Yes, Suns fan, the Phoenix Suns can win a championship

Dear Bright Side of the Sun,

I have been a Suns fan for 46 years.

Some of the bandwagon Lakers fans say we will never win a championship.

Babby says, "If you see it in the Sun and the Moon and the Stars, it will be so."

Please tell me the truth, will we ever win a championship?

- Anonymous Suns fan

201 E. Jefferson St. (previously 1826 W. McDowell Rd.)

Suns fan, those pretentious, self-important Lakers fans are wrong, and only count as fans in the loosest sense of the term.  They have been affected by their sense of entitlement in a league that caters to big markets and owners with deep pockets.  That other teams can even compete on their level is not comprehensible by their little minds.  Fans of all teams that have never hoisted the hardware, whether they be Cavaliers fans, Nuggets fans or Clippers fans, know of this braggadocio.  The overbearing sense of achievement from a franchise born on third base acting like they just hit a triple.  Their previous success prevents them from grasping the truth that in the boundless realm of NBA basketball they may be usurped by teams built through perseverance rather than pomp.

Yes, Suns fan, the Phoenix Suns can win a championship. The possibility exists just as much as people who cheer without trophies.  Who follow teams with ardor and don't leave when the wins do.   Who celebrate civic pride and a sense of belonging.  Alas!  How dreary it would be to watch basketball but have no passion for the game and team.  To only have a superficial rooting interest based on hubris and one-upmanship.  It would indeed be a dreary world without Suns fans.  Without Jazz fans.  We should have no enjoyment except David Stern's impending retirement.  The eternal hope that makes sports a tie that binds all of mankind would be extinguished.

Not believe in the Phoenix Suns!  You might as well not believe in the power of the Gorilla!  Just because you may not be able to see the championship coming does not mean that it isn't.  Sometimes the most fantastic and magical things in life don't announce their arrival.  Do you see love before it materializes?  And just because you don't see something, don't realize something, doesn't mean it isn't there.  Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders that may unfurl in the relationship between fans and their teams.

And what once seemed to be Lon Babby's prattle now rekindles the faith once more.  The veil of darkness that blotted out the light has been pierced by a McMiracle.  Even the oft-derided owner of the team foments confidence with recent actions.  Fervor, passion, devotion, memories and hope unite us in the purple and orange and help us imagine the beauty and glory to come - banner or not.  Is this all real the skeptics question?  Do Dragons really exist?  Do Sugar Plumlee fairies fly?  Have the Wonder Twins united?  Is the profound closeness between the Suns and their fans for real?  Yes.  In all of the NBA, in all of sports, there is nothing else this real.

No championship!  I think not.  For hope still burns inside me as hot as the core of the Suns... and it can burn within you as long as you let it.  And years after that championship banner hangs in US Airways Center it will still bring more joy to the fans of the Phoenix Suns than all those gifted rings on the fingers of a team in Los Angeles named after the land of 10,000 lakes...  And I will take my hope over their presumption any day.