Top-5 most embarrassing moments of 2019 for the Phoenix Suns

#2: Diuretic Suspension

With a revamped lineup, a new invigorating coach, and lofty aspirations, the Phoenix Suns came out firing in the first game of the season, blowing out the Sacramento Kings. Could it be true? Could the Suns actually not stink this year? Suns fans couldn’t help but allow their hopes to get up a little bit, and justifiably so.

Then the news broke.

The NBA suspended Deandre Ayton 25 games for testing positive for a drug on the league’s banned substance list.

The first thought on most people’s mind was, “What drug?” It had to be super nefarious to get that long of a suspension like steroids or steroids…or something like steroids. Maybe weed.

But, no. It was a diuretic. The same kind of medication your grandfather takes and calls his ‘wee wee’ pill, because it makes him go wee wee all the time.

There is legit reasons diuretics should be on the banned substance list, most notably because they masks other (potentially nefarious) agents, but if you’re second player gets suspended for more than 25% of the year, there’s not much closure around a diuretic.

Suns fans’ hearts sank. And while the remaining players continued their hot start, over time, the lack of a lengthy big man exposed some weaknesses and the losses began piling up followed by sad tweets from Suns Twitter along the lines of “The Suns could have really used Ayton this game.”

And while an appeal looked imminent at first, no news came from it, leading some of us to think the appeal never happened at all.

You can’t help but feel a little bad for Ayton here, but mostly, this will be an extremely embarrassing stain on his career, and the Phoenix Suns’ season.