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I've been a Suns fan since I was old enough to decide that I like a team for reasons other than "everyone in my immediate vicinity is cheering" and/or "because they're in my city." Before that, I also cheered for the Suns, but for those reasons and because I was eight years old

One of the biggest reasons I've always loved the Suns is because of their emphasis on the point guard position. It's the one position that any able-bodied person could theoretically play - your height didn't matter that much as long as you worked well with your teammates, spent hours practicing that sweet outside shot or the crossover, and above all you had to be a student of the game.

A good guard - be it the crafty shooter/defender (Raja), the indomitable scorer (Jordan, Bryant), the hyperskilled craftsman (Nash, Stockton) - is to me the epitome of basketball. Everybody else is basketball plus a pituitary problem.




There's a lot of talk about Steve Nash leaving the Suns in the summer. I'm not sure I'm going to be as interested in the Suns anymore if that happens; I fully admit Stephen Marbury's reign was by far the least-interesting to me as a fan (although heading to college may have had an impact, too).

Phoenix has had an all-time-great point guard on its roster for all but three years since 1988*: Kevin Johnson 1988-1996, plus the comeback), Jason Kidd (1996-2001), and of course, Steve Nash (2004- ). During the 3 years without them, we "settled" for Stephon Marbury at his 20 pt / 3 reb / 8 ast / 1 steal per game peak, including an all-star appearance.

That's a quarter-century of greatness.

I knew it couldn't last forever, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to muster up the desire to follow the team more than casually if the Suns don't have what I consider to be the quintessential part of their team identity.

How about you?



* Before that, I was too young to remember (I was born in 1980) but we also had Paul Westphal, Walter Davis, and Dick Van Arsdale. Although he wasn't an all-star player, Pat Riley also played his last season in Phoenix.

I 100% agree.

Aaron Brooks says hi.

There won't be another Steve Nash for years and he won't be traded. He will either sign an extension or leave/retire after his contract is up. Any contending team that trades for him won't be a contender after giving us those pieces. AND HE'S NOT GOING TO MINNY OR TORONTO.

But yeah, the idea of him leaving sucks. I have no idea where we'd go from that point. I guess it'd be a slow, long and boring rebuilding process. Sarver knows ticket sales will plummet so maybe he'll offer an extension for a Stockton type finish. Adding a starting calibur PG to give him rest over those 3-4 years would make sense (Brooks). Just saying...

It's like you're reading my mind.

I hope this is a nostalgic approach to Nash being 37 years old and Suns having almost 0 chance of acquiring a high pick to draft a PG or trade for an All-Star PG in the future..... and NOT for Dragic leaving.... because then... it wouldnt make sense.

I'll always be as interested in the team. No matter who plays. Of course I'll miss Steve. He's my favourite player ever.

Calvin Klein wrote:I'll always be as interested in the team. No matter who plays. Of course I'll miss Steve. He's my favourite player ever.

+1 other than the favourite player part. I will support the team through it all. There are players I don't like on my favourite teams, but I still root for them to do well, however, once they are gone they will feel my wrath.

I think I've invested too much mentally (heartache etc) to not be a supporter of the Suns. My level of interest my drop relative to the competitiveness of our team but once you've invested this much, it's really too hard to just put it down and forget about it.

Just like you guys I'm a Suns fan first, individual players second, but we do still miss the good players when they move on either through trade, free agency or whatever. And I think a lot of the guys that are upset right now feel the same way, but the emotional attachment a lot of us had with Dragic form watching him develope and all the touting that was done about him being Nash's replacement down the road make sit hard to see him go. On top of that Goran was just a really great guy period, and I will miss him too, but when the dust settles and everybody sees waht Brooks will bring they will be fine..

Im a player fan, when Stat was first playing he quickly became my favorite new player. In 2004 i followed the Hornets and you guys being how the only Canadians in the game were playing there. Then Magloire was traded and fell off the face of the earth, the Raptors traded Carter for nothing so i flipped all my attention on the Suns, been like that close to 6 years now.

Wow i can't believe its been that long, when Nash is traded though i'll probably go with him. Dunno who i'll follow when he retires. Probably switch over to Rautins or Dalembert.

good post except the revisionist approach to starbury's reign of awesome

Yeah, I mean, if we're speaking fairly: Steph was an all star player, and highly coveted guard. When you put it in those terms, man, we really have always had a great point guard.

Either way, I cried when Barkley left. I'll cry again when/if Steve leaves. Say what you will about Chuck, but I love watching him on TNT, just because I watched him for so many hours when he played for us, it's nice that he kind of still remains in my life via television.

I personally don't think Steve will leave this summer, just because there was talk of getting a top ten pick for him, but that would mean we were trading him to a lottery team... I don't think he or us would do that.

What kills me is why we weren't able to keep enough pieces together to ensure that Nash retired a Sun.

Trade Nash for a lotto pick? Frack that, I'd rather watch Nash's last NBA game AS A SUN. Hang his jersey in the rafters, put him in the ring of honor and remember fondly these days.

But, he is asking for a trade and the honorable thing to do is to send him to a competitor. I just wish we had never put him in the position to waste the final years, and they're good ones, rotting on a team with no definable direction.

Re-reading this....I missed the last bit about following the team casually after Nash leaves.

No chance of that. I'm Phoenix til I die, and nothing will change that.

BurningHeart wrote:Re-reading this....I missed the last bit about following the team casually after Nash leaves.

No chance of that. I'm Phoenix til I die, and nothing will change that.

Same here. Freakin abusive relationships.

knicks fans were fans til they die when ewing was around.

they all just woke up to watch their team lose to the cavs.

You can only be a complete fan if the ownership cares and puts pieces in place to stay at least a little competitive. Otherwise it's come and go with the decades. Suns have always been respectable, I hope that stays true these next few years.

If it wasn't for my love for the Suns, I would have been done with the NBA after May 31st, 2002.

thamadkant wrote:I hope this is a nostalgic approach to Nash being 37 years old and Suns having almost 0 chance of acquiring a high pick to draft a PG or trade for an All-Star PG in the future..... and NOT for Dragic leaving.... because then... it wouldnt make sense.

Yeah, I never had any hope that Dragic would be as good as KJ, Nash, or Kidd - and that's not knocking Dragic at all.

blackjays1 wrote:when Stat was first playing...

realsunsfan wrote:Just like you guys I'm a Suns fan first, individual players second...

irish22022 wrote: cried when Barkley left.

I'm going to miss Steve Nash a lot, but I'm talking about the Suns' quarter-century span with the best of the best in PG, with a short stint of having merely "very good" in Marbury (and he was very good).

BurningHeart wrote:I missed the last bit about following the team casually after Nash leaves. No chance of that. I'm Phoenix til I die, and nothing will change that. [...] May 31st, 2002.

It's not so much because Nash is leaving, so much as that their emphasis on the Point Guard was the reason I liked to watch the Phoenix Suns.

But as someone mentioned, abusive relationships can be hard to quit

Also: May 31st, 2002?