Phoenix Suns legend Shawn Marion discusses his career on new podcast

Shawn Marion’s time with the Phoenix Suns was one of the best eras in team history. Recently he joined a podcast to discuss this time and his entire, remarkable, career.

Shawn Marion recently sat down with Adam Stanco and Noah Coslov with Rejecting the Screen podcast and discussed his entire career. Here are some highlights from the chat where he reminisced about his time with the Phoenix Suns.

He tried to recruit Kobe to Phoenix

Way back in 2004, Kobe Bryant was frustrated with the Lakers and the feeling was mutual. There was some interest in Kobe coming to the Phoenix Suns, and Shawn Marion actively tried to make that happen.

"Of course [I tried to recruit Kobe to Phoenix], why wouldn’t I? He was a true competitor. I loved Kobe. When he laced them up, he came to play."

Instead, the Suns ended up with Steve Nash and Quinten Richardson. Not too bad. Later, we found out from the Suns they actually were in talks to trade Marion and Jason Kidd for Kobe. It never materialized, but it makes you wonder what could have been.

He loved when KJ came out of retirement

Marion claimed to be a huge Kevin Johnson fan growing up. He had his sneakers and everything. So when Johnson came out of retirement during Marion’s rookie season, he claimed it was like playing with a living legend.

Marion was spoiled early in his career with point guards. On top of KJ, he played with Jason Kidd, Stephon Marbury, and of course, Steve Nash.

Marion doesn’t think they could have won the championship in 2007

When asked about the infamous Amar’e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw suspensions in the 2007 NBA playoffs, The Matrix claims he felt it didn’t really matter because he didn’t think the Phoenix Suns were the best team that year.

That’s a first, but you have to admire his honesty.

He thinks 2006 was the year they should have won it

I don’t want to say he blamed the 2006 series lost to the Dallas Mavericks on Mike D’Antoni, but he was critical of the short rotation he implemented during that run. He said after Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, he had never been more tired in his life.

The Suns only played a 7-man rotation for pretty much the entire playoff run which included two 7-game series, and Marion said he and other guys had more rest, they would have beaten the Mavs. He also thinks they would have easily handled Maimi, who they blew out twice in the regular season.

Found out about trade to Miami during Super Bowl

Shawn Marion was having a Super Bowl watch party in 2009 (when the Arizona Cardinals played the Pittsburgh Steelers) when his agent called. He stepped outside and found out he was getting shipped off to Miami for Shaq.

He then proceeded back to the party to have a few more drinks and a good time.

It is always fun to hear former great players reminisce about the past. This was no exception. Take a listen during this quarantine.