It's his line of logic which is the fatal flaw of this article. He uses some serious revisionist history by creating the myth of Francis as apparently the greatest point guard in NBA history his first stint here in order to acheive his agenda of juxtaposing against the current Francis as some greatly inferior player. It doesn't work. Francis has always been a poor defender and decision maker and all of the other weaknesses he warns us of. Rosen is a tool. It's humorous when he tries to appear intelligent about a subject he apparently has no clue about by using big words.
Unbelievable....Not only did you offer a terrible comparison, but you clearly don't understand the reason why people are so optimistic about the Francis signing. THE TRUTH IS, we don't need Francis to be an All-Star...We just need him to score , and get to the rim......I'm pretty sure he can still do that and more (rebound, dish, etc.) Why do people always have to focus on the negative. Francis will bring a lot to this team and make us better. Especially on offense.
I don't know about his current health and his knee, but clearly, everything else he wrote is ill-informed. All of us know about his negatives already, and they are not news. Steve is truly "great" at certain skills, but we know that he is not "great" at everything, like the Rockets believed when they extended him his original MAX contract. I personally think Steve's emotional leadership, rebounding, and driving to the basket will be extremely valuable to the Rockets. He will need to come to terms with this and take those "great" skills that he has and use them to be a team player on the Rockets. At the very least, he should be able to give us those things EVERY GAME. At the very most, there will be games where he can score 35 and win it for us single handedly. As long as he doesn't try to win all of them for us, everyone will be fine. I can't imagine Francis not providing quite a bit more than Alston has in the past two season, which in my book is a VERY LOW standard.
Rosen couldn't sound more like a jealous wining b**** than he does now. The wizard has made some phenomenal moves this offseason and the only thing this idiot can write about is Francis on the decline? Nevermind that Francis still has much talent, or the prospect of how much positive potential he can bring to the Rockets. He wants to concentrate on the natural decline of the athlete. If this would have been the Bulls, the Suns, or the Lakers, he would have been saying "Bringing in Steve is genius." But because he like many other idiot sports writers, he has very little good to say about the Rockets. In my opinion, Rosen is too simple minded to write anything that is not negative. Negativity is easy to write about because it compels the average reader to give it attention longer or it serves as the initial spark of interest. You want to talk about the decline of an athlete like Francis Mr. Rosen? Let's talk about the decline of the sports writer/journalist. While at one time you may have had the talent to be recognized by your peers that it got you a decent job...you shall soon be entering into the period when you no longer have enough of an inspiration to write on anything of substance. You will soon be creating events in your mind and imagining things to be happening and reporting on them as "a very close source." (Please see Peter Vescey) Your "readers" will begin lose to all respect for your work and will soon not be able to differentiat your interest-depleted pieces from the occsional stupid e-mail jokes that plague the accounts of honest hard-working people who will be thinking the account hosts for the option to tag it as SPAM so they won't be interrupted in reading more interesting items like the latest news from the homeowners' association or their BILLS. Soon, Mr. Rosen, your work will find its way to the check out line at Wal-Mart, nestled between its fiercest competitors...Soap Opera Digest and the latest issue of one of those celebrity mags with Britany Spears wearing a straw cowboy hat, drinking and driving with her baby on her lap on the cover. Then, your work will find itself being bypassed for a coloring book at the dollar store wondering it it has finally hit the floor or is there more? And your work will no longer have to wonder if it has reached its low as a bunch greedy little kids are beating the crap out of it with a broken broom stick and are ripping it to sheds in search of Starbursts, little boxes of Nerds, bubble gum, and mini Twixes. Yes Mr Rosen, your work will not have to wonder any longer it it has really hit rock bottom once it found itself on the Spiderman pinata at a birthday party. Now that is decline. Francis is just an basketball player with another shot at glory. Let him do his job while you try do do yours better.
I pretty much stopped reading after he stated that Francis would regularly post up smaller guards and score with the jump hook over them.
Of course Francis isn't the same player, he is a more matured player. The Franchise is still one of the top point guards in the league, if you gave him minutes, he will shine and numbers don't lie. Look at the big picture, he signed for $2 million, a lot less than a lot of overpaid NBA player. Even if it doesn't work out, Rockets doesn't lose much in the long-run. If Francis was available at $2 million a year, I gurantee you every team would want him. Charley Rosen?!?!?!? Never heard of him, nor some site named wikipedia, but it does have Richard Justice.
I agree. The Rockets didn't overpay for Francis, so if he doesn't produce, they didn't lose much. This guy is a negative/idiotic sports writer. Another Rockets hater as well.
I think the guy is right. Francis is not the same player he was 5-6 yrs ago. But there aren't too many point guards in the league who are currently of that caliber either. I do think he is a great pick up for the rockets though and will be an above average starting point guard and a solid 3rd option. The Rockets don't need another all-star anyway, they already have 2.
Do you truthfully know how this acquisition (Francis) is going to pan out?.... or are you simply taken Rosen's comments as if he has some prior knowledge that only he is previed to?....I for one have no idea how this will evolve but simply see it as a (low risk-high reward ) descision that had to be made. Rosen can point out every deficiency Francis has but it has no relevance because this is a totally different team he is going to be playing with....I will say this I'm hoping Stevie makes all the doubters eat crow....
DONT WORRY ABOUT THIS STUPID ARTICLE!! All this person is trying to do is write an article to keep their job. You know what sells in the media: Controversy. This article is synonymous to the article about Kobe is better than Jordan. Trying to achieve the same result here. If you are a true Rockets fan you know that w/o a doubt we are allot better than last year already. Obviously, barring any injuries. Starting Five:Last yr: Yao;Mac;Battier;Chuck;raefer Potentially this yr: Yao;Mac;Battier;Scola;Sf3 Out.
Yeah, really bad move on the part of the Rocks to spend $2M on Francis and keep him from Mavs, Suns, Heat or any other suitor out there. This guy doesn't understand we don't need Francis to put up 19/6 & 6 with this team. We simply need him to bring energy and heart to the starting lineup or off the bench and bring it every night. If he goes to the Mavs...he pushes them over the brink backing up their guards and looking to kill us 4-times a year. Good job Rockets....good job!
i saw who wrote the article and didn't read it. by looking at the comments i see it was just usual rosen hate. i thought he didn't like van gundy but it must be the entire franchise.
I didn't finish the article, but it's true..everyone changes as time goes by.. That video of Steve making the gamewinner against the Wizards..travelling
