The Sleeping Giant: Phoenix’s fan base is taking the NBA world by storm, and by chug

After 11 years of pain and suffering, all the pent-up frustration has been channeled into one of the best playoff home-court advantages in recent memory. Multiple Phoenix Suns players have been on the record commenting about how “crazy” or “surreal” the fans have been through their first 10 games. Opposing fans, the media, and even celebrities have also taken notice of just how wild these fans have been.

Game 4 on the road in Denver was a prime example of this, as Chris Paul stated during the postgame interview linked below, “We ran out for warmups and it felt like a home game.”

“That’s crazy. Man, that’s sick. I ain’t been on a team like this that travel like this.” - Chris Paul

Check out this Suns crowd, postgame IN DENVER. Sure all the Nuggets fans had left, but all these people had to have bought lower level tickets to be down into that section together. What a sight to see!

They even got the attention of Stephen A. Smith earlier in the series for a brief segment featured on ESPN.

Not only have the fans as a collective unit taken the world by storm, but individual fans have taken a life of their own. Whether it was the viral “Suns in 4 guy”, the kid that took his shirt off, Guy Fieri, Michael Phelps, Emma Stone, “Thor & Zor”, the broom lady, the armband man, etc., there was a myriad of viral videos on the internet of Suns fans just simply... having fun.

Devin Booker went as far as to reach out to “Suns in 4 guy” so I’m sure this is far from the last of this story, it wouldn't be a shocker to see him courtside at one of the upcoming Suns' games.

This is all before we even mention superfans such as Mr. ORNG, Suns Tutu fan, or even the video of those four teens going crazy after this Torrey Craig dunk.

Chugging With The Fellas

This #ChuggingWithTheFellas movement has taken Suns Twitter by storm. It started as a fun routine after wins to chug a drink in celebration of a Suns win by none other than the “Chug Father” Serg Caraveo (@SergingSuns). The “Big 3” of him, @thrillathechase, and @kaiti3bug have pushed the movement to new heights, making it for a good cause.

Here’s the full scoop of the story below:

The movement brought thousands of Suns fans together for a good cause and went as far as getting Suns’ broadcasters Eddie Johnson and Kevin Ray to join in on the fun. For more fun on this, you can dive into the hashtag on Twitter.

So far, they have raised more than $10,000 of donations to the one*n*ten organization.

On Court Advantage

Sure the viral videos, memes, and storylines that come out of this are all great, but the fact of the matter is this fanbase is giving Phoenix a legitimate boost on the court. The knockout punches they have been able to deliver that is generated through the momentum of the crowd losing its’ collective mind have been good enough to bury both the Lakers and Nuggets in stretches.

There’s a reason for crowds in sports being phrased as “the proverbial sixth man”, and it’s shown to be more true to this point for Phoenix. If the Clippers defeat the Jazz in the semi-finals, the Suns would have home-court advantage throughout the rest of the playoffs.

Airport Arrival

The never-ending party continued as the team landed at Sky Harbor Airport to be greeted by a large contingent of rambunctious Suns fans.

All of this should be no surprise, as this was the same fan base that held a parade in the middle of summer and gathered 300,000+ fans after their loss to the Chicago Bulls in the 1993 NBA Finals. That was for a loss in the Finals.

I can’t even imagine what that parade would look like if they could secure 8 more wins. Stay hyped, Suns Nation. It’s your time to shine.