12 days of X-Mas – Obscure stats in Suns history Day 9

I know, I know. I’m late. But we’re almost done!

(Original Caption) Philadelphia 76ers’ basketball coach Roy Rubin huddles with three of his players at team’s pre-season training camp at University of Scranton’s John Long Center here, 9/12. From left to right are Rubin, 6-10 John Block of Maryland; 6-2 Hal Greer of Marshall and 6-7 Gary Gregor of South Carolina. 76ers open season September 21 against Baltimore Bullets in NBA exhibition.

For the 9th day of the 12 days of Christmas list of obscure and lost stats in Suns history, I wanted to take a look back at the history of the Suns’ draft, and most specifically the nine players in franchise history who have been awarded with All-Rookie First Team honors.

In Phoenix Suns history, 14 players have made either the league’s All-Rookie First or Second teams, five of whom were second team recipients: Richard Dumas, Wesley Person, Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson, and Marquese Chriss. There are some fantastic names on that list to be sure, but each were blocked by at least one other player at their position that season and unable to break into first team status.

Impressively, the first six players in franchise history who made the All-Rookie Team, did so before the expansion of the award to include an All-Rookie Second Team. The Second Team was added before the 1988-89 season. The Suns have had five second team’ers since 88-89.