The top-five options for the Phoenix Suns at General Manager

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Bryan Colangelo (Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Bryan Colangelo

So long as Robert Sarver is the owner of the Phoenix Suns, he is in the unenviable position of living in Jerry Colangelo’s shadow.

And it seems that since the day he took the position he has attempted to build his own legacy rather than embrace his predecessor’s. I do not necessarily blame him for that, after all he spent over $400 million to buy the team, why shouldn’t he make the team his as it now is his and try to become better than Colangelo rather than live up to Colangelo’s own legacy?

The problem is, not only has it not worked at all, but the longer he fails, the deeper he buries his own legacy making the chances of ever being anywhere near as respected as Jerry that much more impossible.

But at this point, after nearly 15 years of mostly failure, why not finally embrace the past, call upon the ghosts of Phoenix Suns history, and bring back the only family and the only name that has ever been synonymous with winning with the Phoenix Suns: Colangelo, most specifically Bryan.

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Granted, I don’t see this ever happening because Sarver truly does worry about his own legacy and wants to be known as an owner who won on his own without any help.

Again, I can respect that mentality although the history of failure is evidence enough that he is incapable of succeeding.

Should he reach out to Bryan, by extension he would be reaching out to Jerry. The three could work together to not only rebuild the Phoenix Suns’ image but also the image of Sarver himself.

Although competitively it is the lowest of low to ever request help by reaching out to someone you are competing against (in this case in legacy, not necessarily on the court), but in the end, sometimes help is what you need in order to succeed, even if it comes from people you’d rather not be acquainted with.

Bringing the Colangelo name back into the Phoenix Suns’ fold would not only remedy some of the issues that Sarver has with him image, but also buy him time to focus on his legacy.

If Bryan fails, fine. That is less on Sarver and more on the fact that this era of basketball was just not going to be successful for Phoenix.

But if Bryan were to succeed, Sarver would still receive glory for his ability to accept his own shortcomings, but praise for reaching out to a former foe and making him an ally.

After all, sharing the glory of success in the end would be much better than keeping failure all to himself.

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