I think you, I, and many other posters on the website shared the same sentiment. The championship years occurred when I was young, but I still do remember them and I continued watching the rockets up until we got T-Mac. I stopped watching the rockets for a number of years until I had heard that Francis had been re-signed. I had so many memories of the days with him and cuttino. The heart, soul, and passion that he put into playing the game and for the city was unmatched. Thats what rekindled my interest and I have re-started watching the rockets ever since (start of daryl morey era). After the phoenix game I said he's finally back and tears of joy literally rolled down my face. I really thought he was back; so sad =/
Steve Francis played with a lot of heart, which is really undervalued in the league today. Too bad his injury problems are so severe that he really can't play competitive basketball. He should just retire off his millions and run camps around the Houston area.
Stevie will always be remembered as Yao's big brother; the guy who always stood up for a then wet behind the ears Yao Ming who knew very little English. I like this team, but besides Lowry, Battier, Hayes and Miller, the rest are very soft. We could use someone with a Francis-like demeanor. Dude played with an edge.
are you guys kidding? he played with a lack of intelligence, he played wild, he dribbled and dribbled and dribbled! if thats your best memories of the rockets, i feel badly for you because those are not memories, but nightmares...he and cuttino sucked and never smelled any success.
Are you sure it wasnt the system he was playing in? Rudy, after Hakeem left, ran a lot of ISO sets for both Francis and Cuttino. Francis was really the only guy that could score and create something out of nothing. Under Van Gundy, he played VERY controlled and played above avg defense. The one year where he actually made the playoffs, he carried the team against the 4-hall of fame Lakers team (w/ Kobe, Shaq, Malone, and Payton) with averages of 19.2ppg, 8.4rpg, and 7.6apg. I think this team could have done fairly well had they built around Cuttino, Francis, and Yao. Francis and Cuttino were the top 2 scoring back court Duos at the time, with an up and coming Yao who was just getting better and entering his prime. I think Francis's downfall was more mental than anything else. I think the trade to Orlando hurt and when Cuttino got traded to Sacramento, it hurt him even more. You cant take away the fact that the guy played with HEART and never threw his teammates under the bus. Seeing how the McGrady for Steve Francis trade turned out, if it was possible to go back in time, i'm sure MANY would rather have kept Francis and Mobley around.
You are so right Its amazing how many dumba**es on this board don't know or understand basketball. Van Gundy figured it out in 3 months that this guy was terrible and shipped his butt out
Wow, people saying SF sucked and Brooks and Lowry are better now than SF was even when he was playing at is best are the real dumba**es. Nothing against Brooks/Lowry combo but Steve was a bada**! Rudy was building a great team that would have done much better had the rule changes not come in affect. In fact the combo of SF/Moochie at point during the 2001 season (year b4 rule changes) they won 45 games and placed 9th in the west, 13th overall in the league, posting a 26-4 record against the east, yet didn't make the playoffs. After rule changes Moochie was pretty much done, Cato was made the starter and we replaced an aging Dream with an aging Kevin Willis, traded Shandon Anderson for an aging Glen Rice (Rudy had to try and get a shooter for zone rule changes). Our starting PF Taylor tore his achillies and was out the year. That season was the migrain season for SF, understandingly! After that year we got Yao and won 43 games (one more than last year), again not enough to make the playoffs in the west even though we had better records in a harder conference than some eastern teams that made the playoffs. JVG was brought in after that and helped change the teams complection to more defensive and we made the playoffs, losing to the Lakers who won the western conference that year. Point is you are saying SF sucked when he didn't makes you sound like a dumba** that doesn't understand the sport of basketball! Saying Brooks or Lowry is better than SF in his prime is false! SF played his heart out every game, diving for loose balls w/o any regard for his safety with regularity. Watched it many times. I'd start SF in a second if he was playing the way he used to cause I'm not a dumba**! JVG made a trade to get a better player, he didn't ship him out cause he sucked! As much as I liked SF, I would have also made that trade at the time. Nothing against SF game though. Had TMac had his heart we would have gotten past the Jazz in 2007 for sure. I still put the 2005 loss on the NBA and the refs cause we were mthat much better than the '05 mavs(different subject). TMac was a great player when we got him, the Magic wouldn't have done that trade had he sucked as much as your putting out. Remember that the trade was Francis/Mobley/Cato for TMac/Howard/Lue/Gaines. Was Mobley and Cato that good where we got all that and SF was the crappy throw in for Reese Gaines and seal the deal? But yes, you are right about one thing, there are dumba**' on this board that don't know anything about basketball and I'm replying to one right now!
Far from it; I have a gorgeous girlfriend. Was I a huge fan of stevie franchise; a player who put his heart, passion and soul into every game? Absolutely Are you a jackass for calling me out on my fandom for a player who unconditionally loved his team and his city? Without a doubt
Not only did SF play with heart, he also worked hard to get where he was, from San Jac to Maryland, and onto the Rockets. It didnt matter that he showed his discontent for being drafted by vancouver. He did himself a favor actually cause he would've ended up in bball purgatory and never realize his potential like so many other rookies on bad teams. Rudy T gave him the ball and let him go to work
Stevie had it all, heart, courage, skills, athleticism...Still remember when he pushed Amare to tell him to settle down after dunking on Yao and he did the same thing for Dwight when Kobe dunked on him. If only he had a brain....
heart because he pushed somebody. heart is working on your game to improve. heart is not going into a shell because mobley gets traded. heart is learning from past mistakes and not repeating them. heart is learning how to play nba basketball instead of street ball...its now officially true that everyone gets better after they leave the rockets and we can only remember the good things. it was an absolute steal getting mcgrady for francis mobley and cato...geez the memory deceives us if we cant remember just how bad francis and mobley were.
its not hate...he was an absolute set back for the rockets organization. betting on that guy was a good trade that never turned out right because he did not have what it took as a person or as a player...re see china last week.
