I thought I would root for the Celtics initially versus the Lakers, but then I remembered something, they probably don't make it to the Finals without assistance from David Spurn, in the Atlanta series. Remember it was after game 4, with the series headed back to Boston, tied 2-2. Boston of course, never won a game in Atlanta.

And I know for sure that there is no way that at least 27 other teams in the NBA, would get away with guys coming on to the court, and have their star player (KG) push a ref, and not be penalized. We Suns fans will always be bitter for what happened last year, when Amare & Doris, were suspended for coming to the aide of their leader, Steve Nash, for essentially the same thing the Celtics got away with in the 1st round. Only differences were, that nobody on the Hawks leveled one of the best players, and nobody on the Suns, pushed a ref.

And to second that, I found myself, like many of you to be rather happy with the lesser of two evils prevailing, with the Lakers beating the Spurs. Nevertheless, I still hate the Lakers. I want to root for the Celtics, but I'm not sure they make it to the Finals without sheer ignorance from the NBA. I at least know that the Lakers earned their way to the Finals, granted they received a gift in the most sided trade in years, with Pau Gasol. And if not for the Gasol trade, maybe we don't trade for Shaq. Also KG, should be a Sun, and not be in Boston. That pains me too.

Nonetheless, this is a dream come true for the league, ABC, and many basketball fans, who grew up watching the great Lakers/Celtics rivalry. The Bandwagons are loading up. It's the return of the blue bloods. Regardless, I know that this will atleast be a better NBA FInals series, as opposed to the one where only 37 people outside of Cleveland and San Antonio watched last year.

 think it's safe to say that the Utah Jazz have the worst fans. Yes, they may be loud, but to boo Derek Fisher, that's just classless.  They booed him in the regular season, and they booed him again tonight.

Now, I hate the Lakers with a passion as much as any Suns fan, but to boo Derek Fisher is just senseless.  He did what any sane parent would do for their child. I guess in the land of polygamy, with big families, losing a kid or two won't hurt, since you have so many offsprings anyways. I hope this is not the thinking of the people there. I'm sure it's just the Laker jersey, but in this case you gotta be respectful.

Regardless, I hope the Jazz get swept, the people there deserve it. Now, if only we could have them lose in similar fashion as the Suns did the past two years.

P.S. I would also love to see the Spurs and Lakers find lose like that too.

How true it is about the end of the Suns era.  What could have been, if better decisions using common sense had been applied in the front office. 

 Here's Bill's solace to the Suns/Spurs rivalry:

"Maybe the Suns didn't win a championship, but we'll remember them 100 times more fondly than the brutally efficient and hopelessly bland Spurs, who taught everyone over the years that the regular season doesn't matter, transformed the NBA Playoffs into a flopathon, revived the vile and fan-unfriendly Hack-A-Shaq strategy and did everything short of sending Bruce Bowen out on the court with a chain saw and a taser. If the Spurs were the Team of the Decade, no wonder ratings dwindled until the league's big comeback this season.

The real shame is that all the mugging, acting, eye-rolling, flopping, rule-bending and hysterical shrugging obscured what should have been remembered as a throwback sports team, a shrewdly assembled roster of well-coached guys who played beautifully together, didn't care about credit and revolved around the best power forward who ever played. Instead, we'll remember them as the team that turned the NBA Playoffs into the World Cup. Congratulations, fellas."

[Note by Phoenix Stan, 05/03/08 6:25 PM PDT ]

A couple days late, but I finally worked up the courage to read this article. There's no news here and yet seeing it all splayed out is just too depressing for words...

All teams have their "what if" moments (Sam Bowie ) but I think going back to their earliest days, the Suns have to be right up there with any other sport organization ever...ugh

why nobody was suspended from the Hawks/Celtics series after an altercation in Game 4. It basically the same crap where guys jumped off the bench, but not only that no punishment for KG pushing a ref. I know the Celtics are Stern's mealticket out of the East come on now. 

Now, they finally punished someone in the playoffs, in Darius Songailia, for barely slapping LeBron, after he was trying to free his hand. What's up with that? I swear, David Stern has got to go. There are more double standards in the NBA, than any other league. We need a fair commish, not a hypocrite/backstabber in David Stern.

28 out of 30 owners including the Suns Robert Sarver voted to let the douchebags Clay Bennett & his boy David Stern, move the Sonics to Jokelahoma. Props to Mark Cuban and Paul Allen for sticking up for what's right, even though their peers were gutless or retarded or both.

Now the only ways the Sonics have a chance at staying in Seattle, is if Mr. Starbucks is able to win his lawsuit, claiming that Bennett didn't purchase under good faith to keep the team in Seattle. But since the justice system blows, I put no stock in this happening.

The only other chance that the Sonics stay, is if they can make Bennett hold true to their lease for another 2 years. And in that time, hopefully Kevin Durant blows up and turns into a LeBron or Kobe level player, who becomes the face of the franchise. It wouldn't hurt if Jeff Green becomes a player too. You also have to hope that they take a stand against Bennett, and say "if you move the team, we (I'll) leave." When LeBron came to the NBA, the value of the Cavs franchise virtually doubled. If he were to go ahead and move the team anyways, and let Durant walk, they might just turn into the Montreal Expos.

When you think of "Iron Men," you think of Cal Ripken, Lou Gehrig, and Brett Favre. Well in the NBA the current "Iron Man" is Bruce Bowen, who last night somehow played his 500th consecutive game.

I'm sure if he wasn't a San Antonio Snore, and Stern wasn't the commish, that streak would have ended a long time ago.

Anyways here is that jackass from last night's game kicking CP3.

Let's face it, Mike D'Antoni is the Mike Martz of the NBA.

-Both guys are considered offensive geniuses
-Both guys have coached the highest scoring offenses in their respective leagues.
-Both guys coached the most entertaining teams to watch in their time.
-Both guys coached teams with suspect defenses.
-Both guys have an enormous ego when it comes to coaching decisions, where they go to the well one too many times, and are too stubborn to adapt:
--->Martz is notorious for wanting to pass more, run less, and leave minimum protection for his QBs, who ultimately get killed. Regardless of the Spygate scandal, if he had run Marshall Faulk more in the Super Bowl vs. the Patriots, they would have won that game, despite the spying.
--->D'Antoni is notorious for wanting to run, run, run (which is fine with me), but he refuses to utilize his bench, so his teams always lack the depth that other teams have, like those who win championships. I thought D'Antoni blew it last year when he only played 6 players in Game 5 against the Spurs when Amare & Diaw were suspended. Yes, they were screwed over by the league, and yes they played hard and inspired, but they ran out of gas, and ultimately lost.

Sometimes I wonder why people open their mouth. Now I know Amare is a terrific athlete, but I'm not too sure he's doing himself a favor here with a senseless statement like this:

"From a marketing standpoint, I haven't reached my full potential. With my personality and aura and swagger, I have a good chance to be marketed. Lots of companies adore me."

The Amare section is below the benching of Jason Kidd segment, which I also find to be senseless.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/7852542/Why-wasn't-Kidd-on-court-in-crunch-time?

Now I'm sure many of you have seen this already. My friends that are Spurs and Lakers fans love this video.

And I'm not sure if it was posted on this site, but for those that haven't seen it, well here you go....

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Let's hope this video is proven to be wrong, and that the Suns overcome all odds to win a title.

[Thanks for breaking the news, AF. For the record, I still think the Hawks would have made the playoffs anyway due to the overall level of awfulness in the East, but this makes it that much more likely. -TexSUN]

Looks like the Kings are about to send Mike Bibby to the Hawks for some expiring contracts. So look for them to be big players in free agency this off season, and even worse, this now makes the Hawks playoff contenders, and certainly squanders any chance the Suns draft pick will fall in the lottery.

http://www.sacbee.com/kings/story/717681.html