Your Phoenix Suns?

Tonight is the beginning of another season of the Phoenix Suns.  Many media cohorts have said the Suns will win anywhere from 20 to 25 games.  I happen to agree with them, but it's a different era of Suns basketball.  I've lived in Arizona all my life and my fandom with the Suns goes back since birth.  I remember players I looked up to as a kid. Alvin Adams, Paul Westphal and others.  Then as I got older, the players changed.  In came new players, Kevin Johnson, now head coach Jeff Hornacek, Charles Barkley to name a few.  Then the recent run with Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire and of course, Steve Nash.  Those teams were fun and those memories are pretty good.  I look around U.S. Airways Center, and see some of those names in the Ring of Honor, along with former trainer Joe Proski, the late Cotton Fitzsimmons and of course, my idol, broadcaster Al McCoy. 

Long gone are those names and teams, and the team is going through a massive rebuild.  Ever since Robert Sarver bought this team, the air of enthusiasm has emptied out of the arena.  Some have said it may be in his best interest to sell the team and get out of the business.  Who knows what the future holds.  Heck, maybe this rebuild will finally give this city, and Suns fans, what they have long wanted out of this organization, an NBA title.  Only the future holds the answer to that.

People have asked me for a couple of months, "Dave, why do you even want to bother with the Suns this year, they suck."  Well, that could be, but suck also pays the bills along with success.  As bad as this team may be, they are still a fixture in Phoenix.  All of the memories of success and failure, are all ingrained in the minds of longtime Suns fans.  I giggle at fans of other teams in town that bash and poo-poo the Suns, forgetting that their team has gone through equally as tough trials and tribulations like Suns fans are going through. 

Here's the simple fact as fans of the hometown teams.  We are all in this together.  Cardinals, Coyotes, Suns and Dbacks fans should wish each other well and hope for success, because that helps everyone out.  It helps the economy, it helps every team's ad rates, yes remember it's all still a business.  See, that why the new owners of the Phoenix Coyotes are at the season opener for the Suns.  They get it.  It's about a team atmosphere, with everyone working for one common goal: Victory. 

So, with that said, I wish all the success in the world to the Suns and everyone involved in the organization because even though this year could be very rough, in the future I feel it all will be worth it. 

Dave