Give him Kidd, Stockton or Nash's court sense and toughness and Francis would have been the #2 PG of all time behind Magic. (now think if Stockton had Francis athleticism and strength) But Francis game was more like Wade or AI, but he didn't have their game understanding and tenacity with a sole purpose of winning of those two either. No shame in that, these are two of the best sub 6"5 guys of our generation. Francis was a great player, he could make a bad team mediocre or a average team a little better. But he never was a "Franchise" except in the sense you would never be a terrible/boring team with him. Not even as much of a Franchise as Tmac honestly.
SF3 could have iverson's career. But for now, i be happy with SF3 owning 2-3 rings at the end of his rox career.
Francis was overrated from the start. He was lucky....LUCKY to have Rudy T as his first coach, who let him do anything and everything he wanted. Francis might have had the worst skillset and bball IQ i've ever seen from a starting PG in the NBA. All this talk about Francis "not wanting it" is the biggest baloney i've heard. EVERYONE talks about how he bleeds rocket red, and now all of the sudden he doesn't want it? Francis LOVES Houston and wants to have a role on this team. Just watch last season's Phoenix game. NOONE should deny Steve's heart, however, it's his low IQ and poor skillset that can't translate to the court.
If Steve Francis works out, I'm still optimstic, Rockets have pretty solved their problems on point guard position.
The Iverson comparison is probably the closest. But Iverson has two skills Stevie never had. 1. Incredible toughness. Steve didn't get injured that often, but did not have the superhuman health and stamina of Iverson. 2. Defense. Iverson has been a terror on the passing lanes his entire career. Stevie was only slightly above average in that category.
Francis always annoyed me because he was so dang good and gifted, but something in his head always precluded improvement in areas such as basketball IQ and catch-and-shoot. I think he was his own worst enemy in this league.
He was good enough to be one of my alltime favorite players. I saw him as a top 5, easily top 10 players in the league for awhile.
Isiah played in a different era and Isiah had high Assists but was not a 'pass' first point guard Rocket River I stand by my statement
