When I started this blog I wanted to write about Sports from an objective perspective. I know I have been doing a good job of this so far but I still cannot forget that I am a fan at heart. I moved to Arizona from Southern California when I was a freshman in High School who was only a Lakers fan because of my love for Magic Johnson but never was a die hard fan of a football or baseball team even though I started watching both sports when I was about 7. I immediately became a Cards fan when Jake Plummer came out of Arizona State in 1997 and embraced the underdog mantra that came with the undersized second round pick. The Diamondbacks would have their inauguration in 1998 and I went to a game late that season in which the Dbacks upset Greg Maddux and the Braves and was would become a fan at that point. I enjoyed watching the retractable roof open at the B.O.B (Bank One Ballpark now Chase Field) and the games had an ambience of going to an event more than a baseball game (23 years later it feels like watching a game at a Costco more than a ballpark things change quickly in the world of sports). Thanks to Jake Plummer I was already a Sun Devil fan which obviously as I entered my college years would naturally grow. The one team that I was never a diehard fan of but always found myself joyful when doing well was the Suns but because of my Lakers allegiance could never become a die hard. However, I was a Lakers fan because of Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant and my Lakers flame has flamed out some since the retirement of the Black Mamba. Which has allotted me to actually be rooting for the Suns in this first round series against the Lakers this season. Some Laker fans will call me a traitor but I mainly rooted for the athletes than the stars on the Lakers and things change.
Now since everyone knows my rooting allegiances (Which I always will try to not interfere with my objective writing) I can dive into some history of Phoenix and it’s teams. Even though I may have never been a diehard of them many of my friends back home are Suns fans more than any other team because the Suns have been around since 1968 (Cardinals 1988, Diamondbacks 1998, Coyotes to include Hockey why not 1996). Thanks to the Census Bureau for this information the population of the Phoenix metro area has grown from 798,000 to 4.5 million in the 53 years of the Suns existence. That is an almost 600 percent population increase, in other words Phoenix went from a decent sized city in the late 60s into the mega metropolitan area it is today. But the few generational Arizonans that are here will always embrace the Suns for the team that has been around through the rapid growth and changes Phoenix and much of Arizona has endured over the five plus decades of it’s existence. The Suns are the original Arizona sports team and one of the few basketball teams that may be the most popular in the city and state.
Now to why Arizona sports fans are cursed, I know many of you don’t believe in Curses but you will after I am done with this column. Just since 2000 Boston has won 11 championships, New York has won 4. Los Angeles has won 11, Tampa has won 4, Miami has won 4, Chicago has won 5, even two cities in Missouri who each only have 2 pro sports teams in St Louis (4) and Kansas City (2) have multiple championship trophy’s. You know how many pro sports championships that Phoenix has in 133 combined seasons of their teams existence, 1!! That one was even in doubt in 2001 when the Diamondbacks came to bat in the bottom the ninth of game 7 of the World Series down 2-1 and facing Mariano Rivera. The Yankees would have likely held on to win their fourth World Series in a row if Mariano Rivera didn’t commit a throwing error, or Scott Brosius forget that Jay Bell was running on the ensuing sac but attempt (was a force at third and easy double play opportunity but Brosius decided to not even considering throwing the ball to first base) or the infield played back on Luis Gonzalez blooper that won the game (Gonzo was a viable double play candidate and there was one out in the inning and Derek Jeter would have caught that blooper playing at normal or even half way depth). In other words it took the Yankees having three blunders in the bottom of the ninth inning in a game that the best postseason closer ever was on the hill for Arizona to win their one and only pro sports Championship. That feat alone was improbable, but now let’s go into some of our close calls over the years. Suns fans you may want to stop reading now most of these stories involve you.
First close call was in the 1976 when the Suns only went 42-40 but got hot in the postseason all the way to the NBA Finals. The Suns and Celtics would be tied at 2-2 in the finals and the Suns would lose a heartbreaker in the NBA Finals to the Celtics 128-126 in triple overtime in one of the best NBA Finals games of all time. The Celtics would win at the Mistake on McDowell (or whatever they call the Arena now haha Arizona sports fans get it) in game six to clinch the finals. The next close call for the Suns would come in 1979 when the Suns would make it to the Conference Finals and would lose 114-110 in a hard fought game seven against the the eventual Champion Seattle Supersonics (remember them??).
The 1980s would be a lot of good but not great Suns teams and the next real chance for the Suns would be in 1990 when the Suns could not hit a clutch shot in tight game 5 and 6 losses to the Trail Blazers in the Conference Finals. The Suns in the 1992 offseason would trade for Charles Barkley from the 76ers and the chance for the Suns to win would be now. The Suns would have their brand new arena in downtown Phoenix and their new star player and would go 62-20 and 35-6 at home in the 1992-1993 season. The Suns would fall down 2-0 to the Lakers in the first round but would fight back to win the series from their arch nemesis then win hard-fought Series over the Spurs and Sonics and return to the Finals to play Michael Jordan’s two time defending champion Chicago Bulls. James Paxton happened in game 6 that we don’t want to really revisit and the Suns would lose the Series 4-2. Michael Jordan would retire in the offseason to play baseball and the Suns would have their chance to return to the top or so we thought. Back to back seasons with Conference Semifinals losses in 7 games to eventual Champions Rockets would follow including two words that are still a bad word to Suns fans today, Mario Elle.
Charles Barkley would get traded to the Rockets after a disappointing 1995-1996 season and the Suns would go into the 1980s Suns mode where they would make the playoffs every season but were never a viable threat to win the Title. That would all change in the 2004 offseason with the signing of Steve Nash pairing with coach Mike D’Antoni to create a new style of basketball called seven seconds or less that is frequently used around all of basketball today. The Suns would frequently be one of the best teams in the Western Conference but would go on to lose to the Spurs three times in the playoffs (Robert Horry anyone?) and the Mavericks one year in the Conference Finals when star forward Amare Stoudemire was out with an injury. The Suns would go on one last run in 2010 and get to the Western Conference Finals while slaying the Dragon known as the San Antonio Spurs to get there. The Suns and Lakers would be tied at 2 games a piece and be tied in at 101 in Game 5 with the Lakers having the ball last. Kobe Bryant would air ball his game winning shot but in typical Arizona Sports luck he missed the shot so bad that the Artest formerly known as Ron (now Metta Sandiford-Artest) was underneath the basket for the winning putback as time expired. The Suns until this season haven’t even been back to the playoffs ever since that night. We will circle back to the Suns later.
The Cardinals came to Arizona in 1988 from St. Louis. The Cards were so bad playing games in the hot Arizona sun at Arizona State’s Sun Devil stadium that the games were frequently blacked out which meant that all of the Cardinals home games could not be watched on local television. Outside of the 1998 Jake Plummer led 9-7 season the Cards did not have another winning season or playoff appearance in their whole time in the desert until arriving in their new stadium (State Farm Stadium or formerly known as University of Phoenix Stadium) in 2006. 2008 ended up being a renaissance season for the Cards which won a bad division at 9-7 and would host their first playoff game since coming to the Valley of the Sun. The Cards would make a playoff run all the way to the Super Bowl behind veteran Quarterback Kurt Warner and super star receiver Larry Fitzgerald. The Cards would come back from 20-7 down in the 4th Quarter of the big game with Larry Fitzgerald scoring on a 64 yard touchdown to take a 23-20 lead with 2:37 to play. That would prove to be too much time for Ben Roethlisberger and his Steelers who were the opposite of the Cards history wise going for their sixth Super Bowl Championship. Santonio Holmes would make a dazzling catch (are we sure his feet were down) in the back of the end zone with 35 second left to vault the Steelers to a 27-23 win and their sixth Lombardi trophy. The Cards would have two other great teams in the mid 2010s in 2014 and 2015. 2014 would see the Cards fall into a late season collapse after a 9-1 start mainly due to Carson Palmer tearing his ACL and Ryan Lindley being forced to start a playoff game which obviously did not end well. 2015 the Cards were 13-3 and won one of the best playoff games of this century thus far over the Packers in the divisional round. However, in the NFC Championship game Carson Palmer collapsed and 2015 Cam Newton happened (watch some youtube Cam was awesome that year). The Cards are now under the stewardship of Kyler Murray and the future may be bright but the Cards have not been to the playoffs since that late January evening in Charlotte back in 2016.
The Diamondbacks would instantly be one of the best teams in baseball going 100-62 in 1999 under new signings Randy Johnson, Luis Gonzalez and Steve Finley. The Dbacks however would get upset by the Mets in the first round losing the deciding game on a Chris Pratt (yes Chris Pratt, only Arizona Sports fans would get doomed by that guy) walk off homerun. The Dbacks would lose to sweeps in 2002 to the Cardinals when Randy Johnson was bad and the Dbacks couldn’t hit. They would fall by the way side of the stampede known as Rocktober in a 2007 NLCS sweep to the Rockies. Then the Dbacks would lose a deciding game Five in extra innings in 2011 to the Brewers and Nyjer Morgan (yes the same Nyjer Morgan who slammed his glove down and stomped away from the ball for not catching an Adam Jones fly ball which resulted in an inside the park homerun). The Dbacks only postseason appearance in the last decade was in 2017 but lost to the Dodgers in a first round sweep (Archie Bradley triple in the wildcard game was still awesome though). Other than one World Championship and many bizarre stories (which I may write about someday) the Diamondbacks 23 year history has been mired with mostly mediocrity. The Coyotes have been in Arizona for 25 years but outside of a 2012 run that ended in the Western Conference finals to a Kings juggernaut in five games the Coyotes have mostly been irrelevant and talks about leaving town for good have been quite frequent over recent seasons. Arizona State football has had some good seasons but their only Championship opportunity was extinguished in 1997 by some guy named Joe Germaine (I know those two words hurts me too). ASU basketball is James Harden, Byron Scot and not much else to discuss over their programs history. ASU baseball did have Barry Bonds in the 80s. Hey ASU Softball and Golf still kicks butt. We already did write about a great moment by a former Sun Devil just last week (Um Phil…). So let’s circle back to the latest maybe moment for an Arizona Sports team.
Tonight the Suns are playing in Los Angeles against the defending champion Lakers in Game 6 of the first round of the NBA Playoffs with the Suns up 3-2 in this series. Anthony Davis is injured and may not play. Lebron James is also fresh off an ankle injury and is as dangerous as always but certainly not 100 percent. The winner of this series plays a very flawed Nuggets or Blazers team in the second round that the Suns would be heavily favored to win. The Western Conference is as wide open as it’s been in a long time, a potentials Finals berth and possible championship is there for the taking so what now. Either way this story goes it is going to be the latest chapter in the heartbreak of the Arizona Sports fans hearts or the improbable run to maybe breaking an entire city and states curse. One championship that the city and state is even lucky to have, many close calls, many irrelevant seasons. The Suns could start the change now, in an odd condensed season. Maybe it starts the movement of rings we all dream about. Maybe Kyler Murray leads the Cards to a Super Bowl in the next two years. Maybe the Dbacks top farm system has them at the top of baseball by 2024-2025 as we have seen with the Cubs in 2016, the Astros in 2017 (they did it the right way haha jokes jokes) and maybe Padres this season have done before with a similar model. We are Arizona sports fans, we stand proud and battered. We stand hopeful and always skeptical. We will be watching at the Staples Center tonight, seeing if it’s the start of potential changing of the guard or the beginning of the latest heartbreak and anguish we have all become tragically accustomed to. At least we have hope, that’s the one thing that can never be taken away from us. Game on, first tip is at 7:30, I’ll see you there!