The Phoenix Suns and House Martell from Game of Thrones have a surprising amount in common. Seriously. It’s full-grown-dragon level spooky.
The Ringer recently put out a string of tweets comparing various NBA teams to houses from Game of Thrones. Some pairings were iffy, but the match with Phoenix Suns house was spot on.
It’s been a year since the final season ruined the greatest series of all time, and to be honest, my soul hasn’t fully recovered. But when I saw the Ringer’s tweet, I briefly fell back in love with the show that captured my heart for so many years (before ultimately ripping it out).
If you haven’t seen Game of Thrones, stop reading now. Go binge all 70-plus hours of it, and come back when you have some self-respect. The following analysis is not for the Game of Thrones noob.
Here we go.
For the Phoenix Suns, the Ringer’s comparison was to that of House Martell, and by the grace of the old gods and the new, they nailed it. I don’t even think they appreciated how great their analogy was. Their tweet caption was fairly simplistic:
"Just like the Phoenix Suns, House Martell is surrounded by sand and when put on the big stage, it doesn’t really do much (RIP, Oberyn)"
So as quarantine drudges on, this felt like a good tweet to turn into a deeper post analyzing exactly how good of a comparison House Martell is to the Phoenix Suns.
First, the obvious:
Sigil
If you disregarded my advice above and kept reading even though you aren’t up on Game of Thrones, every house has a sigil, which is essentially the logo on their flag (banner) they wave with pride. For House Martell, this is a spear through a sun.
While the colors are slightly off (House Martell’s are orange and red instead of orange and purple), the Phoenix Suns should consider suing House Martell for copyright infringement of their sunbust logo. The problem here, of course, is that lawsuits don’t really exist in Westeros, so if Suns owner, Robert Sarver, were to seek damages, he’d have to lead a team of soldiers into Dorne and battle the Prince of Dorne in a fight to the death.
Anyway, let’s move on.