So the one year the Suns miss the playoffs, the Spurs go in the tank early.
And to think, it’s a year ending with an odd number, too.
Sure, missing Manu killed them, but Dallas just played really well in that series. It’s kind of amazing that a team that Suns fans were expecting to collapse down the stretch now looks like a team that could be on a collision course with the Western Conference Finals.
So much for that whole Mavericks FAIL campaign.
But at least Suns fans should get a bit of satisfaction out of San Antonio’s failure, even if it’s disappointing that the Suns weren’t the team to exact said revenge. So take a moment today to really give it to your favorite Spurs fanatic friend, just be prepared for them to ask you about how the Suns are doing in the playoffs.
Here are a couple other Suns-related tidbits to get you through another week without Suns playoff basketball:
Steve Nash, wannabe blogger
If you’re not one of Steve Nash’s 93,722 fans on Facebook, then you probably should be.
Even if you’re not you should at least check his page out every few days as Nash has been providing some fairly insightful commentary of the NBA Playoffs.
We all know Nash is one of the more cerebral players in the league, but it’s interesting that he provided a little analysis of the first three days of the playoffs whereas it took me that long just to accept the fact that life goes on in the playoffs even without the Suns.
Nash provides some interesting commentary such as:
- “I can’t believe I’m actually so interested in the playoffs this year. Sometimes when you can’t be there it’s difficult to watch and you subconsciously pull yourself as far away from the situation as possible.”
- “I don’t think TP (Tony Parker) likes the Mavs much. His facial expression and demeanor suggest there’s little love lost and he continually seems to express such with his array of twisting finishes, floaters and mid range jumpers off pick and rolls.”
- “I’ve got to find something better to do that bore you guys with my thoughts on the 1st round. I promise this won’t last.”
If nothing else, maybe Steve Kerr can use his old connections at Yahoo! to get Nash a gig when his playing career is up.
The Big Twitterer becomes the Big Facebookie
When I logged onto Facebook Tuesday morning I was greeted with a video from Shaq on my homepage touting his arrival on Facebook with a message proclaiming how he became the Twitter king and now he’s going to become the Facebook king.
That shouldn’t take long considering the fact that he had 340,657 fans as of this writing Tuesday night.
One thing you can’t argue about Shaq, the man (and his people) knows how to market the Shaq brand.
Also make sure to check out Shaq’s Facebook video involving him pinning for a Krispy Kreme donut with Mariah Carey’s “We belong together” in the background. Let’s hope the Daddy sticks to the “ShaqLyte diet” all offseason.
The Dudley haircut
Jared Dudley cut off his cornrows a few weeks before the season ended for the first time since high school, a shaving that prompted Arizona Republic Suns beat writer Paul Coro to wonder if the Suns signed somebody to a 10-dayer when he saw Dudley the next day at practice.
J-Rich promised original video of the cutting a while back, and now he hath delivered.
My favorite part is just watching J-Rich and Dudley in their natural environment joking around with each other like you would if your buddy was cutting his cornrows and had dread lines still in his ‘do.
Better than Kazaam
Shaq, Alando Tucker and a few teammates starred in acclaimed producer Steve Nash’s “SuperBADge,” more must-see Suns TV.
Shaq busts on the suspect that looks like Sideshow Bob for his funky voice before the Daddy and Alando Tucker catch Fropez and crew drawing anti-Superman signs. And we know that offense won’t go unpunished by the Shaqtus.
As has been the case with many of Shaq’s antics this season (and by that I mean antics in a good way), Tucker was his side kick, and he fills that role masterfully. Too bad Tucker didn’t complement Shaq and the Suns so well on the floor.
Watching a video like this really makes me wonder (again) how the Suns didn’t make the playoffs.
As Grant Hill said at the end of the season, teams with the camaraderie (not to mention the talent) that the Suns had typically make deep runs in the playoffs.
You can see in this video that these guys really like each other, it just didn’t translate on the court often enough.
Pranking at an NBA level
I was too distraught over the Suns’ season ending in the middle of April to link to the Amundson prank and Shaq’s revenge at the time of the pranks.
Suns.com gets incredible access, the kind of access that mainstream media or bloggers would never get, to fully document the prank and show the raw footage of Shaq taking a snippet of Lou’s hair while half the team holds him down.
It’s hilarious to watch Dragic holding on to his teammates for dear life.
I can only imagine what would have happened if somebody got hurt in the scrum, but this was before the last game of the season so it probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway.
Many people on this site favor a Shaq trade. His production on the court is arguably replaceable, but his locker room presence cannot be replaced by any player in this league.
A Twitter Suns marriage, what’s next?
I’m years away from a marriage proposal, but when I do I plan on doing something crazy creative.
I hate the cliché ask her at a baseball game that I’ve seen roughly 50 times covering the D-backs and Dodgers the last two years, although I loved the creativity when one of the Suns’ Sol Patrol dunkers asked another member to marry him before a recent quarter break dunking session.
I appreciate creativity, but I’m not sure what to think about Suns fan @knot2serious apparently proposing to fellow Suns fanatic @ps1968 over Twitter. There’s even a wedding page set up describing them by their Twitter names.
Ummm, wow!
No team does more with social media and Twitter than the Suns, but does anyone else think this is going overboard?
A hearty congrats to @knot2serious and @ps1968, but I only wonder what could be around the corner in a world in which marriage proposals occur over Twitter.