If Francis doesn't start getting his **** together soon, my autographed Rockets throwback jersey I have ain't gonna be work squat someday.
You know what, he liked Houston and was upset he was traded. At least show some loyalty, the guy played hard and with heart. He didn't have basketball "smarts" but he did what he could for his abilities. I don't think he owes Houston anything, especially considering what we got in return. If anything, we owe a guy an apology for trading him away from a place he really liked. Why kick a guy after he's left, especially when he was a guy who was liked off the court?
No thanks. Spend enough time here already. I don't think my career and non-online relationships could handle another fan bbs.
Because I was savaged around here for years, for telling the truth. Now that the truth has become painfully obvious to virtually everyone (with a few exceptions), I am going to "pile on" if I want to. Given all the abuse I absorbed around here, I've earned it! Francis was a selfish, self-serving, glory-seeking, ball-hog AND he doesn't deserve loyalty, an apology, or anything but being traded again, which will happen shortly. Liked Houston? He just didn't want anyone telling him what to do. He whined so much during the trade he almost killed it. And if he had, where would the Rockets be now? Probably where Orlando is.
I used to feel this type of hatred towards Francis. Because he perpetually kept the Rockets just mediocre enough to never have a chance at success. But that's no longer true. Ever since last summer, when the T-Mac trade finally went through, I really could care less about Francis. While it's hardly enough to make up for 5 years of unfulfilled expectations, Francis did help us finally get that true superstar we all hoped Francis himself could've become.
I think the article said it best. It described him as a walking contradiction. He is that. To try and label him as a failure with a bad attitude isn't an accurate picture of the whole person, and neither is it accurate to blame all of the problems he's had on others, and the organizations he's played for. Steve did go out of his way to make Yao feel welcome. Steve did sacrifice his game to try and play within the JVG system. But he wasn't capable of doing all that was needed. Steve did go around asking coaches, former players, and just about everyone else what they thought he should work on. I'm sure he was earnest in desiring to know what made them great, and how he could improve his game and the team's. I just don't think he was capable of making the changes effectively. Steve worked hard on his game, and his conditioning. Steve played through those horrible migraine like conditions, took steps to look after his injuries, got things done during the off-season so they would have less of an effect on him during the year. But in the end Steve's failure to understand how to change, and grow is what hurt him. It wasn't a lack of desire to change and grow, just a lack of understanding on how to put it into practice and real life situations. That lack of knowledge and understanding was detrimental to his career. It was a weakness.
I think this is a fair analysis, but what made me so angry with Francis is that IMO for most of his tenure here he appeared to play for the boxscore and the highlight reels. Double cultched missed lay-ups got old in a hurry. His last year he somewhat got with the "team concept," but, overall, he was too "Jimmy" oriented. That third person stuff was more revealing than many realized. No doubt you have to take care of yourself, but if that is your only focus then you will be a whiner, a pain, difficult, uncooperative, and, in the NBA, traded. I have said this many times: Steve Francis is one of the most athletically gifted players I have ever seen in the league. He is tough, plays hard, and has major hops, but his immaturity and selfishness are about to do him in. I think Francis has problems off the court, but that is largely supposition. I don't hate him, but I don't like his overall play on the court. I know this is hard for many to believe, but I geniunely hope that he reinvents himself before it is too late to recover. Vin Baker had enormous potential but he never overcame his "inner demons" and destroyed himself, and now he is a shadow of his former self. That is a tragedy for any human being. This is my last post about Steve Francis. It is a new day, a new team, a new future.
Same here. I know I've said a lot of bad things about the guy, but it ends now. He's shown what type of player he is and that's all that matters. Unless he becomes a Rocket again(**shivers**) or we play whatever team he's on, I'm not knocking the guy anymore.
I think Steve Francis is one of the most misunderstood guys in all of team sports. Ask any national sportswriter to describe him in one word and the majority will probably respond with "selfish." And he's anything but selfish. People criticize Steve for the wrong reasons. He completely sacrificed his game last year to try and help the team and didn't complain. Going one on one was the only way this guy knew how to play basketball his whole life and he completely altered that for the team. I can't even remember one time that he ISOed under Gumby. And noone plays harder than Steve Francis. The guy finished out a lottery season playing through migraines - that's respectable. Like I said, he gets criticized for the wrong reasons. My gripe with Steve is that he just isn't very good. The media portrays him as some great talent who isn't thriving because of his selfishness. That's far from the truth. He's probably the most physically compelling point guard in NBA history. Aside from that, there's not really that much else. He can't shoot, unless it's off his own dribble. Do you really want your point guard milking down the clock to get his own shot? He can rebound due to the aforementioned athleticism, but do you really want your point guard crashing the boards? He can't defend. He can't run a fastbreak. He wants to pass but he can't pass. He probably has one of the lowest basketball IQ's in the entire league too. He still hasn't figured out that pushing the ball usually leads to a better fastbreak than high stepping down the court - it was cute at first, but he's 28 now. He can get you a lot of points dominating the ball at the '1' but is he really helping you? Move him to the '2', right? Well then he becomes just an average rebounder, a horrible defender, and he still can't shoot. Off the court, it doesn't help matters any that most of his comments usually make him out to be a complete moron ("I'm not going to Orlando unless Shaq is there too."). Steve wants to do the right thing. Steve tries to do the right thing. That's why I can't go along with some of you when you make character attacks on the guy and say he's a cancer or he's selfish. He's just not that good - and very dumb. I personally thought the guy was on the path towards a Hall of Fame career when he came in. The turnovers and bad decisions would go away with experience. He'd learn to run a fastbreak. But it didn't happen. Things just seemed to get even worse. It wasn't inexperience, Steve just wasn't very good. And was very dumb.
how smart do you have to be to follow your coach's (at ANY level) instructions on how to run a fast-break or play defence? Steve is not dumb........ from the outside looking in, it looks like selfishness to me.
As far as defense, he tried his best last year. He just isn't very good. Same with fastbreaking. I'm sure he knows that you're supposed to keep the ball in the middle of the court, but his natural instincts as a shooting guard tell him to take to the wings. The few times in his career that I've seen Steve run down the middle of the floor, he usually dribbled it off his foot or drove too far underneath the basket to pass out and got stuck. He just isn't very good.
Yes it was after he was traded. It was a letter letting Houston know how much he appreciated the city. It wasn't an apology type letter, just one that let the city he know he appreciated it.
For whatever reason, Francis reminds me of an ex-girlfriend that you know can do well, hope will do well, but KNOW will do horrible in whatever relationship they are in. It's too bad, because I love the guy. Here's hoping that I'm wrong. J
I think Francis has a huge heart but hit his peak along time go. His game is his game, no matter if we like it or not, it's not the Rockets problem anymore. But there's alot more egocentrical players in the NBA like Amare, Marbury, Artest, etc., i'd rather dog on than Stevie who gave us his all playing with his heart on his shoulder every night.
dude, he IS A BASKETBALL PLAYER. you wouldn't even know of him if it wasn't for what he could do on the BASKETBALL COURT.... so his on the court actions say a lot about what type of person he is. it's through his OWN ACTIONS ON THE COURT that forces him to apologize to the fans that would want nothing more than for him to NOT have to apologize every year with the same damn excuses as to why he failed them as A PLAYER..... AGAIN. in my opinion, he couldn't care less about the fans, otherwise he wouldn't be apoligizing for the exact same things he seems to apologize for year-after-year.... and that's not even mentioning his off-the-court actions (SuperBowl???). i, for one, couldn't be happier that he's gone. good-riddance.
