Good lord..... It's not like this is the LAST Super Bowl ever. So what if every single media outlet was in Houston on Sunday....he has a JOB to do. If your team was struggling, you wouldn't bail out on them would you? And get this, Steve Francis was the only one that missed the plane. If Francis was supposed to be at Reliant Stadium with "those like him"....why didn't the rest of the TEAM miss the plane? Francis maybe our leader or whatever, but he doesn't deserve special treatment. I'm sure Mo Taylor, Jim Jackson, Kelvin Cato, Cuttino Mobley and etc sure would've loved to be in attendance at the Super Bowl. But were they? No. They all knew that they had a job to do and hence why they aren't suspended unlike Steve.
Comparing anyone's job to a proffessional athlete's job is silly and I don't know why everyone goes to that card in situations like these. The only job to compare Steve's job to is other players. That's not an argument either way in this case, just about the whole "if your boss blah blah blah" mentality. As we saw in New Jersey, these employees can get even a successful boss fired.
Thank you, MacBeth. Where I am from, your post would be called a "Trump Card" there is nothing much left to be said. Stuart
This is what I was thinking when I was reading Steve supporters. NBA players all agree to a certain set of rules when they signed their contract. All NBA players know exactly what they have to give up in order to play in the league, like playing on holidays, dealing with rigorous travel schedule, and such. If a player doesn't like the rules, he can always give up the job. Otherwise, he deserves to be punished, as Steve was.
Just because you have the legal right to do something doesn't mean it's and abuse of power. And there are a lot of things that JVG does that a good coach doesn't do. Not the least of which is deriding his players in the media after every loss. Imagine the outcry if the players started saying that the team was outcoached and questioning the coach's smarts in the media. Bottom line, MacBeth. Should SF have gotten on the plane? Yes. Should he have been fined for missing a team flight while providing an alternative flight via his own means? Yes. Should he have been suspended? No. Not unless there was some official team function that JVG clearly stated would be taking place and attendance was mandatory. I think you will see after the player's union takes this thing to court that SF will probably be given his paycheck back but alas the Rockets will have to live with this loss.
Also, according to the actual CBA, the Rockets would have to have a written rule in place that missing a flight results in a suspension. ARTICLE XXVI TEAM RULES Each Team may maintain or establish rules with which its players shall comply at all times, whether on or off the playing floor; provided, however, that such rules are in writing, are reasonable, and do not violate the provisions of this Agreement or the Uniform Player Contract.
I don't have the slightest clue why people are still arguing on this point. There isn't even the slightest contention here. Steve skipped flight, what else do you want JVG to do? If I miss work without excuse, or without even calling in advance, I'll at least get a warning, if not outright fired. Yet here we have a guy that gets paid 10 million blatantly ignoring orders. He's lucky that he's in a job field where people doesn't get fired due to the CBA. We always scheduled our flight before the day an away game, yet now we're supposed to bend the rules for Steve Francis? This just shows that obviously some people here think certain individuals are GREATER THAN THE TEAM. Even though the other 11 players made it on time and didn't b*tch about it (hell, spoon probably wanna crack stupid boob jokes as much as everybody else), Steve can, cuz he's special. Some of you make it sound like JVG went out of his way to screw his players, as if JVG himself wouldn't like to sit back and relax, grab a beer and enjoy the game once every while. Of course not, cuz JVG's not human, he's some mindless troll with a huge ego trip. We made excuse for Rudy, we made excuses for CD, we made excuses for Cat, we made excuses for EG, we are making excuses for Steve and most likely, in about 2 years, we'll be making excuses for Yao. Why don't we just rename the team the Houston Excuses.
Btw, is Steve really stupid or what? You'd think after the whole EG mess (for missing game and practice) that he would realize JVG is serious about suspensions. He didn't cut EG any slack (even with a better excuse), why should he cut Steve any.
They are totally different situations. Atleast Steve told JVG that he would miss the flight and would arrange another means of transportation to Phoenix. EG just went AWOL and told nobody.
Haven't you heard the news? Francis is an "all-star" so he is exempted from mindless drivel like following orders and getting on an airplane like the rest of the team.[/sarcasm]
I heard he was actually at the "Soup Bowl" but that Jeff Van Gundy hung up on him before he had a chance to explain.
JVG has already established, through Griffin, that insubordination results in a suspension. If JVG lets Francis get away with insubordination then JVG undermines his own authority. Read what JVG himself has said. This isn't just about a missed flight. This is about direct insubordination. JVG and Francis had a discussion about this before it even happened. Francis made his decision in direct contradiction to the coaches orders. For that, Francis deserves the suspension. Just like Griffin did in not attending his arranged practice session. I like Francis too, but this is inexcuseable. Hopefully, this will be water under the bridge soon and won't explode into the type of thing ROCKET RICH NYC has been predicting from day one.
Steve also pretty much gave his coach and the team the finger in the middle of a 4 game losing streak. EG also doesn't get paid 10 million a year and last time I checked, he was pretty much canned by the Rockets
Although, bottom line, if Francis was told everyone had to be on that particular flight, he is in the wrong, I agree that the rules on team flights, curfews, and such vary from team to team. Do NBA players even have curfews for that matter? As many knuckle heads that have come through the NBA, I don't remember someone ever missing curfew.
Where in that clause does it say the team MUST have rules? I read that they MAY have rules that the players shall comply with at all times. Also, do you know that the Rockets don't have such a written rule?
