel, I'm not a typical Francis critic twisting his words. How many times does he have to do this before it gets more than a little maddening? And right now, the way he is playing, he is in a "no win" situation. And throw one of those sarcastic "emoticons" (or whatever heypartner calls them) in there.
i agree biko, even if i would love to see us bring in another pg. i like what steve had to say. what elite athlete doesn't have an ego?
If you haven't noticed, Yao is starting to take heat too, and he's in his 2nd year. There comes a point to all players who are in their 5th year and don't produce, that they're gonna get bashed. Pure and simple. We stuck around for going on 5 seasons with this experiment which is going nowhere fast. When it's time to move all you have to move on, no matter how attached.
Criticizing play is one thing, and they definitely deserved all the heat they took after the Utah game, but everytime Francis's meaningless quotes make it to this site, they are twisted to make him look like the epitome of the selfish athlete, which I don't think he is.
So, what the hell is it that you plan to do since our experiment is going nowhere fast? The appropriate remedy is that you are just going to keep posting b****ing, whining messages, hammering the same few tired themes again and again and again ? That is sweet. Only 66 more games left for you to do that! I can't wait to read them all!!! Or maybe you think you're doing this for the good of the team, that if you rile up the fanbase enough, changes will be made? Guess what: Carroll Dawson doesn't give a sh-t about this message board or any of your posts. The only place where fans can indirectly affect the Rockets decisions is by not buying tickets, and considering the attendance at home games was low prior to this disastrous, season destroying, irreperably harmful 3 game losing streak that has surely landed us in the lottery again, I'm not sure that one's going to work out either. Your opinion has been registered. How about YOU move on to a different theme for five seconds? Since when did being a sports fan transform into an unending series of negative, monotonous rants? I suggest you and eveybody else whose primary position here seems to bash Steve, Cat, Yao, Moochie, Van Gundy, etc save yourself some of the aggravation and take up a hobby such as Macrame.
yeah, because 4 straight years of missing the playoffs and watching the same piss-poor play is something to be proud of... personally, i'm sick and tired of hearing the same things coming out of these guys' mouthes year-in and year-out w/ hardly any change on the court at all. screw that.
This doesn't make any sense because you still might have had 2 or 3 more assists than him, meaning you could have won that way. Steve didn't say anything about assists or defense or playing better within the team framework. He simply thinks about points - so much so that he even made an effort to notice the fact that he was only outscored if you put their two totals together.
Where is the word twisting. Here, I'll quote it again for you: "I'd never seen those guys before the last time we played them," Francis said. "But they've definitely got my attention now, and it's not going to be like last time." Am I the only one baffled that nobody on the entire Rockets organization could have clued Steve in before playing against the Jazz as to who was on their team and how they played. Seriously, Steve, you get paid multi-millions of dollars, you had no game the day before, and you couldn't watch tape for a freaking hour. I get paid half a percent as much as you, work twice as hard as you, and spend money or the little free time I have to watch you screw up in the same manner time after time after time for 3+ years. "If you want to stack two guys against one, points-wise, I think they outplayed me," Francis said. "They scored more points than I did. Steve, they outplayed you even if neither of them scored a single point. Basketball is more than about what your point total is at the end of the game. A lot more. "It's my fifth year, and I've been on the All-Star team a couple of times, so guys are definitely going to be aiming at me," Francis said. "Even some of the top guys are definitely aiming at me. You've got to stay consistent." The freaking All-Star team? The All-Star team? Try the playoffs, Steve.
