I've bribed, cajoled and begged our way to all of 16 donations totaling $250.

Honestly, I think that is pretty pathetic giving the thousands of people that read this site (FOR FREE) on a daily basis.

Here's one last push through the deadline of this Sunday the 24th with an additional matching offer from HP (see below).

Thanks to all 15 of you that have donated. I appreciate it. For the rest of you that can't be bothered to even pitch in $1 to help some kids...well, I guess you will just have to live with yourself.

Click here to give...

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I have to say, this is pretty disappointing,  4 Donors (only 3 of whom are not named Stan)?

I am not looking for big donations here. You can give a buck. One dollar. Just click through and change the amount to say "$1". That is all. $1.

Thanks to those (3) of you who have donated so far but...

I offered the "carrot" of the opportunity to attend a Suns practice with me (an offer which the Suns organization graciously agreed to support).

Now I am offering the "stick"

If we don't get 20 donors by October 16th this site will do dark for two weeks

$1 dollar. 20 times. That can't possibly be too much to ask from you people.

Make it happen

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More photos » by Lance Murphey - AP

Is Sir Goran Dragic the chosen one? (AP Photo/Lance Murphey)

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For the past year, our noble King Stan has championed for Sir Goran Dragic - a noble knight that was brought to our land from another world. This young knight brought with him hope, a hope for a brighter future once our beloved Steve the Great leaves the kingdom after having fought his final battle. Sir Goran came to our land amidst much fan fare and with great expectations.

However, not everyone in the kingdom saw the same attributes in the young knight that caused the noble King to hope. Rumblings were heard throughout the kingdom. At first, these rumblings were small…nothing more than the bitter regrets often heard on the lips of old men after much drink. Slowly, the rumblings began to grow louder until they reached a point where it was necessary for somebody to stand up to the great king. But who? Nobody dare stand up to His Highness lest they should be banished from the great kingdom and forced to fend for themselves in the coldest and darkest regions of great Empire of the Internet. As time passed the calls for opposition to the King reached a point where finally, a lowly peasant known only as the Dog of Watt stood up and declared aloud his opposition.

The line was drawn as both sides declared their positions. The Great King pleaded for patience, “I pray you, give our young Champion time and he shall prove to be the chosen hero prophesied by the great Mystics.” The Dog of Watt retorted “Enough time has passed old man! The young knight must go for surely a better option shall present itself to us.”  The clash was so great and terrible that all within the kingdom were forced to choose sides. Just as the kingdom was about to be torn in half, it was decided that enough blood had been shed and that surely a peaceful arrangement could be reached. King Stan met with the peasant and negotiated for the space of many hours. Finally, an agreement treaty agreement was reached and terms set forth. Continue reading and then choose your side.

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We've been quite polite these past weeks as we have endured the infestation of a number of Dubs trolls.  Some of them have been polite and interesting.  Some have been so obnoxious that they've even been banned from the SB Nation Warriors Blog, Golden State of Mind. I like the trolls, they make laugh and liven up the discussion with their hopelessly hopeful views about the future of their team.

And truth be told, I love what the Dubs did to Dallas, love the wild west run-and-gun and the stellar community over at GSOM.

However, enough is really enough. 

I find it humorous that they think they can disrespect our team better than we can.  We diss our team everyday, for years.  We dress down everyone from owners, mgmt to bench hopefuls.  Leave the dirty work to the pros.   What troll or casual Dubs fan can insult our team better than we do?  Reading their naive, juvenile criticisms is laughable. 

(I have to confess, dissing Steve Kerr as "one of the worst writers in the history of Yahoo! Sports" was a masterstroke beyond anything I have ever dreamed to say about him, although it could have been even better if AR4 had said "THE worst writer in the spotty early history of Yahoo! Sports" - Kudos there, AR4!)

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via photo by Max Simbron

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Time to win Mercury tickets in the 2nd row right behind the Seattle Storm bench. You can see Lauren Jackson's black finger nails up close if you are into that kind of thing. And if you aren't you will still get great seats to what should be a fantastic ball game. 2 tickets are sec 103, row 2!

You will be close enough to heckle Sue Bird about her...well whatever you want to heckle her about.

The Mercury currently stand atop the Western Conference with a 4-1 record and lead the WNBA in scoring. They will likely be battling with the Storm for playoff position all season. The is the first of 4 meetings and I am expecting a full on playoff-intensity battle.

The game is Sunday, June 21st at 5pm

To win just email me your guess for Cappie Pondexter's points, rebound and assist totals for tonight's game against the LA Sparks. That game starts at 7pm so hurry.

email your entry to Brightsideofthesun @ gmail.com

Sports Management Worldwide is putting on a one-day conference in Las Vegas during the NBA Summer League. The conference includes NBA GM's, scouts, media personalities and lots of other interesting folks.

Here's what they say about the conference:

Gain valuable insight into a variety of careers from those working at the highest level in basketball! This day long career conference offers unique panel discussions and question-answer periods designed to start or advance your career on the business of basketball. The day will be split up into diverse speaker panels; including sports business, athlete representation, scouting, digital video editing, and sports career strategies.

The conference is on Saturday, July 11th in Las Vegas. Cost is $150, but there's an early sign up discount available ($100). Register here.

Full Disclosure:

These folks gave me a ticket to the conference for myself and one to give away to a reader.

If you want to attend and are interested in the free ticket let me know. I am still coming up with a contest idea but I am thinking maybe a 5000 word essay or perhaps something easier.

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Yes folks, we have a winner.

Out of all the tremendous entries (I have to give credit where credit is due) we were able to select the one Mad Lib to rule them all.

The winning entry was _____ example of _______ demonstrating once again _____ about Bright Side of the Sun ________.

and the winner of a Phoenix Suns Hat or T-shirt of his/her choice is _______

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This game coming on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of, well a Sunday afternoon, made it difficult to give a serious watch. I managed to eek out seeing the game in 10 minute chunks between folding laundry and a variety of other distractions like my mother visiting. Doesn't she know there's a game on? Hello?

Anyway, the Suns obviously won the game 109-103 and there's a few other facets that any old recap can tell you.

• Suns started with a 12-0 run that was fueled by blocks and steals. Nice
• The Clips came right back and kept the game close. Not so nice
  
• Nash took like 5 charges and looked like the DPOY. When he wasn't getting totally burned by Eric Gordon that is
  
• Grant Hill was / is awesome
• After Dunleavy got ejected in the 3rd the Suns went on a run and closed the quarter up 13 points
  
• A lead they promptly lost making this another close game which the Suns won by going to their "We are older and better then you" place
• Suns shot 45% from the field and missed 15 threes (29%) and still scored 109. + 1 on OReb. + 3 on turnovers and 2 more made FG's and 2 more made FT's are the difference
• Suns FGA diff, OReb diff and TO diff are improving fast. That's the diff between winning this game and losing to the Heat or Nets
• Shaq is shooting 85% from the line in the past 3 games and is 12-12 in the last two. With him shooting like that Porter was able to give him the ball late and he delivered with a 3 pt play and a great interior pass to Amare leading to a shooting foul.
  
• Who's team is it?

Pretty much anyone can tell you that though. These recaps exist to explain why these things happen and what they might mean.

This time though since I didn't really see the game closely enough I can't tell you any of that.

I am sure however,  a bunch of you did (or can pretend you did). Unfortunately, we've already established you are all lazy and sorry and can't be counted on to put finger to keyboard for more then brief barely incomprehensible blurb of digital barf.

So, to fill in the blanks I've created a fill in the blank recap. Mad Lib style.

Those of you that grew up in the post pencil and paper generation can ask your parents what a Mad Lib is.

To make it more interesting (it is a Clippers recap after all) this Mad Lib recap is now a

CONTEST

That's right. You can win free stuff * just for filling in the blanks!

Here we go...

Clips Nation Recap * Box Score * Game Quotes

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