<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- In seven years in the NBA he has been the kind of player who delights so many of the game's young fans, but also the kind who has turned many old-timers away from the league. He loves to shoot that ball. He loves to dribble it, too. He isn't known as a prolific passer, but he could score almost at will, and would fill up a highlight reel in the process. He has averaged 21 points three times in those seven years, and played in three All-Star games, but in seven years he has been in only one playoff series. Now Steve Francis has the seven-year itch. Here in the second week of training camp, in his first full season with the Knicks, Francis vowed old highlight-reel player to be a thing of the past. The old Francis who pounded the ball on the perimeter and then drove to the rim? No more, he says. "I don't want to be that," he said after yesterday's practice. "I want to be the Steve Francis of new. Every year you mature in the NBA as a player and a person. I just want to do something that I've never done. The stuff that I did was points and dunks. But that didn't equal victories. It didn't equal playoffs. I've done everything but win games, and that's what I'm out to do." That's a rare admission from a superstar player these days, but perhaps that's what comes from the soul-wrenching misery Francis says he endured last season after being traded to the lowly Knicks. Bad? "It was the worst thing that I've ever experienced as a basketball player in my career, he said." Francis was traded from Orlando on Feb. 22 for Trevor Ariza and Penny Hardaway, and was supposed to be the Earl Monroe to Stephon Marbury's Walt Frazier -- even though Marbury claims Larry Brown brought in Francis just to push Marbury out. Either way, neither scenario worked out that way. Brown started Francis the first two games, then moved him to the bench, and then back into the starting lineup again. In his return to Orlando, Francis started and played only 11 minutes, and later called it the absolute low point of his career. His 14.4-point average was also the lowest of his career, as were his assist (4.9) and rebound (4.1) averages. </div> Talk is cheap, but it's nice to know Francis is finally getting the message. He doesn't want to post great stats - he wants to win. With this attitude coming from one of our main guys it is sure to rub off on everyone else. I can't wait for tommorow's game to see what he's about.
Mature Francis Takes Shot At Winning NJ.COM -- "It was the worst thing that I've ever experienced as a basketball player in my career, he said." Read More...
