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.
