Rachel Nichols called out Sarver: The soap opera continues

This has been a harrowing week (THE SEASON IS ONLY A WEEK OLD!!!) for the Phoenix Suns (fans)…

So much has happened over the past seven days, enough that had every individual event that has occurred in the last week have happened over the course of a seven month season, fans would have looked back and said: “Wow. That was a rough year.”

We still have 78 games left…

The worst part about it is that the events surrounding the Suns aren’t happening in a vacuum either. The entire sports world is aware that the Phoenix Suns have taken over the mantle of the most dysfunctional sports franchise in North America, and that’s saying something: they play within a 3-point shot of the Arizona Coyotes, a franchise that told it’s 20+ year star face of the franchise to take a hike last season.

It’s one thing when bad things happen in your family and the tales of the events stay within the confines of your own home. Heck, even things that one might be ashamed of that happens in Las Vegas Stays  in Las Vegas. Yet, the daily soap opera (how jealous are writers of daytime stories right now of their inability to think of a storyline as juicy and messy as the Suns in 2017) that is occurring in downtown Phoenix is not confined to the arena or the sports bars surrounding, but is in fact being watched and dissected by national media and sports fans alike, then mocked and made fun of – just like we used to about the Los Angeles Clippers and Cleveland Browns.

Hence, the purpose of this post.

Not only is ESPN watching and reporting, but they are now mocking the franchise and it’s daily goings on, specifically Rachel Nichols who lambasted the franchise, and most specifically it’s owner.

(Caution, watching this will  depress you. Just be prepared.)

You literally can’t argue with anything that she said. There is absolutely nothing incorrect in her assessment of the Phoenix Suns organization. (Although saying that Devin Booker should demand a trade absolutely scares me as at this point that wouldn’t shock me.)

Suns fans should be more than worried about the current state of the franchise and wonder most specifically why it’s owner couldn’t make a single phone call to the media or take even one question about the situation that has transpired over the past week. Yes – Suns fans have wanted Robert Sarver to take a step back, something that he has done over the past few years. There is no arguing that he is a different owner than he was during the early Steve Nash years. Even Ryan McDonough admitted that it was his call to fire Earl Watson and not a directive from Robert Sarver, so from that perspective Sarver has been allowing better basketball minds to take control of the day-to-day operations and has specifically given plenty of autonomy to McDonough to do what he needs to do.

Yet, this is still Sarver’s team. The franchise fires the head coach, hires a new one, and arguably the best player on the roster at the moment demands a trade and – he is nowhere to be seen.

Phoenix Suns

If he was a general recluse like Executive Chairman of the Knicks James Dolan that’d be one thing. But Sarver meets with the media fairly regularly and even interviewed the morning the season opened even saying he told the team he felt that the team could be playoff contenders.

There is no doubt in my mind that Watson needed to go. He should have never been given a contract in the first place, he should have been fired after last season allowing a new head coach to be brought in to try and right the ship and not only keep Devin Booker happy, but Eric Blesdsoe as well.

Not to mention, the Suns probably should have pulled the trigger on an Eric Bledsoe trade over the summer, got the best they absolutely could for him at the time and then signed a veteran free agent point guard who could lead the offense decently enough and fill in if they didn’t think that either Tyler Ulis or Mike James couldn’t run it well enough (although, I know it was only one game, but after the Sacramento Kings game, it’s hard to understand why that backcourt duo couldn’t have been given a fair shot all season). Had they done this – especially if they had signed a halfway decent veteran free agent – then they could have prevented any such tweet situation with Bledsoe from ever occurring, and still kept some semblance of the tanking process intact.

Next: The Most EPIC Rant in Valley of the Suns History!

All of this if bad. Just very, very bad. And yet here we are, going on three days after both Earl Watson was fired and Eric Bledsoe’s tweet, and yet other than an interim head coach being hired, we still have no closure with Eric Bledsoe, and the owner has still not said a word.

The sports world is watching. The Phoenix Suns have become a laughing stock.