60 reasons it sucks to be a Phoenix Suns fan
Reasons 10-20
10. Since that year the Suns have not reached the Finals and are 1 of 10 teams without an NBA Championship. They began to fall apart losing one of, if not the greatest player in the franchise’s history.
11. Remember in 1996 when Sam Cassell was traded to the Suns along with Chucky Brown, Robert Horry and Mark Bryant for Charles Barkley? Cassell, Brown, and Horry played in a total of 64 games for the Suns. Seems like we got a lot back for a Hall of Fame player right.
12. Sam Cassell was supposed to be the successor to Kevin Johnson, but that is besides the point. The point is that he was on the 2008 Celtics team who won the NBA finals, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and their point guard was Rajon Rondo. The Suns drafted him. But immediately traded him for a future first round pick. He could have taken Phoenix to the next level with Steve Nash to help us to win our first ever title, instead he was traded for a 2007 first round pick who ended up being Rudy Fernandez, who was immediately shipped to Portland for cash considerations. If that isn’t Phoenix asset management, I don’t know what is.
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13. The Robert Sarver Era has begun. Sarver bought the team in 2004 for $401 million from Jerry Colangelo…and, well there will be plenty of Robert Sarver to follow.
14. 2006 NBA Western Conference Finals, Boris Diaw in game 1 had 34 points, let that settle… Eventually the series was tied 2-2 and game five Dirk Nowitzki dropped a 50 bomb on the Suns and they could not recover losing the series in 6 games.
15. During the seven second or less era when the Suns were literally the best team in the league, the last thing they could have used was a young player with talent right? Well that is what it seemed like when drafted, then traded, Luol Deng. They traded Deng for a late first round pick and a future first which ended up being Nate Robinson (side note, how cool would that have been Nate Robinson in that offense?) and like that a two-time All-Star, he was gone.
16. Transition to heartbreak…
17. With 2 minutes and 53 seconds left in-game 1 of the 2007 Western Conference Semifinals, Tony Parker and Steve Nash collided heads causing Nash’s nose to profusely bleed causing him to miss the final minute of the game after bringing the Suns back from a steep defect.
18. Flash forward four games (in the same series).
19. Robert Horry, 2007, Western Conference Semifinals, cost the Suns their first ever NBA Championship. They would have ran through the Jazz, met the woefully under-helped LeBron James, and ran away with the Finals the way San Antonio did. Anyway, Robert Horry hip-checked beloved point guard Steve Nash into the score’s table causing Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw to “leave the bench,” in what they thought was going to be a fight, therefore, they were suspended for game 5 and the Suns lost the next two games. This moment solidified fan’s hatred of the Spurs that started two years ago when they lost in the Western Conference Finals to them in Nash’s first year back. Then the next two years losing to the Spurs 4-1 in the first round both years.
20. Seattle! Yes. The Seattle SuperSonics. Much like the Sam Cassell situation, they were the team Phoenix traded Amare Stoudemire’s successor, Kurt Thomas to in 2007. But that is not all: they traded him with two future first round picks: one ended up being NBA champion Serge Ibaka. The question you and I are both asking is what did Phoenix get back? Well, nothing.