Magic's Francis issues apology for not playing

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Steve Francis apologized to teammates, coaches and fans Tuesday as he rejoined the Orlando Magic following his two-game suspension for refusing to re-enter a blowout game late in the fourth quarter.
Francis said all the right things in his return.
He called his decision "not a smart or wise one," said he hoped to remain with the club after the Feb. 23 trading deadline and added that he would be willing to "sacrifice" his starting role to benefit the team.
Francis was suspended indefinitely last Thursday, a day after he opposed coach Brian Hill's request to replace Hedo Turkoglu with 3:22 remaining and the Magic trailing 103-87 at Seattle.
The star point guard missed two games -- losses at Portland and Sacramento -- then was reinstated Monday following a meeting with team officials.
"For me not to do that was completely wrong," Francis said in confirming the reason for his suspension. "It was in the heat of the moment, and one of the decisions that I made was really, really not a smart or wise one at the time. I apologize to the fans, to my teammates, the coaches."
Productive meeting
Magic assistant general manager Otis Smith called the meeting with Francis productive and said he hoped to see changes in his attitude and play.
"I don't look at Steve as being any trouble," Smith said. "We're just trying to get Steve Francis back. As I told him, I haven't really seen Steve Francis in three weeks. He's been on our team, but he hasn't played up to his caliber of basketball for whatever reason. We're just trying to get to the bottom of that and get him back to playing basketball the way he's capable of playing."
"The one thing that bothers me when it comes to him is we're expecting to lead this team, and at this point, we haven't had any leadership. We're looking forward to that stepping up, too."
Francis was scoring a team-high 18 points a game at the end of 2005, but he has slumped significantly since the new year. He has averaged 11.5 points on 37.5 percent shooting in six games in January and has 25 assists and 30 turnovers.
Explanation
"People go through those things in regular life and basketball," Francis said. "I'm not the first person who's had a span of games where they didn't play particularly well. ... It's just my turn to go through it. It's the first time in my seven-year career that I played probably four or five games that weren't really, really good consistently."
Francis led the team in scoring four consecutive games between Dec. 19 and Dec. 26, but he hasn't been the same since.
Backup point guard Jameer Nelson, meanwhile, has started to emerge. The second-year player from Saint Joseph's has led the team in scoring in three of the last four games and gives the coaching staff a difficult decision to make with Francis' return.
Nelson is averaging 22.8 points on 53.5 percent shooting in eight games in January and has 58 assists and 27 turnovers.