The Phoenix Suns might not be in a great spot right now, but it is easy to forget just how bad the situation was before Devin Booker was drafted by the franchise. They were a team that was going nowhere and which could not attract free agents, and if nothing else these days fans get to cheer for potentially the best Suns player ever in Booker each night.
The last great roster in The Valley made it to the Western Conference Finals back in 2009-10 - losing in six to the Los Angeles Lakers - and it featured some of the most beloved Suns ever. Steve Nash being the most obvious name, but there were plenty of cult heroes in Channing Frye, Jared Dudley and even Leandro Barbosa on that roster as well.
Amar'e Stoudemire has now confirmed why he left Phoenix.
Stoudemire was the x-factor of that group, a dominant two-way forward who did a little bit of everything for that team. During the 2010-11 regular season he led the team in minutes (34.2), and alongside Dudley was the only player to appear in every game. More than that though, "S.T.A.T." started every contest, and was the engine behind their 54-28 record.
With the benefit of hindsight we now know that his knees didn't have a ton of time left at an elite level by the end of the season - but when Stoudemire opted out of his current deal and became an unrestricted free agent - fans were both shocked and hurt. He was unveiled as a New York Knicks player on the first official day of free agency, and the rest is history.
Only that's not the full story - and on a recent episode of "7pm in Brooklyn, a Wave Original" hosted by Carmelo Anthony - Stoudemire set the record straight on that period in his career. The Suns were close to the mountain-top, and running it back alongside Nash and the core of the roster the franchise had would have surely led to them being competitive again the playoffs the next year.
"For me I was trying to re-sign with Phoenix. We had just been to the conference finals and lost on a buzzer beater…I go into negotiations with Robert Sarver, the owner of the Phoenix Suns at the time and I’m like alright I’m leading the team in scoring, rebounding, block shots, deflections."
So far so good - although given the disgraced nature with which Robert Sarver was eventually forced to sell the organization - we should have known disaster was around the corner in those negotiations. Prior to selling up Sarver had a reputation as not being willing to spend the money necessary to win, which is in direct contrast to current owner, Mat Ishbia.
"He’s like oh we gotta do some kind of reconstructed contract where if you gotta play 72 games if not you lose 20 percent of your contract, something crazy like that…There was too much grey area, and I’m like let’s not mess around with this and keep Nash and Stoudemire together."
With front offices in the league being as smart as they ever have been - and given what we know was going to come with Stoudemire's health - Sarver might actually have been onto something here. But clearly the way in which this was conveyed to a perennial All-Star during this period did not sit well with Stoudemire, and rightly so.
You could make the case the Suns got a happy ending of sorts here - because although they lost a chance to compete for a ring to begin the last decade - they weren't saddled with a hobbled Stoudemire for years either. Sarver was forced to sell up, the team eventually drafted Booker and the situation got a lot better.
Although with stories like this one being the prevailing theme as we enter a long offseason, it is hard to know exactly how much better things ultimately are at this point. For a certain generation of Suns fan though, this is a sore spot and one which Stoudemire himself got a lot of blame for in choosing to become an unrestricted free agent. His side of events paints a clearly picture of that period.