Former NBA star Steve Francis published a piece for The Player's Tribune today titled, "I Got a Story to Tell," which begins, "I remember the exact moment when I realized NBA legends weren’t SHIT."
In the story, Francis, 41, opens up about his journey to the NBA and how unlikely it seemed that he would go from selling crack in Washington D.C. at the age of 18, to being drafted second overall by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the NBA Draft at 22 years old.
"At 18, I'm selling baggies on the corner in Takoma Park, getting robbed at gunpoint," Francis writes in the article. "At 22, I'm getting drafted into the National Basketball Association, shaking David Stern's hand."
In addition to stories about growing up in D.C. and hanging with Hakeem Olajuwon as a rookie, Francis also opens up about his post-NBA career and his run-ins with the law.
And I know people were asking, 'What the hell happened to Steve Francis?' But the hardest part was reading some bulls--- on the Internet saying that I was on crack," Francis said. "When I thought about my grandmother reading that, or my kids reading that ... that broke my heart. Listen, I sold crack when I was growing up. I'll own up to that. But never in my life did I ever do crack.
"What happened to Steve Francis? I was drinking heavily, is what happened. And that can be just as bad."
Check out the full story here.