FanPost

The new Suns bring this thousands-miles-away fan back to the good ol' days

Even though I consider myself a great Suns fan, so much that I'm pretty sure I bleed purple and orange (seriously, I just cut myself and that surely doesn't look red to me. Well, at least it's not purple and gold. That much I'm sure about), my first really vivid memory of the Suns is a highlight reel of a Phoenix-Memphis game of the 2005 NBA playoffs. The upbeat notes of "Winter in the Hamptons" by Josh Rouse were blaring in the background, as Steve Nash was sending a perfect pass down court for an easy Shawn Marion dunk in transition.

You might be asking yourself why a 23 year old self-defined "great" Suns fan, has such a recent event has his first big memory as a Phoenix basketball aficionado. Why? Well, the answer is simple. I'm a "thousands-miles-away" fan, that's why. I'm an "Italian-currently-living-in-Spain" fan. I grew up being able to watch only the NBA finals when I was a kid, since the Italian TV bothered to broadcast only the final act of the long hoops season (you gotta love how much we, the Europeans, are obsessed with soccer: TV stations show more Russian soccer league games than NBA games). There was no Internet back then, no NBA.com or ESPN.com highlights, no web streams, no International League Pass. Only when Nash got back to the desert I really started following the Suns on a daily basis. It also happened to be the perfect time technology-wise (the Internet was an established thing and web streams started being very popular). Beware though, I was already a fan. I've always been a fan ever since my mom bought me a Suns orange cap (proudly displayed on a shelter in my bedroom) when I was 6. A silly purple hat is the reason I became a Suns fan. Funny, right?

Fun is exactly the best word to define that memorable 2005 Suns season. And that's why they really got me hooked up. I have to admit that my initial interest was rather slim. Then, when the playoff rolled around and I was able to watch every game, I was completely riveted and from then on I never looked back. That '05 spring was certainly unforgettable for me. I witnessed a thrilling playoff run that made me waste nights after nights and I got my first taste of disappointment, which, begrudgingly, is a long-time Suns constant: the first of a seemingly endless series of playoffs defeats against the Spurs.

I didn't let the first disenchantment water down my love for the team. Actually, it made me care even more. I decided that I'd watch every possible game the following season. Mind you, that was no easy task. Yeah my satellite provider was broadcasting an NBA game every night, but certainly not every Suns game! So I had to resort to some shaky Chinese webcasts, with Cantonese commentary, no less. That was the best I could find at the time and you know what? It was great. I couldn't care less that I didn't understand a word or that the picture quality was so bad that sometimes I was left wondering if the latest basket had been scored by Steve Nash or Teen Wolf. All that mattered was that I could watch my beloved Phoenix Suns.

Internet streams allowed me to witness some of the best moments in the Suns recent history. I remember Nash's three to send the game in overtime against Dallas, after a timely Marion's rebound (a game in which the two-time MVP went totally nuts scoring 32 along with 16 assists and 8 rebounds). That night I was so psyched that I started jumping in front of my computer trying not to scream in delight to avoid waking up my parents (remember the time difference: it was probably 5 am here, when this bizarre scene took place). The same thing happened when Raja Bell nailed that three from the corner against the Clippers, or when Tim Thomas saved our orange asses against the Lakers. Again, I was jumping all over my room fist pumping and high-fiving myself like an idiot, hell, if I had two chests I would have chest-bumped myself too!

I still remember when Nash rallied the team back in an amazing come-from-behind victory in San Antonio to tie the series and give us all a real hope that, maybe, this time we could overcome the big black hurdle: the much-hated Spurs (or like Bill Simmons refers to those 2007 Spurs: The San Antonio Donaghys. Personally, I think The San Antonio Stu Jackson's would've worked just as well). It was the best game I ever witnessed, well, until the infamous Horry hip check that sent my favorite Canadian (alright Jim Carrey, let's say "co-favorite") flying to the scorer's table. That sequence made me scream at the TV and drop F-bombs on Horry for five minutes (this time I couldn't care less if I woke up my parents). Then we won and my veins were still so overloaded with adrenaline, that I watched the TNT post game show, even though it was 6 am and I slept only 4 hours on the night before an ordinary day of college classes. In the studio nobody was talking about the big win, everybody was worried that Stoudemire and Diaw might be suspended for the pivotal game 5 because they left the bench during the altercation that took place after the shameful Horry's cheap shot. Talk about bittersweet. I couldn't sleep very well that night, and I definitely couldn't sleep well when the Spurs sent us and our title dreams back to the desert after a tough game 5 loss capped by a killer Bowen trey.

After that, as you all know, everything started to go wrong. And when I say wrong I mean awfully, terribly, painfully wrong. I definitely don't want to delve into the details here, really, it's just something I'd rather forget. The last D'Antoni year, the early wins, the dumb Shaq trade, the fluky Duncan three-pointer (I mean, are you kidding me!? Duncan hitting a three?? How is that even freaking possible?!?) that led to yet another playoff exit and the incredibly dumb Porter hiring. Seriously, nobody knew at the time but choosing Porter as the Suns coach because the front office wanted to "play more defense" and "slow things down" would have been just like McCain picking a young, unexperienced and completely ignorant Alaska governor as his running mate in the 2008 elections (oh, wait. That really happened. You get the idea though, you saw how that turned out).

The Porter Era was just a really bad time for us fans, actually "bad" doesn't describe it appropriately, I'd go with "atrocious" or "anguishing". Watching Nash walk (walk! Not run!) up the court and half-heartedly throw a lob pass to Shaq in the post was so harrowing that I regularly threw up during those games. Last year was just a season to forget. Even the promising Gentry era was immediately marred by an untimely Stoudemire injury.

You know the rest of the story, we barely missed the playoffs and got into the lottery, dumped the Fat Cactus and re-signed Nash and Hill, as both players turned down the opportunity of jumping the sinking ship at the right time because they wanted to stay with "their team". I think that was the early turning point of this year's Suns. When Grant and Steve showed everybody how much they cared about the team everything started to click. Players came to Phoenix early in August to start practicing with each other, they were routinely cracking jokes during the workouts (watch the video when Dudley dunks in a pick-up game), having fun with each other and, you might not believe this, but nobody was stealing his teammate's ideas for a TV show.

To be honest, nobody saw this coming. Yeah, the chemistry was great. We knew that and everybody from within the organization kept reminding us. But really, how much can the chemistry count when you have Channing Frye as your starting center? Or Lou Amundson as your backup PF? (No disrespect for Lou, I love him, but he's doesn't exactly posses Tim Duncan skills).

Yet, the ball started rolling and the Suns started running, shooting, having fun and, most of all, winning.

How much will it last? The latest loss against the Lakers might have been a reality check, although you have to consider the fact that it was the second game of a back-to-back set and that the Suns have been in 7 different cities in the last 10 days (seriously, thank you, jerk-who-makes-the-nba-schedule). Still, it always hurts to be beaten up by those guys in gold and purple. However, and 8-2 start is simply amazing. Raise your hand if you would've believed it if anybody told you 1 week before the start of the regular season.

I guess the bottom line is that we should already be grateful that these new Suns are making us have fun and enjoy their games again. I don't know about you but they're certainly bringing me back to the good ol' days. And ultimately, after all we've been through last year, this is all it matters now.