Stevie SparkPlug

interesting article I never came across.. wanted to share it.

News

Francis get an 'A' for Effort
By Brian Schmitz
Sentinel Staff Writer

July 4, 2004

The upcoming Super Bowl will be played in Jacksonville, just a 2½-hour drive from Orlando, Steve Francis' new NBA home. If the Magic are off that Sunday . . .

Uh, don't even get Stevie Franchise started.

"I didn't go to the Super Bowl," he says, shaking his head.

Baggage -- real or imagined -- sometimes travels with a traded player from team to team, town to town, tale to tale.

Former Orlando Magic all-star guard Tracy McGrady spent some time last week unpacking his reputation and defending it in Houston, his new NBA home.

And so it was when Francis' basketball odyssey finally reached Orlando, through Houston, via Vancouver.

Is he an equal opportunity hothead who argues with referees and coaches? Did he sometimes put up a great wall between himself and the Rockets' game plan, which called for him to deliver the ball regularly to 7-foot-6 Yao Ming?

And, what's the real story? Did he miss the Rockets' team plane because he was tailgating at Reliant Stadium before the New England Patriots faced the Carolina Panthers?

There are more varying shades of gray to the answers than atop Jay Leno's head.

Except one thing is very black and white to Francis, a 6-3, three-time all-star point guard: When he's performing at an arena near you, he says you won't ever leave questioning whether he played at full bore.

He might raise the hair on your neck with a highlight play, and then cause you and Magic Coach Johnny Davis to pull it out of your heads with a silly turnover. There probably always will be drama -- "breathtaking and heartbreaking," is how one Houston writer describes Francis -- but no one doubts his will to win.

"You have somebody who is going to come in and lay it down," Francis said.

And in that simple response, in the mind of Magic General Manager John Weisbrod, is why he brought in Francis and let McGrady duck out. If the Magic had to deal with a high-maintenance star -- and there are many in this diva-driven NBA -- Weisbrod wanted one who played hard each night and cared enough to deliver a forearm shiver.

Francis is not in McGrady's class. But Weisbrod figures that his gym-rat dedication, drive and feistiness will help close the talent gap and invigorate a rudderless, soulless team.

Anybody Francis' size who mixes it up with a bigger man appeals to Weisbrod, whose bones still creak from his days as a hockey player. After Phoenix Suns forward Amare Stoudemire, 6-10 and 245 pounds, dunked over Yao and screamed at the Houston crowd last season, Francis hit Stoudemire with a forearm in the throat -- and received a technical foul.

"We saw eye-to-eye," Francis said after meeting Weisbrod.

Francis, of course, hasn't always seen eye-to-eye with the world.

The first image many NBA fans had of him was caught on draft night in 1999, when he trudged to the podium with a sour, glum look after the Vancouver Grizzlies chose him No. 2.

Francis did not want to play in Canada, and besides, the Grizzlies already had Mike Bibby. They were forced to trade Francis to the Rockets in a lopsided three-team deal that, oddly enough, the Magic helped broker.

Orlando was reminded of Francis' Vancouver snub when he initially balked at coming to the Magic, not that he had any choice with five years remaining on his $85 million contract.

"I've matured dramatically since then, but if you want to judge me as far as not going to Vancouver, . . . exactly what I said would happen, happened," said Francis, of the Grizzlies, who were driven to Memphis by indifference and losing. "I knew that team was in trouble, and they left that city."

He has fought something of a problem-child reputation ever since then. It was Francis -- not Rasheed Wallace -- who led the league last season in technical fouls, with 19.

Were the refs just overly grumpy or was Francis?

"It could have been both ways a lot of times," he said. "Guys get bad calls and a lot of times, out of frustration, not being able to be myself on the basketball court. . . . That really hurt me.

"I'm not going to lie about that."

Francis was frustrated by Rockets Coach Jeff Van Gundy's strategy. Van Gundy wanted Francis to get the ball to Yao -- not a bad idea, but it limited Francis' versatility on the fast break.

"We were basically a half-court team," Francis said. "We wanted to try to run, but it was tough. So hopefully, this is a situation that won't hinder my skills and help us blossom."

Last season, Van Gundy's first as Houston's coach, Francis finished with a career-low scoring average (16.6 points per game) and turned over the ball a whopping 294 times, second in the league. But the Rockets made it to the playoffs for the first time since 1999, and Rockets General Manager Carroll Dawson said Francis matured as a point guard.

"He's a tenacious player," Dawson said. "If you don't love watching Steve play, you don't love the game. He never cheats the game."

Francis has played through migraines and a rotator cuff injury. But then resilience, toughness and passion have been staples of his game and life.

Poor grades, an injury and a transfer hamstrung his high school career. He played one season, as a 5-3, third-string sophomore.

He attempted to play as a senior but left school after his mother, Brenda, died at 39 of cancer.

Francis calls his mom "a fighter," and it is her spirit that kept him driving. He wears a tattoo in her honor on his right arm.

"She taught me to be a man and not run away from my problems," Francis said. "For a while, I thought it wasn't meant for me to go to college and play ball, but I just continued the journey I was on."

He grew a foot in about two years, but the only basketball he played after his mom's death was in a basement gym at a firehouse in Takoma Park, Md., near his home. Backboards were made of plywood. Firemen often played, but the action halted when the alarm rang and they raced off to attend to an emergency.

Francis drifted to junior colleges in San Jacinto, Texas, and Allegany, Md., before dazzling the country at Maryland. He was named the NBA's co-rookie of the year (with Elton Brand), and an aging Hakeem Olajuwon passed him the torch in Houston.

A basketball nomad as a youth, Francis, 27, figured he'd found a permanent home in Houston, but then McGrady became available. Dawson said he always turned away suitors for Francis -- but couldn't this time.

Van Gundy said he enjoyed coaching Francis, adding, "We did win a few games, you know. It worked for me. It worked for Steve last year, too. Everybody wants to make a big deal of Steve's numbers and Tracy's numbers. With Tracy, they want to minimize his scoring because he didn't win. On the other hand, they want to minimize Steve's accomplishments because he had lesser numbers and chose to win. It doesn't make any sense to me.

"I had less difficulty with Steve than I had with most players. It's just that a couple of our problems were made public."

The loudest one came in February. Van Gundy suspended Francis for a game for missing a team flight to Phoenix the day the Super Bowl came to Houston. Francis said he was running late; his agent said there was a family emergency.

Both scenarios conflicted with Van Gundy's version.

Van Gundy said that Francis called him from the parking lot of Reliant Stadium, site of the game. Francis said he was at home. According to Van Gundy, Francis tried to talk the coach into allowing him to attend the Super Bowl and arrive in Phoenix for the Rockets' game the next day.

"That was an unfortunate situation that was resolved between the coach and myself," Francis said. "My only comment on that is that they had a survey about who is the most noticeable athlete in Houston. If I would have gone to the Super Bowl, it would only take one person to come up and say they had seen me.

"I didn't go to the Super Bowl."

Francis will be headed to Jacksonville, site of this year's Super Bowl, in early October. That's where the Magic will hold their training camp. He's looking forward to a new start. But as far as that label of "Stevie Franchise" and all the good and bad that have come with it, . . .

"I'm definitely not here in Orlando to be a savior or something like that," he said. "I'm more of the spark plug."

OK, so be it. Stevie Spark Plug.

http://www.stevefrancisfoundation.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.news_detail&nid=4


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