The Madhouse: Preparing for Suns basketball that actually matters

Phoenix Suns basketball is about to matter more than it ever has in my 30s. I’m 38. It’s been a long-ass time.

We lost when I started new jobs, and we lost when I relocated states. We lost when I started dating this new chick, and we lost when I proposed to her. We lost when we got married, and we lost when we bought a house. We lost when we had a kid, and we lost the first time I heard her say, “Suns.”

But the losing is over. A decade of winning is upon us. And like a lot of you, I’m sure, I’m going to have to get back into the mindset that my favorite collection of professional hoop-fillers is among the very best collection of professional hoop-fillers in the entire Association of hoop-fillers.

WHERE I WAS

I gave up on this franchise. I really did. I’ve said it here before, plenty of times. Were it not for this site and the opportunity to express my frustrations on occasion, many occasions, I may not be a Suns fan today. The entire eighth generation of home video games consoles came and went without a Phoenix postseason appearance. Colin Kaepernick threw 72 touchdowns against 30 interceptions during the Suns’ playoff drought. There were nine DC Extended Universe films released. NINE. And I saw zero of them. But I hope that you did. That was surely better time spent than watching many of those Suns teams.

Because there are better things to do than watch a team get blitzed by 30, 40, 50 points nightly. There’s no nobility in sports poverty. For myself, there has been sparks of interest, but by and large, the Suns have not been appointment television.

Those days are behind us. And it’s going to be a long time before we revisit them, but if and when they come back around, learn from your mistakes. Do something else. We weren’t close to competitive, and we should remember that. When Robert Sarver decides he wants to get very involved again, which is always a bad thing, walk away. No one invested more wasted time and energy on the Suns during the darkest period in Phoenix professional basketball history than I did. I started throwing my garbage up on the site in 2014. 2014! What a dumb time to get involved!

But it’s all different now.

WHERE I AM

I miss my Vegas Golden Knights. A lot. But the start of the next VGK season holds a lot less mystery than the next Suns campaign. The Knights have never been bad, and probably never will be bad. And somehow they got even better in the offseason.

But Phoenix basketball is dominating the conversation in my household, whether my wife, daughter, and dog like it or not. Once upon a time the Suns convinced me they were not worth the cost of NBA League Pass, but I am a buyer once again. Every electronic device in the house capable of showing an NBA game is set up. I even bought NBA 2k for the first time ever. There’s a lot of buttons to figure out.

Arguably, the upcoming season is the most important one in franchise history. This club was scorched earth. The Suns’ fall was unlike any the NBA has ever seen, and I’m not forgetting the New York Knicks. The impact the Knicks franchise has had on the history of the Association has always been overstated. Fight me.

December 23rd will be a holiday in our house. More so than Christmas. Seriously, we have to work. I will smoke a pork butt for eight hours at minimum, have a pot of wassail sitting on the stove, and settle in for the next, best era of Phoenix Suns basketball. Here’s hoping you have plans to celebrate the beginning of our journey back towards the postseason. Minus three weeks and counting.

Cheers.