Robert Sarver contacted Jerry Colangelo about Monty Williams

The Phoenix Suns introduced Monty Williams as the team’s 19th head coach in franchise history on Tuesday May 21. But that wasn’t the biggest news of the day.

Following the introductory press conference of Monty Williams as the Phoenix Suns’ fifth head coach in four years, Williams said on Bickley and Marotta that former owner Jerry Colangelo recommended him to current owner Robert Sarver.

Then on Burns and Gambo, several hours later, Colangelo stated that Sarver had called him (he noted that they hadn’t spoken in a long time), and asked about his opinion on Monty.

Of course, Colangelo knew Monty Williams from his days as an assistant coach on USA Basketball, had a very good relationship with him, and obviously believed very strongly in his coaching abilities.

Phoenix Suns

Without going into the depth and breadth of their conversation, Colangelo continued that he received a very nice note from Sarver the next day thanking him for the recommendation and letting him know that Monty will be hired.

For what it’s worth, Jerry stated later that he had no animosity towards Sarver and that he had no reason  for animosity.

While we can go into reasons on why Colangelo might have issues with Sarver (and again, he did   say that they hadn’t spoken in a log time), from a Phoenix Suns fan’s perspective, it is very nice to hear that Sarver made contact with the patriarch of professional sports in Arizona – something that fans had not been made aware of in a very long time.

Being the former owner of the team, and the only constant figure throughout the best times in franchise history, not to mention having been a part of the league for over 50 years and thus extremely well connected and respected, Colangelo is a wealth of information that one would be irresponsible for not tapping into when necessary.

Whether this is a sign of true changes to Sarver’s ownership and management of the franchise, is hard to say.

Although Colangelo did not give detail into when his last conversation with Sarver was, the franchise has been struggling long enough to think that there could have been many reasons for Sarver to ask for help or advice from time to time, and he has stated in the past when asked if Sarver had reached out to him when things went awry that they had not spoken.

According to Colangelo’s timeline of events, Phoenix appears to have already zeroed in on Monty Williams as the meeting was scheduled for the day after the Sarver had reached out to Colangelo.

That contact could very well have been that new general manager James Jones had tabbed Monty to be his guy so Sarver did his due diligence and speak to someone so important to the franchise’s history who had spent so much time with their potential hire. If anyone would know if there was potentially a hidden secret that hadn’t come up during the research process, it would be Colangelo.

Robert Sarver reaching out to Jerry Colangelo should make fans of the Phoenix Suns feel good as it really did feel from the outside that the two had a wall between them as impenetrable as can be.

And while I do not think that this conversation is a sign that things are either truly different about Sarver’s direction with the franchise, or certainly that Colangelo is somehow going to be brought back into the fold on some level, Sarver asking for information from someone who fans revere so highly, is good to hear.