If only it was 1999 all over again and Steve Francis was the bouncy, heady guard with the potential to dominate the league for years to come. Gone were the days of averaging 20 points a game, posterizing the bigs of the league, and catching oops from Cuttino Mobley and in were the days of being arrested for public drunkenness, entering games with ice packs around his ankles, flipping off referees, and pulling off his best Allen Iverson impersonation. Practice!?
Francis joined the Shougang Beijing Ducks in early December only to be cut after six games. The drama started when Stevie Franchise was thrown into a game with seconds to play, playing with ice packs around his ankles and his shoes untied. Then former New York Knicks teammate and current Ducks teammate Randolph Morris fouled out of a close game. So, what did Steve decide to do? Congratulate his teammate with a fresh towel? No. Steve decided to flip off the ref. Very classy Steve, very classy. To make matters worse, Francis felt he didn’t need to practice on Christmas Day while the rest of his team did. Practice!? This was the boiling point as the Ducks decided to cut ties with the former persona known as “The Franchise.” Sure, Yao liked you Steve but that didn’t mean the rest of China would be as graceful.
During the early part of the decade, Steve was “The Franchise” and I truly believe he could have won an NBA title if he had his head on straight and Jeff Van Gundy didn’t ship him out of town for Tracy McGrady. Memories of the 2000 NBA Dunk Contest against Vince Carter still linger in my mind. Not to mention his posterization of Jahidi White. He had only been in the league 9 seasons (not counting his 10 game stint with the Rockets in 07-08) and was still playing at a relatively high level.
So, it really makes me wonder if Starbury and Franchise just decided to make mockeries of themselves and demolish their careers together while playing together in New York.
Steve now can only ask himself this question. What could have been?
Look on the bright side Steve. At least you don’t have embarrassing YouTube videos of yourself eating Vaseline. Oh but there was the ‘nose picking incident’…
Cheers!
Alex Rosencutter is an NCAA basketball player and kinesiology major at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa. Originally from Kenosha, Wisconsin, this hoops addict and die hard Miami Heat fan, who is obsessed with old school hoops, has a fever for basketball and the only prescription is more basketball.
