Endangered Hoops

Funny, that he couldn’t see it coming. In the back seat of a black car during a day forever pasted in his mind, but still the brand of the car he came home in is a forever blur. Cars never mattered to him. He could care less, ‘less the thing couldn’t get him to the sanctuary, freeze up in December or flame out in June.

“You sure you don’t need to stop?” To the backseat, again someone asks. For some reason, the front seat is open, the fourth-grader content to stare straight into the back of a cushion.

“It’s fine if you have to stop…” It would’ve been fine to stop the ride home…if the fourth-grader could’ve seen it coming. No signs. Nothing. The rest of the day had been a revelation, one of those things someone never forgets.

Finally, it all came spilling out, all over the backseat of that black car, on the floor, on the back of the driver’s seat, along the ridge in-between the right and left side of the cushions, an upset stomach upset by what the boy witnessed earlier in the day, something he would never forget. A life-changer…

———————-

Initials reaction were mixed, combining both shock and hilarity. The story is not really a precautionary tale, but in a way, it is. It’s not really a comedic one either, but the picture and circumstances surrounding the event are almost always met with a laugh once knowledge is feigned.

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In his first game in China with his new team, the Beijing Ducks, Steve Francis was thrown into the game for the final few minutes…with ice packs still sitting on his ankles. That’s not an exaggeration; it actually happened. He was given no warning about his participation that night, other than what his head coach Min Lulei said before the game, which was essentially, no, Francis will not play tonight. Instead, with the fans screams swimming down his spine to put in the once Houston Rocket megastar, Min folded and did so. For 17 seconds.

This is not a post meant to condone Steve Francis’ theatrics as a NBA player. He was a three-time All-Star and one of the leaders of the post-generation Jordan era, the most explosive and exciting point guard anyone had ever seen. But, Francis was also known as a ball-stopper, his playground style meshing with wins like LeBron meshes with humble.

An old, worn-out gymnasium once housed Francis’ theatrics. Deep in the heart of Western Maryland, barely a blip on the compass, let alone the basketball map, Francis destroyed people in awkward obscurity. Even during the summer of his pilgrimage to Maryland and Gary Williams, he was a nobody, his incredible hoop feats foreign to even those living within the communities surrounding Allegany Community College.

On the morning before he would head off to College Park and later the NBA and worldwide fame, in a small camp being run by his former community college coaches with perhaps 25 kids, Steve Francis showed up. He was only there for maybe 20 minutes, but it didn’t matter. Francis gave the camp one of the most ridiculous dunk exhibitions I’ve ever seen: windmills without even warming up, jumping from the foul-line, jumping from so far out of bounds that it really looked like he was gliding.

From there, he went on to average 17 points, 4.5 assists and almost three steals a game in his one season with Maryland, a year that also netted the Terrapins a trip to the Sweet 16 and Francis an All-ACC First Team selection. Life was good.

It got even better that summer when he was taken number two overall and then traded to Houston. His coach there, Rudy Tomjanovich, was in the process of turning the team upside down, from one that had failed to win a championship with Hakeem Olajuwan, Charles Barkley and Clyde Drexler to one of excitement and youth.

Francis was the man. He could do no wrong, take whatever shot he wanted and generally made SportsCenter every single night. That was his time.

But more recently, the Chinese Basketball Association issued Francis a “serious warning” because of a hand gesture he made during a recent game. The CBA ordered the Ducks to “educate and criticize” Francis for his “uncivilized behavior.” Apparently, Francis was waving the middle finger around as he sulked and took up roots at the end of the bench during the Ducks game against the Guangdong Tigers last Sunday.

And yesterday after just two weeks with the team, Francis was released.

He was a larger-than-life figure, someone so spectacular that those campers in attendance probably thought he could jump higher than Jordan, sing better than Jackson or lead better than Clinton.

It’s always interesting to dive into the psyche of NBA players, especially the veteran ones. It’s a study in what makes a person tick, the difference between those that try and succeed and those that don’t. The difference between fame and obscurity.

Why has Tracy McGrady gone from perhaps the best player in the game to a bit player on a horrible team in just a few short years? Why did Allen Iverson fall off the basketball map so quickly, and so hard, that he ended up in Turkey, playing for a team that doesn’t really know how to use him and in a culture that doesn’t know what to make of him?And most importantly, what really happened to Steve Francis? Injuries? Ego? The hands of time? Cuttino Mobley?

The real meaning behind IcePackGate isn’t the chuckling or even the update into Francis’ professional career, at least what’s left of it.

It’s a reminder to take advantage of the opportunities given to you. Francis didn’t always do that, didn’t always truly believe in the power behind the exterior of his talent. Now, he’s become what his talent should’ve never allowed: a loser. Obscurity.

——————-

That fourth-grader was me and that throw-up was mine. Thirty minutes after watching Steve Francis dunk and jump and do obscene things with a basketball and my life was different. His impact was so strong, I couldn’t hold it in, had to let it all come shoveling out of me.

Impact can be ironic. Why did it all happen like this? The point? How does someone rise so quickly only to fall off even quicker? The irony in that day’s impact still hits me every day. It doesn’t matter that he’s become a near caricature of himself. All that matters, at least to me, is that he happened.

Follow Sean on Twitter at @SEANesweeney

Getting old sucks. It’s not about the way your hair changes colors and then starts to disappear. Losing your capabilities to participate in the things you love isn’t fun. Once you hit a certain state, the joys of life wilt, filtered away by disease, disappointment, family issues, money…more matter of fact, inevitably you hit that point in life where you realize the dreams you had never materialized, never moved from beneath your sleep and into real-life. That feeling sucks the strength right out of you.

Recently, I wrote about J.R. Smith and how his basketball sins may one day haunt him. At the very least, Smith will have a lot to regret once he gets older as all of the money and fame begins to wear away.

But Smith has never tasted success in the NBA like some others have. Smith has never made an All-Star team or won a major award. He will probably never miss what some others have forgotten because quite frankly, he never had it. He’s never been at the top of his profession. Tracy McGrady has. He was considered, by more than a few experts, to be the best player in the world for a few years. He was a new breed of athlete, a force the NBA wasn’t totally ready for at the time he reached the peak of his powers. And his list of  accomplishments has been well-documented.

But McGrady’s failure to extend his basketball life is both depressing and interesting. While his performance this season – four points per game in 16 minutes a game – has basically ended any hopes he, or any of his fans had, that he could revert to what once was, there are dozens of guys around the League who are prospering in the sunset of their careers.

Just a year ago, Kevin Garnett was hobbling through a frustrating season trying to come back from a knee injury. He had one foot out the proverbial door. Yet, as ESPNBoston’s Chris Forsberg pointed out, Garnett is grabbing defensive rebounds at a career-best rate of 31 percent this season on perhaps the best team in basketball. Then, there is Jason Kidd, putting up good enough numbers to rank in the top 10 last season in all of fantasy basketball. As his quickness has dissolved, Kidd’s strength and knowledge of his own body has improved while his jumper’s efficiency s skyrocketing. Steve Nash is still near the mountaintop as is Tim Duncan. And I’m not even going to mention Kobe Bryant.

But McGrady looks nothing like the player of five years ago, let alone a year or two ago. Gone are the commercials. The nights of tuning in to see Mac carry the Magic and the Rockets are forever etched in memory. We will never see him in another February showcase throwing alley-oops to himself. He’s in full-on survival stage: hanging onto this dream for as long as he can. That rope is frayed, and just as Allen Iverson probably played his final NBA minutes last season, TMac could be facing a similar outcome very soon.

His career will forever be epitomized by injuries. “What if?”

It never reached the heights we anticipated. For McGrady, how do you deal with that? On surface value, people will claim, “He made money and did what he loved for a long time. He’s set for the rest of his life.” But someone who has defined their life through one thing, defined who they were from their skills in one activity, will definitely have issues to deal with. Will McGrady see himself as a failure? Obviously he wasn’t in the grand sense. But, his career was darkened because of injuries and questions: “Does he play hard enough?”

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Childhood, and to a lesser extend our teenage years, are defined by opportunity and our willingness – or perhaps more appropriately, our naivety – to pursue whatever it is that we want to. There are hardly ever any engagements in the way, no strings attached. It’s just you and your life, connected together by the only things that matter.

As a person matures and struggles at first to find their place in society, our dreams take a backseat. The energy and ruthlessness of our culture forces everyone to live in the moment, to only acknowledge the present. Get to work today to make that $36.24 so you can go drop it into the bank so you can have the funds to pay your loans or take someone out for a nice dinner. The grind of sunrise to sunset numbs you. Your dreams will get lost. That’s pretty much a guarantee. I don’t think it’s impossible to live without regrets or accomplish everything you set out to. You will have visions and heart-to-hearts with yourself. Inevitably, you’ll start questioning yourself. Was what I did right? Should I have gone through with that? Did I really give it everything I had?

Sometimes, people need to just have faith. Faith that everything turns out for the better. Some say it is destiny.

Why was Tracy McGrady chosen? Or Gale Sayers or Ken Griffey Jr.?

On the one hand, it brings a smile to think about all of the guys still doing it well past their calculated prime. If not for the highlights, great competition and entertainment as well as the records they will surely break, at least it allows or fans to hold on to their childhood, or hold on to better times, or hold on to a dream or a past that represents something unique to them.

But still, that makes you feel for someone like Tracy McGrady, for in life sometimes you only get one real chance. And his time is up.

-Follow Sean on Twitter at @SEANesweeney

12/03

…last night’s Top 10 Plays…

Portland Trail Blazers
54-28
unbeaten in last 32 home games
when leading at the half
KEYS: Roy- 22.8 ppg, 5.2 apg
Aldridge- 18.3 ppg, 7.5 rpg
first playoff encounter for most of this team

Everyone’s favorite darkhorse. They have been unbelievable down the stretch and been especially dominant at home. The city is back, embracing them again and the L is taking notice. Even without much of a contribution from Oden, this team is definitely on the rise. ESPN’s John Hollinger actually believes this team has a legit shot at taking out the Lakers in the second round. I don’t see that–although I do think they have a real psychological advantage at home having beat LA there 8 straight times.

It all starts with Brandon Roy, one of the L’s real 4th quarter killers. The kid just doesn’t see pressurel he’s so cool that it rubs off on everyone else. The next step for this team is to get the big fella to start developing. Once that happens, they’ll contend for a title. Right now, they will be happy to win a series.

This team doesn’t matchup well with Houston. We saw in Game 1, Houston has a speed advantage in the backcourt and a size advantage up front with Yao Ming. They only way Portland wins this series is to get it back home for a game 7.

Atlanta Hawks
47-35
+10 wins from last year
KEYS: Johnson- 21.4 ppg, 5.8 apg
which Josh Smith will show up?

One of the more exciting teams in the L, Atlanta is looking to make a splash for the second year in a row. They have the athletes to get the playoff crowd excited in ATL, but on the road, I’m guessing they struggle. Offensively, they are feast or famine; there is a lot of one on one, even though they lack the offensive skills to effectively score this way. Depth is a problem, but in the playoffs that isn’t as much of a need.

Josh Smith will make or break this team (as we saw in the first 2 against Miami). When he shows up focused and does what he does well (run, dunk, block shots), they are really dangerous. Without him, there are too many missed jump shots and not enough deterring around the rim.

I think this team is good enough to get to the second round, but I don’t think they will provide much of a problem against Cleveland. You can’t play one on one offensively against that defense and expect to score.

Houston Rockets
53-29
looking to finally get out of the first round
have lost TMac and Deke for the year
KEYS: Yao- 19.7 ppg, 55% FG
Battier, Artest- can they stop Roy?

Offensively, when they get the ball to Yao, they are tough. Defensively, Battier and Artest cause major problems for teams that rely on major wing players (Portland, LA, Denver). Aaron Brooks has shown he can run the point, but his decision-making isn’t always up to par; he is more of an explosive scorer than anything else. Even with the injuries, this team is deep and can bring in shooters, like Brent Barry, or athletic big men, like Carl Landry, off the bench.

While this team has some defensive capabilities against elite wing players, I don’t see them offensively being able to score consistently. Aaron Brooks will struggles at times, as will Ron Artest. They all play hard, but that only takes you so far. They miss the versatility and skill of McGrady. It should be a good series with Portland, but either team will get taken out in the next round by LA.