Saturday, November 20, 2010

'Franchise' close to deal to play in China

Well, it looks like it's about to go down. Steve Francis is reportedly close to signing a deal to play in China, yes, in the same league as Stephon Marbury. Now, all they need is Iverson (who is also reportedly interested in making the move) to sign. Then this off-season, they can do some kind of freakish, Bizarro-world Big 3 deal with the Shanghai Sharks. Francis, Marbury and Iverson as the Chinese Lebron, Wade and Bosh. I can see Marbury's press conference now.

My brother and I were once huge fans of Francis, Marbury and Iverson. In their respective primes, we debated endlessly which was the best player individually, which was more likely to win a championship, which was the best team player. We rarely included Francis as his position as the Houston Rockets' "Franchise" would clearly taint any realistic debate.

For awhile, Stevie was untouchable. But, we grew older, wiser and this trio of uber-talented guards didn't seem to reciprocate for the sake of our arguments. Iverson will go down as one of the all-time greats but even he couldn't bow out gracefully. If by some blessed miracle they all end up in China, as this post from Ball Don't Lie suggests is a possibility, my brother and I can renew this once-great dispute.

For the record, I always had Iverson.