Valley of the Suns
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Ten Candidates for the Phoenix Suns’ new General Manager

By Khaleel Abdullah

Trajan Langdon Phoenix Suns (Photo by Rodolfo Molina/EB via Getty Images)
Trajan Langdon Phoenix Suns (Photo by Rodolfo Molina/EB via Getty Images) /
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Bryan Colangelo (Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images)
Bryan Colangelo (Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Bryan Colangelo

So he had a few burner Twitter accounts. So did (does) Kevin Durant and you’d take him on the Suns right now in a heart beat.

Talent is talent, and everyone makes mistakes – even if it’s because a Papier-mâché balloon has thicker skin than either of them.

How much do fans miss the good old days? I know I sure do. Who was the general manager during the Steve Nash, Shawn Marion and Amar’e Stoudemire days? That’s right. Bryan Colangelo.

In 1995, he stepped into his father’s (see Jerry Colangelo, Arizona sports mogul) shoes as general manager for the Phoenix Suns.

During his tenure as the GM in Phoenix, he made many transactions that brought in a lot of praise from across the league, including the drafting of stars Marion and Stoudemire. If he made a mistake, he tried his best to go out of his way to correct it. Yes, he did some things that rubbed fans the wrong way but then he’d make a move that left you forgiving him for the other.

He’s the GM that brought back Nash and that’s something all by itself. Nash went on to win back-to-back MVP awards and in his first MVP season the team went 62-20, claimed the top playoff seed in the Western Conference and Bryan won the 2005 NBA Executive of the Year Award.

In 2006, he resigned and went to be the GM of the Toronto Raptors where he won another Executive of the Year award, credited with turning a 27-win team into a 47-win team.

After his time with the Raptors ended, he did freelance scouting and consulting for other NBA executives and agents before ultimately becoming the GM of the Philadelphia 76ers in 2016, following again in his father’s steps as Jerry had recently been brought in as Chairman of Basketball Operations.

Bryan ended up resigning in Philly due to an investigation alleging he used multiple burner accounts on Twitter to disparage his predecessor as well as multiple players. However, that was in another city and state and he will always be remembered in good terms here. I’m pretty sure the city of Phoenix would give him a warm welcome back.

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