With the Phoenix Suns still on hiatus, we at Valley of the Suns turned to the fans and asked for questions for which they wanted answers. Enter our mailbag.
The Phoenix Suns aren’t playing anytime soon, and I don’t know what to do with my hands. Therefore, I put out a request for questions in an attempt to bond with my fellow sports-deprived sufferers.
Most people ignored my plea, but a handful of you did not. I salute thee, and give you my answers to those burning questions:
Question from John Ehret:
When was the last time the Phoenix Suns sold out a home game, and a more difficult one here, when will the next time be?
Answer:
According to ESPN’s Gamecast, the last sellout game at Talking Stick Resort Arena was January 3, 2020 when the Suns played the New York Knicks.
I know. It surprised me too.
In fact, the Suns sold out the Stick four times this season (or is it technically last season now?). They did it on November 29th against the Dallas Mavericks (the Luka-induced self-loathing is strong), November 12th against the Los Angeles Lakers (I’m shaking my fist in their fans ‘general direction), and opening night, November 12, against the Sacramento Kings.
The next time the Suns will sell-out will most certainly be opening night for next season. Between the $230 million renovations fans are pining to drink at, and everyone going through extra-long basketball withdraw, the thirst for a new season will be feverish and will undoubtedly lead to a sell-out, astronomical ticket prices or not.
Question from Rdprnt. Wilson:
Will the Suns be allowed to tank even during a suspended season?
Answer:
Well, Mr. Optimistic, to answer your sarcastic question objectively, no. It’s not even possible. To paraphrase the great Michael McDermott, you can’t lose games you don’t play.
Then again, you don’t win many either.
If the Suns did play out their final 17 games, all indications were they were going to try to win them all, anyway. Maybe that’s foolish. It probably is. The good (bad?) part is, we’ll never know, and we can honestly say the Suns finished this season without tanking for the first time in a long time.
Question from Victoria’s Secret:
How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?
Answer:
Three. Obviously. Everyone knows this.
Question from Alex Clancy:
Would you give up Garfield Heard’s shot up in exchange for one finals appearance by the 7-seconds-or-less Suns if they lost by 30 in each game and got swept?
Answer:
Ah, I love a good hypothetical. In this case, we contemplate giving up one of the most famous shots in Suns’ history, the Garfield Heard buzzer-beater in game 5 of the 1976 NBA Finals, in exchange for advancing to the Finals with one of the best Suns teams most people were actually alive to watch, the 7-seconds-or-less teams. To be specific, let’s call it the 2006-2007 team.
The way I phrased that question says it all. Sure, the Suns’ fandom was intense back in Heard’s day, but a grainy You-Tube video is the only reason most fans today even know that shot exists.
Also, the Suns lost that game. Kind of like the Rex Chapman shot, it was great and all, but the team ended up losing the game, so 90% of its potential awesomeness goes away.
The 2007 Suns-Spurs semi-finals, on the other hand, have been dubbed “the real Finals.” To have won that series amidst all of the controversy and insanity that ensued would remove a giant boulder from the shoulders of fans who remember that a lot easier than their uncle’s favorite memory from the 70s.
Granted, it would be replaced by a drubbing in the Finals, but getting beat that way doesn’t hurt as bad as the way the 2007 Suns fells to the Spurs. This hypothetical was an easy one for me.
To be fair, I wasn’t alive in 1976. In fact, my parents hadn’t even met.
Let me turn the tables. How about this hypothetical for you:
What if you got 10 half-court shot attempts. If you make just one, you get $50 million, but if you miss them all you go to jail for life. You taking that shot?