Want to remember what it was like when Steve Nash was shoved by Robert Horry causing Amar’e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw to be suspended killing the Phoenix Suns’ chance at an NBA title? Nash did with Bill Simmons and you can listen here.
On Bill Simmons’ most recent podcast, he and Steve Nash sat down to re-watch the Phoenix Suns’ Game 4 win in the 2007 Western Conference Semifinals together which was culminated with Robert Horry body-slamming the superstar point guard into the boards which caused a slight fracous in which Amar’e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw “left the bench” and were suspended by NBA Commissioner David Stern for Game 5.
Of all the heart-breaking memories that the franchise has, that one is absolutely one of the most devastating, probably only behind the 3-point shot by John Paxon in Game 6 of the 1993 NBA Finals.
For Phoenix Suns fans, re-living that moment only brings pain as that team was arguably the best of that era to potentially win a title, and former towel-throwing Horry body-slammed their chances down the tube.
Of course, the late David Stern told a national audience on the Dan Patrick show soon after that the complaining was all a bunch of palaver, only further putting salt in the fan base’s wounds.
However, while we might all want to forget about the entire series (essentially wishing it out of our collective memories), Steve Nash sitting down with Bill Simmons only brings it back to life.
This is a fantastic nearly hour-and-a-half interview of Nash which breaks down more than just that game, but the season at large, the kinds of interviews that almost never get made.
Regardless of the disappointment that the end of the seaso brought the franchise, the era is still the most exciting in Suns history, and the most prolonged period of time in which Phoenix could have won an NBA title literally every single year.
While we all wish that things had worked out differently in those important few seconds (literally: had Horry either not body-checked Nash, had STAT or Diaw not stepped onto the court, or had Stern just focused on the spirit and not the letter of the law – remember too, Tim Duncan stepped onto the court from the bench in an earlier little scuffle and while most people thought that he was going to be suspended and Stoudemire and Diaw wouldn’t, for some reason, Stern did not see it that way), then the Phoenix Suns might have won their first NBA Title that year).
We all miss Steve Nash as a player, but we still have an opportunity to listen to him and regale us with tales from that era, that season, and that playoff series. This is a podcast that as Phoenix Suns fans, you do not want to miss.