Faith

The owner asked me what type of fan I was, he said most people he was around were fair weather fans, and would only support their team when they won, and would abandon that same team when they lost.

I've already been away from phx for 2-3 yrs now, and it was an easy question, at least for me. I was allowed onto the suns court as a 10-12 yr old kid a few times, met larry nance and some other suns, my dad speaks fondly of talking with alvan adams on a plane flight.

I'm with this team to the end, or at least for a few more years, I missed a couple of years when the team got marbury, hard to like a team when they're thugs...

but this team (since 2004-present) has been a lot of fun to watch. And even if I knew at the beginning of the yr they weren't going to win it all, I'd still buy nba league pass and watch them play,....but...I do have to say...if we were in miami's shoes and losing 23 of 24 or whatever it was, I'd not be so sure about sticking with them. I just want them to be good, and hopefully great, even with these 2 bad loses, they still are a good team and I think will bounce back from this.

The Gasol trade though really hurt the nba, in my view, it was a simple thing, the nba wants the big markets to do well - boston, ny, l.a., etc (2 out of 3 isn't bad) considering all 3 sucked last yr.
I think the people that run the nba are idiots, but, I still like good basketball, and end up getting that more often than not from the suns...

If you want to hear griping to the nth degree, go to phxsuns.net.  There is a guy in particular who posts regularly, and he is so gloomy, you feel like you need a drink after reading his posts.

Unlike most of the NBA, and that gloomy fan, I never doubted that our brand of small ball, shoot 'em up couldn't win a championship.  I believe the 04-05 crew, if kept together for 2 or three seasons, could have won a championship.  but 3 events doomed that team, one which was of the suns doing, and two others beyond their control.  

The first was how Joe Johnson's situation was handled.  A combination of bungled negotiations with a young star along with a greedy agent sent Joe away.

The second one nobody could forsee, and that was the deterioration of Q's back injury.  He was a key piece, and would have gotten better, but the injury, which I think the Suns new about before the trade, but not it's extent, has proven to be a career killer for Q.

The third is obvious, the event of Amare's serious knee injury, which led to microfracture.

If Joe stayed here, Amare didd not get hurt, and Q stayed healthy, the addition of Raja Bell and a few spare parts would have won a championship.  still, I believe the suns were championship worthy the next year if not for key injuries to Bell and Thomas.  And we all know what happened last year.  

So we could be sitting on three rings right now.  We still could win one with modified small-ball.  The fact remains, we have seen some excellent entertainment, and even when the Nash era ends, I don't believe that we will have a long stretch of losing like the Mavs and Kings had in the 90s.

I think Sarver has shown a commitment to winning through his spending.  Anyone who still spells his name as "$arver" hasn't been paying attention.  Was it money well-spent, though?  Who knows. But, can he sustain it like Colangelo?

Really, though, don't give up on the season yet.  The Suns will make the playoffs and then everything is wide open.

In 2-3 years, there will probably be some lean times, which only means my season tickets will get better.  There won't be a "blow-up" of the team, though, simply because most of the players will retire not get shipped out.

But just to put it into perspective a bit... I did think it was interesting to see the Hornets up by 23 on the Jazz by the end of the first tonight and end up beating the Jazz in the end.  A 23 point first quarter lead on a team that does have solid defense.  The Jazz just beat the Pistons last night by the way and they've done great against New Orleans and Deron Williams has been tearing apart Chris Paul, until this game.

Paul, West.... even Pargo... everyone went off again tonight just like they did on Wednesday, and the Jazz are well known for the tough defense. Yes we kind of blow right now but the fact is our guys have played a few of the hottest teams in the league in their first few games together.  I'm not throwing in the season just yet.