Apologies in advance, because this story is a couple days old, but the sad, strange tale of former Maryland great Steve Francis took an interesting turn this week. Francis is now playing for the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association, and he was supposed to sit out the team's game on Sunday because he's completely out of shape.
↵Unfortunately, the crowd at the game came to see Francis and put pressure on the coach to put him in. So he did, and Francis, clearly perterbed, entered with his ice pack still around his ankle. Jon Pastuszek of NIUBball.com has the full story.
↵↵↵↵↵With Francis icing his ankle on the bench clearly not expecting to be subbed in, Min inserted him into the game anyways after Beijing's Jordanian forward, Zaid Abbas, converted on an and-one lay-up on the offensive end. Completely unprepared to enter the game, Francis didn't even have time to tie his shoes as he quickly shed his warm-up suit and tucked in his jersey before entering the court. With his shoelaces loose and the ice pack around his ankle, Fu Laoda -- loosely translated into English as Big Boss Francis -- received a loud standing ovation and the obligatory "Fu Laoda, jiayou!" chant from the home crowd as he ran back on defense after the free throw.
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↵Yahoo!'s Ball Don't Lie blog has an amazing picture of Francis in the ice pack. It's not Rod Strickland vomiting hot dogs while on the court, but it's still pretty epic.
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