Francis Reportedly Kicks a Photographer (UPDATE: Steve suspended without pay)

I've defended Francis. Still like him and wished him the best for rest of his career. He needs to be suspended around 10 games and get a 25k fine.

 

Forget the little fine, SF loses over $200K for each game he is suspended. 10 games would be over $2 million.

Someone pleeeease post the video.

 

I didn't defend Francis for kicking anybody because I said the tape was not conclusive and Clutch happened to agree with me. Has Clutch been defending Steve all season.

At least I'm not some insecure writer still hyping his analysis about the Magic from the beginning of the season. How many times are you going to remind us about what you wrote. Get over yourself.

"See look at what I wrote. I told you at the beginning of the season. Did you happen to see what I wrote. Look I'm KelleyDwyer and this is what I wrote" Geez

 

lol pgab, i recall kellydwyer only mentioning that once and mostly in good humor.

But hey i LOVED to be an inscure writer for SI, hook me up kelly!

 

From all accounts, it's pretty obvious he did kick him. The question is why he did it and not if he did. The fact the replay is inconclusive is immaterial as there were thousands of live witnesses including security.

As far as Kelly Dwyer, for all the flack he's received, there is nothing wrong for him to defend his position which has been proven accurate.

 

But If I thought some bystander was interfering with me, I would definitely get annoyed. Perhaps this was what Steve was thinking too. ("He threw my legs down, man")

In case anyone is wondering, I like Steve a lot, as a player and as a person, but I like Yao and T-Mac too.

 

How's this one for accuracy?

"Written like a guy who watched them for one game."

 

I'm just glad the Rockets don't have to mess with this.

 

How're these ones, as far as old links go, moomoo,

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/kelly_dwyer/03/14/rockets/index.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/kelly_dwyer/02/07/listless/index.html

I've been visiting Clutch's site since Barkley's first year in Houston, I don't come here to pimp my articles or provide links, but I'm not going to stand by and get trashed on a site that I've loved coming to for eight years. I've had 60-65 articles up on SI's site since last September, and (shock horror!) I may have made a bum call or two.

Still, I'm not backing down from this: Francis is a guy with a lot of issues, I've been hoping that he'll figure things out ever since he sulked his way to the podium in the Grizzlies hat, but he's 28 years old and I'm not sure he's ever going to stop blaming others for his shortcomings. I hope he rights his own ship, and I hope it's not in Orlando, as the current management has shown itself to be incapable of putting together a winning basketball team.

Oh, and slag off.

 

can't really blame steve...i mean, what does he have to wake up for?

 

lmfao.

I am 49, laid off last year, even though one mgr. said I was the best financial analyst at my fortune 50 company, in debt to my nostrils, building my own company, filling out irs and twc forms every other day instead of doing profitable business work, working 7 days week, 12+ hrs a day - and enjoying it but missing a lot of rockets games even on net/radio.

On the other side married 32 yrs, 4 wonderful children and 2 grandkids.

So yeah, I can understand Steve not wanting to get up to face his life - recognized exciting NBA player, multi-mill contract, catered to for 5 yrs in Houston, a little bump in the road with the trades, his own self-financed side-businesses, he calls people in NY and LA and they answer the phone, the networks and papers want to talk to him....

But that ring eludes him.

Tough to motivate himself to get up in the morning....

Frustration overflows on some poor photographer.

Steve needs to go work at someplace like a battered womens and childrens shelter for a while to renew his understanding of what real problems look like.

The NBA is looking more and more like the world's largest Kindergarten to me.

 

Clearly SI only hires the most professional of people

 

For those who've seen the whole clip....did the photographer push Steve off him? I can understand a retaliation...I get pushed, i push back. I can also understand being pissed when you're playing the game and you get tangled up with someone on the sidelines...maybe the photographer was too close? Even if he's authorized to be there...Not saying Francis was right here...likely deserves a fine and a couple of games...but it's interesting Francis didn't get the boot from the game. Could it have been THAT serious?

The reaction here has been interesting. We almost had a split on those defending the Indiana players who charged the stands after being hit by a paper cup...but pretty well condemnation for Steve (Pga and PSJ excluded), when he retaliates after landing on photographer (which could result in injuries to him) followed by a slight scuffle (?)...in an incident that didn't even warrant being tossed from the game. And most of that condemnation came before most of you had seen the clip.

 

Relax, KD...just consider the source, and keep writing and posting.

 

Francis' feet were in his face. Are you just going to let him keep them there or are you going to push them away? I think I would push them off of my face, too.

 

I'd probably push them away too, considering that it could be 5 minutes before one of Francis' teammates came to pick him up off the floor.

 

You're not gonna start singing "I ball alone" are you

 

Im not sure what you're implying other than the fact some people will defend a player under any circumstances.

The reason most people are condemning this is because players get tangled with photographers all the time (in football, basketball, even baseball near the foul lines). Very rarely will a player kick a photographer.

The difference between this and the Indiana situation is some of those Detroit fans came onto the court and were agitators.

People who defend this stupidity are also the first to absolve themselves with "Not saying the perpetrator was right"......

Why fans condone this behavior when the player's own organization does not, is bizarre.

 

I'm disappointed in Francis for losing his cool. It looks like he deserves a suspension of some kind. But, it isn't that big of a deal. I'm not sure why everyone is making it such a big deal, like he was pushing Jews into the ovens (well, I do know why ya'll make a big deal about it, but it isn't legit).

 

ROTFLMAO