Not worth a thread because not much to discuss but Stevie Francis put up a must-read story on himself (who else) in the Player's Tribune:
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/steve-francis-i-got-a-story-to-tell/. Here's the best bit (it's at the end):
Look, you can think whatever the hell you want to think about Steve Francis. You can think that, when I was in my prime, I was the most electric player to ever do it. Or you can think I wasn’t shit. It really doesn’t matter to me. But I was thinking about something the other day … about where I’m from, and how damn crazy it is that I ever played one minute in the NBA … and this is the only thing I want people to remember.
Takoma Park, Maryland, 1997.
I had come back home from San Jacinto for a couple days. To be honest, I was homesick as hell down there in Texas. I was crying every day, telling the coaches I wanted to quit and go home. Back to my family, back to the block, back to selling drugs, back to the same bullshit, every day, forever. It’s what I knew.
So I go home on a break, and everybody’s like, “Oh, you think you’re the man now? Alright, college boy. We’ll see how good you are.”
They put me up against Greg Jones, the No. 1 guy in D.C. at the time. It was a dope-boy game. That means 50 guys on one side of the court with AK-47s, and 50 guys on the the other side of the court with AK-47s.
They had $10,000 on the game. One-on-one. Best of three.
You can’t say no.
We played the first game, and I killed his ass.
The second game starts, and I could’ve killed his ass again. For a minute, I was thinking about it. I could’ve been the man in D.C. I could’ve been a street legend. I could’ve beat him, and made some money, and stayed on the block, where I felt comfortable.
I could’ve stayed in the box.
But I wanted more. I wanted something different. I wanted to marry Janet Jackson. So I let him win the second game. And then I took the ball and I threw it over the backboard and walked off the court. I got on a plane back to my community college in Texas, and I killed Shawn Marion’s ass instead.
From the corner to the NBA in four f*****g years.