Hooped Up

Steve Francis may have played his last game for the Knicks this season, and perhaps forever, the New York Daily News is reporting.

The veteran guard sat out last night’s game with recurring pain in his right knee and admitted that he could be finished for the season.

“I don’t know,” Francis said. “I don’t want to say something that isn’t there, but I’m not sure. I’m not (ruling that out). I’ve just got to be smart. I can’t really make a decision in one day.”

The uncertainty of Francis’ status comes just days after the Knicks were unable to move Francis before Thursday’s trading deadline.

When Francis left the team for four weeks earlier this season to rehab in Houston, he and the Knicks had talks about a potential buyout. There is a chance that those talks could resume.

Francis hasn’t played since being benched for the second half of Wednesday’s loss in Philadelphia. “I guess that was the way the game was going,” he said. “When I was out there, we were up, but when I came out, we were down. That’s when the lead kind of went a different way. I wasn’t that mad.”

When asked about his frustration level, Francis said: “What’s it called, the terrorist alert, when they say the security alert is like orange? That’s what my frustration is now.”

New York Daily News