The Greg Francis Family Legacy Fund

Hi everyone, my name is Michelle (Francis) Smith, younger sister of Gregory Andre Francis you may know him as G-Nice on the court or as Coach Francis. You may have heard the news of the passing of our beloved Greg and it may have come as a shock, as it did for us, but the life he lived was so filled with joy.

His legacy as a finessed basketball player and as a coach who focused on youth development and high permanence skills was felt by many over the last few decades. But to us, he was a son, brother, father, Uncle, cousin, and so much more. He was just kind and he cared.

Even after all of his accomplishments in sports, his pride was the love of his family and his greatest achievement is his daughter Lilia. Greg worked hard to create a legacy for us as his family. We want to continue that to pay tribute to him.

More about my brother:

Greg most recently was Director of Sport Development for the Ontario Basketball Association and has been the Manager of Men’s High Performance at Canada Basketball. Former head coach at

the University of Waterloo. Senior Men’s National Team Assistant Coach.

During his playing and coaching tenure with Team Canada, he played in the 2000 Olympics while becoming the Head Coach of the National Elite Development Academy from 2007 to 2009 and Junior Men’s National Team from 2005-2011.

He began his playing career as a Fairfield University guard in 1994 – leading Fairfield to a MAAC Championship while earning MAAC Tournament MVP; played four years professionally in Britain from 1997-2000, Greg was inducted into the Fairfield University Hall of Fame in 2003.

In 2000, he became the Assistant Coach at Monmouth University – helping to lead the school to an NCAA Tournament appearance. After coaching with the National Team, he stepped back into the collegiate coaching world by becoming the Head Coach at the University of Alberta in 2009 and led them to a second-place finish in the CIS in 2012, he then moved on to coach at the University of Waterloo from 2013-2015.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Fairfield University and attended the University of Alberta for Sport Management.

He achieved so much in his life, but not his final mission, so please join us by donating to his vision of creating a legacy for his family by supporting the goal of raising $50,000 in his honour.

On behalf of the rest of his family and myself, thank you so much for the outpouring of love!