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.
The Phoenix Suns are House Martell from Game of Thrones: Location and Words.
Location
House Martell resides in Dorne, the kingdom furthest south in Westeros. It is a desert region that practically never experiences the harsh winters of the rest of the country.
Sound familiar?
Phoenix is also in the far south of the country, surrounded by desert, and has relatively mild winters. The only difference here is that while the citizens of Westeros tend to stay home year-round, folks from colder regions of America flock to Phoenix like a White Walker to a corpse.
Words
House Martell’s words are, “Unbowed. Unbent. Unbroken.” The Phoenix Suns motto is, “RisePHX” or something. I don’t know, it changes often.
The Martell’s words are specific to their ancestorial history about not bending the knee to Targaryen rule and the Suns’ slogan was probably developed by a dude in his mid-20s on the social media team.
Okay, there isn’t really in similarity here. Let’s just skip this one, and move on.
The Phoenix Suns are House Martell from Game of Thrones: Most prominent figure
Most Prominent Figure
Perhaps the most prominent and respected member of House Martell in the Game of Thrones series was Oberyn Martell. He slipped into Kings Landing in Season 4 of the show (or a Storm of Swords if you’re a book reader) and went out with a bang in the same season.
He had an extravagant personality, supreme confidence, and was a tremendous warrior. Unfortunately for him, he ran into the fiercest man on the planet, The Mountain, who, after a good battle, smashed in Oberyn’s skull with his bare hands.
If I were to compare Oberyn to a player on the Suns it would unquestionably be Charles Barkley. Like Oberyn, he had an eccentric personality that either endeared him to people or rubbed them the wrong way.
Just like Oberyn, even though he wasn’t around long, he is still considered one of, if not the, most prominent player in organization history. He was an absolute warrior with extreme confidence but was never able to get over the mountain when he ran up against the baddest man on the planet, Michael Jordan, in the 1993 finals.
Now, all Suns fans can do now look back fondly on the heroes of the past, as does House Martell. But what about who came after these prominent figures?
The Phoenix Suns are House Martell from Game of Thrones: Subsequent characters, plots, and loyalists’ perspective
Subsequent Characters and Plots
After Oberyn’s death in Game of Thrones, with a few exceptions, the entire Dornish storyline had about as much oomph as a stale kidney pie. The Sand Snakes had some cool moments, but ultimately, they never made much of an impact on the rest of the houses and faded away into complete irrelevance.
That’s what the Ringer was referencing when talking about not doing much on the big stage.
They’re not wrong about the Phoenix Suns. Sure, the Suns had some quirky, and intriguing moments post-Barkley like the seven-seconds-or-less era, but ultimately they have dipped into obscurity and have not been serious threats to rule the NBA.
Loyalists’ Perspective
Many fans of the Suns were born or live in Phoenix much like most of those loyal to House Martell were born or live in Dorne. And while both sets of supporters are proud of their institution’s rich history, they have looked around lately and thought, “What in the seven hells is this?”
The people of Dorne didn’t sign up to be ruled by a bunch of bastard Sand Snakes, just like Suns fans didn’t sign up to be strung along by a collection of incompetent executive leadership.
There are signs the worst days might be behind both House Martell and the Phoenix Suns, but it is too early to tell how bright the outlook will be moving forward for these two desert-dwelling, proud families.
What I do know is that flags with the sun on them will be waved high for generations to come.