The BIG3 basketball league continues to build its roster for the upcoming April draft with another major announcement. Nine more players have been added to the draft pool, including one very notable former NBA star.
“The BIG3, the 3-on-3 professional basketball league, announced today the addition of Steve Francis, Kendall Gill, Donte Greene, Jumaine Jones, Ronald Murray, Joe Smith, DeShawn Stevenson, Mike Sweetney, and Hakim Warrick to their player draft pool.”
The one and only Stevie Franchise has joined the league. For fans of the early-2000s NBA this is a delightful announcement, as Francis was an absolute bucket-getter early in his career. Francis was a three-time All-Star with the Houston Rockets and averaged 21 points per game in three different seasons with the Rockets and Magic. Francis was never the same after being moved from the Magic to the Knicks in the middle of the 2005-06 season and was out of the league by 2008.
Francis’ post-NBA life has been rough, including a recent arrest for DWI in Houston and an alleged robbery of a BMW in Florida. Hopefully, Francis inking a deal with the BIG3 means things are turning around for the former star.
Along with Francis, Stevenson – best known for beefing with LeBron James and the Cavaliers – is another big name addition for the BIG3 after his 15-year NBA career ended in 2013. The BIG3’s talent pool continues to grow each week and it already has announced six teams, including Allen Iverson’s, and a freshly inked TV deal with Fox Sports. We’ll find out this summer if the interest in this league will last for the full season, or if the shine of all the names will wear off.
