Steve's birthday present to the Magic...another Super Bowl?

I like how they have to incorporate T-Mac in there somehow...


This whole saga is becoming pretty sad.

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/spor...23022305feb23,1,5666107.column?coll=orl-magic

Steve-O starting to follow road Me-Mac took

Published February 23, 2005


Every Magic player was there on the first day of practice after the all-star break. From all over the country, they all did what they had to do to be there. They all probably wished they had another day or two off; they all likely wished they could spend some more free time with their friends and families.

But everybody was there Monday. Even Grant Hill and Dwight Howard, who arrived in Orlando at 5 a.m. after participating in the all-star weekend in Denver.

Everybody.

Except Steve Francis.

Except the man who is supposed to be this team's floor leader and emotional engine.

Steve-O became Steve No Show.

And then, predictably, the Magic followed their leader and failed to show up Tuesday night in their first game back from the break. The result was an inexcusable 108-84 loss to the Indiana Pacers in a game where the Magic were booed by their own fans.

"Personal reasons," Francis said Tuesday when asked why he missed Monday's practice.

He did not elaborate, but could those personal reasons have been because Monday was his birthday and he wanted to stay at his house in Houston to celebrate?

Happy birthday to me,

Practice starts at 3,

All my teammates will be there,

But I'll be home eating brie.

Must have been a heckuva party. Francis came out Tuesday and said he couldn't even see, evidenced by his 2-of-10 shooting, six points and four turnovers.

This is much bigger than just the $10,000 fine Francis received. This is about loyalty to your team and respecting your teammates. A real leader doesn't start the second half of the season by sending this message to his compatriots: My time is more important than our team.

"The implication of this is much deeper than him not being here," Davis said. "There's a responsibility to your teammates."

Especially in the wake of Davis and GM John Weisbrod trading Tracy McGrady essentially because McGrady thought he was bigger than the team.

Me-Mac was on the worst team in the league. What's Steve-O's excuse?

Weisbrod, who publicly questioned McGrady's commitment last season, said Tuesday that he's not overly concerned about this situation because Francis is not traditionally a loafer.

"I haven't seen anybody in the league who works harder and wants to win more," Weisbrod said. "When you see the effort Steve gives, you tend to want to give him some slack."

Slack? This word seems strange coming from Weisbrod's mouth, especially on Tuesday, which happened to be the 25-year anniversary of "Miracle on Ice." Who will ever forget Coach Herb Brooks and the underdog U.S. hockey team winning the gold medal in 1980? As a young hockey player, Weisbrod was drafted into the pros by Brooks and put this Magic team together with the same "nothing comes before the team" philosophy preached by Brooks.

Weisbrod's plan will only work if Francis buys into it. If he doesn't, this Magic rebuilding project will be doomed just like all the others.

Francis needs to show more responsibility -- on and off the floor. He's a terrific talent, but he is among the league leaders in technical fouls and turnovers. That's unacceptable.

It's hard to trust a teammate who doesn't take care of the ball, can't control his temper and failed to show up for a practice that might have set the tone for the rest of the season.

Herb Brooks once said, "I'm not looking for the best players; I'm looking for the right ones."

Francis has given us little indication that he is the right player to lead the Magic to any sort of miracle finish.

In fact, on a team being run by a hockey guy, Steve-O is dribbling on thin ice.

Copyright © 2005, Orlando Sentinel | Get home delivery - up to 50% off

 

[Orlando Sentinal] Steve-O starting to follow road Me-Mac took

LOL! ahh, the bitterness!

Still couldn't help but take a swipe at T-Mac, although the article is not at al about him. The loser franchise (Magic franchise that is) continues to be a team of sore losers.

Yah well, keep taking jabs, since you got nothing to back up your argument now...

 

More fallout, this time from Cato and others...

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/spor...gicgamer022305,1,7059732.story?coll=orl-magic

Fans unhappy in loss to Pacers

By Brian Schmitz | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted February 23, 2005

The NBA, in its new "Fan Code of Conduct" guidelines, again reminded patrons to think and drink responsibly.

Fans, however, were irate Tuesday night at TD Waterhouse Centre, where the boos flowed.

The Orlando Magic were welcomed back from their six-day all-star break by the sound of jeering, the crowd's reaction to their listless 108-84 loss to the Indiana Pacers.

Instead of heating up for a playoff push, the Magic looked like pushovers, falling behind by as many as 31.

"The game started off bad and then it got worse," Magic Coach Johnny Davis said. "It was like we were still on the all-star break. We just got an old-fashioned whipping."

The Magic (28-25) were booed loudly throughout their worst loss of the season. Some of the ticket-buyers' frustration was aimed at Steve Francis, who drew Davis' ire and a fine after skipping practice Monday.

Davis called it a "distraction" and underlined the importance of post-break preparations, but said poor defense was as much to blame as anything for the loss.

The team's leading scorer, Francis had his worst game of the season. His line: six points on 2-of-10 shooting, one assist, four turnovers.

Probably could have used the practice.

"It wasn't just one guy," Francis said. "They played harder."[/i[ (refusing to take responsibility for his actions, wouldn't be Steve-O if he didn't say this)

Francis' points and assists were season lows. The Magic tend to follow their point guard's lead and ď emotions, meaning everybody looked out of sorts.

The Magic missed 15 consecutive shots during a stretch of the opening quarter, falling behind 18-5.

They gathered themselves, outscoring the Pacers 13-2, facing just a 20-18 deficit at the quarter's end. But then the Magic got buried by a telltale 17-0 Pacers run to end the first half, their defense surrendering 32 second-quarter points. The Magic trudged off the floor at halftime trailing 52-36, the first healthy dose of boos ushering them into the dressing room.

"Really it was kind of benign," Magic forward Pat Garrity said of the boos. "Booing is the least of our problems ... You don't come hard in the NBA, you get beat by 30."

Frustration was the theme of the night.

Davis talked to his team longer than usual afterward. Center Kelvin Cato and Davis exchanged words near the bench, and Cato was in the coach's office after the game. Mild-mannered Hedo Turkoglu took exception to a foul by James Jones, and went after him.

The Pacers shot 50 percent, and were led by all-star Jermaine O'Neal's 20 points. Rookie Jameer Nelson paced the Magic with 15 points, lifting them by scoring nine consecutive points in a brief second-quarter surge.

Hard to believe, but things actually got worse in the second half, the Pacers' lead growing to 29.

Layoffs seemingly affect the Magic's focus.

They lost a season-high four consecutive games around the Christmas break. Team captain Grant Hill said using Francis' no-show as a distraction is "an excuse."

"We had poor body language. It looked like we weren't into it," he said.

They better get into it quickly. Coming up are two games against the Southeast Division-leading Miami Heat, followed by a game against the Sacramento Kings at home.

Orlando's next game is at Miami on Saturday. "The good thing," Garrity said, "is we have three days of practice now."

Davis expects everyone there today at 11 a.m.

 

The Orlando media has been all over the players, and sometimes rightfully so and I am not going to deny that some of the players have caused these problems!

But I am looking forward to the day the Orlando media starts to point their finger at Orlando MANAGEMENT for causing some of these problems in terms of managing the team, player personnel. They really havent done much of that yet.

Hopefully, the day will come soon enough when the Orlando Media recognize that it was the Orlando MANAGEMENT that really pushed away Tmac. That Tmac wasnt the problem there, that their MANAGEMENT just wasnt able to surround Tmac with the right supporting cast.

 

Exhibit A: Why didn't they bench or suspend Francis for blatently skipping out on Monday? Look at what happened last year (where he essentially just skipped the team flight for a later one) versus this.

Evan

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Stevie is just making waves to be traded out of the big O...I mean, Cat isn't there, they have JN there, what's the point...

 

I can't believe I am even saying this but, I wonder what the Rockets would look like with Francis back at the PG along with TMac and Ming. Nawww, forget about it. Francis could never run the offense like Sura does, but he sure could rebound as well or better. He would also be scary for opponents to account for. Naww!

 

he would be even scarier to the salary cap.

 

Orlando has lost the all-important 6th seat in the East after the loss yesterday.

I think they are looking at a first-round exit in the playoffs, if not a late regular season collapse.

 

When it rains....it pours......but then again it is Hoopsworld's James Buell

See full report below....

 

It keeps getting better. I have to admit, the first thing I thought of when I first heard about all this was pgabriel.


http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...0aA--?slug=ap-magic-francis&prov=ap&type=lgns

Magic plan to take the ball out of Francis' hands more often

By MIKE BRANOM, Associated Press Writer
February 23, 2005
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- The Orlando Magic appear to be losing patience with Steve Francis.

The talented but erratic guard was fined for missing practice earlier this week, then went out and played his worst game of the season in a 108-84 loss to Indiana on Tuesday night.

Magic coach Johnny Davis said Wednesday the search for a steadier offense means the ball will be in Francis' hands less.

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The player, coach and general manager John Weisbrod all were quick to say Monday's incident is behind them, but Francis' stat line against the Pacers was hard to forget. He had a season-low six points and one assist, shooting 2-for-10 with four turnovers.

``It wasn't just one guy,'' Francis said of the 24-point defeat.

But Francis was the only Orlando player to return late from the All-Star break.

``He didn't practice. He had a shootaround and then we played,'' Davis said. ``Well, shootaround's not practice. Anytime you take that many days off without practicing it has somewhat of an effect on you -- and I thought we saw that (Tuesday) night.''

A change in Francis' role has been growing likelihood. Simply put, the Magic's primary ballhandler doesn't handle the ball very well.

His 4.12 turnovers per game rank third in the league, deflating his impressive averages of 21.6 points, seven assists and 6.2 rebounds.

Davis has been installing offensive sets with Doug Christie and Jameer Nelson at the point and Francis as the shooting guard. Grant Hill also could see more time running the offense.

``Steve is a good finisher,'' Davis said. ``We do want to have him get those opportunities to play off the ball at times. I would say we'll see more of that as we move forward.''

Francis sees opportunities in the change.

``It means not having to do so much: running the fast break, running the offense and then having to score, too,'' Francis said. ``If I have somebody else bringing the ball up, maybe that'll give me more of an opportunity to score.''

Making the move possible is Nelson's development. In the last 11 games in which he's played at least 12 minutes, the rookie is averaging 12.5 points while shooting 52 percent. Against the Pacers, he scored a team-high 15.

``When he plays like he did, it's easy to have him on the floor,'' Davis said. ``He brings us a different dimension.''

 

YEP! The Shaq curse lives on baby!

Couldn't say it better myself.

In my opinion, everyone should be happy and content with what they got, and move on. Are they happy with their new girlfriend? Kool, then stop b****ing about your last relationship-turned-sour.

 

LOL! This got me cracking up from that Hoopsworld article:

Don’t fret Magic fans. Word is GM John Weisbrod is holding out for this counter proposal: Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson and 3 future unprotected No. 1’s for Earl Boykins.