In the Valley of the Rising Suns
Phoenix is just one of the fresh face franchises that is making this year’s NBA postseason fun.
On Sunday April 2, 2017, my friend Will and I were in Phoenix, Arizona, for the NCAA Final Four and opted to add a Phoenix Suns game to the basketball-filled docket.
Everything about the idea was—as all ideas typically are when my friends and I get together to fall headfirst into a sports coma—outrageously bad anyway you slice it.
For example, we had already made the on-the-whim decision to book a Final Four trip (complete with tickets, an AirBnB, and flights) the only seven days in advance. That was an unnecessary and perhaps frivolous expense.
To further complicate matters, I proceeded to fly Saturday morning out of San Antonio east to St. Louis, MO, for a two-hour layover before zig-zagging back west to Phoenix to arrive about two-hours before game. Will was my ride, who was also cutting it close himself in making the six-hour drive from Los Angeles, CA, to Phoenix, AZ. We fought traffic, parked and made it inside with minutes to spare. Logistically speaking, it was not an ideal scenario.
Finally, we saw a neighbor of our AirBnB host discard an old, worn out leather lazy boy recliner for trash pickup out by the street. We proceeded to load it into Will’s van for him to furnish his new apartment back home. You may say that was half baked, but that sure was one comfy recliner (he still has it!).
The Suns were in last place in the West (they would finish 24-58); their area name was the Talking Stick Resort Arena (named after the hotel and casino); and visiting James Harden for Houston would be sitting out (something that was not clear until we arrived).
You may ask what on Earth would compel someone to go to a game like this, and you would be right to do so. However, after sneaking down to sit in the lower bowl section to watch Oregon-UNC we realized that this $8.72 professional basketball detour via Stubhub was quintessential to our trip.
Squeezing in an NBA game featuring a last place team in a sleepy venue right between the biggest college basketball event of the year may seem odd from the outside. Yet it ranks right up there with the rest of the aforementioned ideas: Don’t think, take action.
This is how memories were made. Even if we don’t remember much about the game.
We remember that game more for Aaron Rodgers being in the crowd to support the Rockets’ Sam Dekker. Before Dekker broke his hand in the fourth quarter. We remember that Phoenix had, I kid you not, Kentucky alums comprising over 30 percent of their roster. We remember a fun night in a lively and immaculately clean downtown Phoenix in a game that was controlled pretty well throughout by Houston in the Rockets’ 123-116 victory.
Here were the highlights. Patrick Beverly had 26 points, nine assists and eight rebounds to fuel the Rockets in Harden’s absence. Meanwhile, Tyler Ulis had a game high 34 points with nine boards and nine assists and Devin Booker had 27 points with nine assists (but also eight turnovers) and five rebounds. Performances in the defeat that would make the Big Blue Nation proud.
And I remember saying afterwards that I can’t wait for the Suns to be good again. That I would have loved to be around for the Charles Barkley or Steve Nash eras.
Great city, great arena and exciting talent on the court.
Yet it would take awhile. The Suns finished last in the Western Conference again in 2018 (21-61) and 2019 (19-63) before being competitive in 2020. They won all eight games in the Orlando bubble to finish 34-39, but just missed out on the play-in game.
The Suns have made the most of 2021. They have a new superstar in Chris Paul, which helps take some pressure off of Booker; they have an exciting young center in Deandre Ayton; the have new, fresh jerseys and nickname (The Valley); and they finally got rid of that God-awful corporate arena sponsorship. It is now plainly called Phoenix Suns Arena. Check out this hype video laying it all out:
The Suns are facing LeBron and the historic Lakers franchise. Even as the No. 2 seed and having home court advantage, Phoenix is an underdog. They are that old recliner on the roadside most ignore because it’s perceived as bad, dismissed as worthless or are scared of for being too broken.
For the good of the NBA, know that the Suns are fixed up from what you have seen before and are absolutely worth it. Fans just need to have the courage to embrace the recliner in front on them.
NBA Postseason
Why would it be so great for the Suns to make a deep postseason run and potentially win the NBA title?
Because, quite simply, it would be new. Fresh young talent and a brand new franchise winning a championship.
But it does not have to be the Suns. Look at all the new teams and superstars that are center stage. It just kinda feels that 2021 could be a changing of the guard type year before a) the stars for the Warriors, Lakers and Nets return to full health for 2022 or b) we get used to a new NBA normal of having Dallas or Milwaukee win year after year.
The Utah Jazz, Phoenix, and Denver Nuggets are the top three seeds in the West and have a combined four NBA Finals appearances and zero championships. In fact, if you exclude the Lakers, the entire western conference has nine NBA Finals appearances and two titles (Blazers and Mavericks).
Even the Clippers have never made it, though I would argue that is not the exciting, new and young team you should pull for.
And the Grizzlies have made things fun by winning the first ever play-in tournament as the nine seed. Though the eastern play-in games were a bust, the western play-in games were dynamite. Specifically LeBron James hitting a buzzer beater shot over Stephen Curry and then Curry and Ja Morant battling in overtime two nights later.
The NBA is cyclical, yet this past decade has been brutal watching the same script play out year after year. Look at the champions from 2008-20:
2008: Celtics > Lakers (KG, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce over Kobe)
2009: Lakers > Magic (Kobe)
2010: Lakers > Celtics (Kobe over KG, Allen, Pierce)
2011: Mavericks > Heat (Dirk over LeBron, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade)
2012: Heat > Thunder (LeBron, Bosh, wade over Kevin Durant, Harden, Russell Westbrook)
2013: Heat > Spurs (LeBron, Bosh, Wade, Allen over Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili)
2014: Spurs > Heat (Kawhi Leonard, Duncan, Parker, Ginobili over LeBron, Bosh, Wade)
2015: Warriors > Cavaliers (Curry over LeBron)
2016: Cavaliers > Warriors (LeBron over Curry)
2017: Warriors > Cavaliers (KD, Curry over LeBron)
2018: Warriors > Cavaliers (KD, Curry over LeBron)
2019: Raptors > Warriors (Kawhi over Curry; KD/Klay Thompson injured)
2020: Lakers > Heat (LeBron over Jimmy Butler)
There was Kobe for the first three and then LeBron appeared in each Finals except 2019 (where Durant was injured anyway). And despite 2016 being perhaps the greatest NBA Finals ever in a series that possibly sealed LeBron’s all-time legacy, watching the Warriors change basketball overnight, sign KD in free agency and then dominate with ease for half a decade got old after 2015-16.
And again, maybe the NBA falls into a cycle of predictable winners and losers as these new franchises build out around their new superstars or old powers come back to show they still have their finger firmly on the pulse of the league.
After all, the past 13 years is nothing new. Either the Lakers or Celtics won eight of the 10 championships during the ‘80s. Jordan’s Bulls won six titles in the ‘90s, only stopping because MJ decided to retire twice: once to play baseball and the second time due to organizational dysfunction.
Even if the champions of the 2000s seem diverse, it is only because San Antonio spaced out their dynasty with four titles over nine years. But there was still yet another three-peat by Phil Jackson with Shaq’s Lakers to start the decade.
Yet at the start of those dynasties, as they began, I am willing to bet that it was an exciting time for fans.
The ‘80s came on the heels of back to back Finals with the Bullets-Sonics from 1978-79 with a new rivalry in Magic and Bird; MJ broke up the ‘Bad Boys’ Pistons of 1989-90 and then returned to the hardwood from the diamond in ‘96; the fundamental Spurs were a welcome break from the Hollywood infighting with the Lakers as much as they were a reprieve from LeBron the Villain; and Golden State was fun until they conspired to get the best free agent on the planet.
Who knows what is going to happen in the future. But 2021 seems like the perfect opportunity for a new, fun, young team like the Suns, Jazz or 76ers to strike while the iron is hot and have fans jump on the bandwagon to enjoy the ride.
Even if that ride is short-lived or becomes boring over time.