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"I was fortunate enough to play in the heyday of the Celtics in the '80s," Ainge said. "As things were going downhill, I was fortunate to play with Portland for two years and go to the Finals and also play for Phoenix for three and go to the Finals. Those experiences helped me and taught me there is more than one way to win and different personalities.

"I feel fortunate that I had a chance to play with Kevin Johnson, Dan Majerle, Tom Chambers, and Charles Barkley. It was different than in Boston."

Ainge joined the Suns as a free agent before the 1992-93 season, as did Barkley, now a Hall of Famer. Phoenix had the league's best record (62-20) that season and advanced to the Finals to play Michael Jordan and the Bulls. In Ainge's sixth and last Finals appearance, the Suns lost the series in six games. The Suns were eliminated by Houston in the second round of the playoffs in 1994 and '95.

"It was kind of a magical year," Ainge said of his first season in Phoenix. "They had a new arena, new uniforms, a new coach in Paul Westphal. Charles Barkley was there. Signing as a free agent, it was really exciting, fresh and new. We had a good year and lost to the Bulls in the Finals. It was painful. It was a fun team to play with and Westphal was a fun coach to play for. So was my whole time in Phoenix. [Then-president] Jerry Colangelo was one of the great men in sport.

"I really thought we were the best team in basketball the next two years. We had leads on Houston both years, and both years Barkley was hurt. We ended up losing those series and Charles was a shell of himself. It was a bad break because we were the best team in the league."

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball ... n_phoenix/

I was so young then... I remember crying on my bed when Houston came back from down 3 to 1... No joke I was heartbroken.

Those were the days. When every other car on the street was covered with purple and orange streamers and white shoe polish declaring GO SUNS.

My entire neighborhood got together for the games. Muted NBA on NBC, cranked up KTAR/Al McCoy and everyone sat in their "lucky spots" in the neighbors family room.



Ah, to be young again.

those were the motherfracking days. i was really freaking young, but i remember it all

sadly im only 17 but i do often look on youtube to see those days because my favorite old school players are of course Sir Charles and KJ. if only someone could come in [ownership wise] and just get veteran staff to turn us around.

wdrummel wrote:I was so young then... I remember crying on my bed when Houston came back from down 3 to 1... No joke I was heartbroken.

Ainge did everything he could to win those years. I even remember in Gm 7 95 against Houston, when all hope appeared lost -- Rockets had possession up 2 or 3 with about 1 or 2 seconds left -- he actually stole the ball and got a halfcourt shot off before the buzzer.