Do you care as much as you used to?

[Raindog]

Even if the window with the current team is shutting (which I don't believe it is), we should have some renewed hope with the new owner coming in... at least, if it's the best case scenario that he actually cares about winning.

If we were still going to be stuck with Sarver, I would share the prevailing cynicism that current window closing probably means a return to a decade or more of irrelevance. Sarver clearly didn't care about putting a winning product out there, but was more about doing the bare minimum anyone could expect from a professional sports franchise ownership.

But if the new guy is anything like let's say Jerry Colangelo, we might actually have something to look forward to. Even though we were thwarted from a championship throughout JC's stewardship of the franchise, he at least never really quit trying to build a competitive team. When one generation of Suns contender began to appear to be running out of gas, you could always count on Jerry to begin trying something different to rebuild it into another viable team. He may have miscalculated a time or two as to what would work, but he never stopped trying.

Hoping that the new owner is cut from the same cloth.

 

[Western Font]

I care as much as ever but I don’t get that worked up in the regular season for any team. I watch because I enjoy cheering for my teams regardless of what happens. Plus even in bad seasons there can be interest. I think CPs game is gone but that’s not a surprise—but we’ll be entering a retool with a new owner. I mean, Sarver selling seemed even less likely than a championship to me for a long time.

 

[Mainstreet]

It's frustrating to think the Suns might have had one more run in them this season, only to see the front office sit on their hands.

Now when Devin Booker returns, the Suns look to be a play-in team if that.

They look more like a tanking team right now.

 

[Covert Rain]

Has your level of passion for being a fan changed?

I’m finding after being a suns fan for a long time, the challenges of the last few years owning a music industry business, and the suns flirting with success but potentially heading back to average quickly that I don’t seem to care that much anymore.

I’m less “glass half full” and more “crowder” in my outlook on this team and the future of the suns. I’d like to think we’re going to stay relevant, but I wonder if we’re in the “every 10 years we have a shot but something crazy happens” mode

It has for me. First, after 50 years of the Suns not getting a title? NOTHING has changed. The Suns will field a team that looks like they have a shot and if they can't get it done it will be a decade before they have another shot. I am starting to think there isn't a chance it happens in my lifetime with the Suns unless this new owner is willing to pay the luxury tax season in and out. I have just come to except that as an Arizona Sports fan which is hard (college to Pro).

Second, it gets less important as I get older. I used to eat live and breathe sports to the point I used to schedule things around games when I was young. Now? If I have a family event or a chance to do something with the family, I take no issue with hitting the DVR record button and catching it later. I have one kid who just graduated with a Masters in Engineering last month, another is a sophomore in college and one that will be starting Junior High soon. I am soaking up every moment before the older two move on with life and while I still have one at home. I take the wife and kids to games when we can all schedule it but it's getting harder and harder all the time.

 

[Sunburn]

No. Teams up 2-0 in the Finals win the championship at a rate of 89%. Following that up with a historic playoff embarrassment......well.....

Insert Seinfeld I'm Done gif

 

[gimpy]

That was our chance for a championship. Probably never get that close again.
I use to be a big Suns fan and basketball fan.

But, as with the Cardinals and the Dbacks, I'm starting to just lose interest in major sports. I will always root for the Arizona teams, but, I don't watch them much anymore. SADLY SMH.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I still watch every Suns game and every Wildcat basketball game. I still love it when they win, it just doesn't bother me like it used to when they lose. I record every Cards game and every Sun Devil football game but I only watch the ones we win. For the Dbacks and ASU baseball, I watch a few innings and even the rare game now and then but mostly I just read the box scores. And for the most part, college basketball is the only sport I still watch when one of my teams isn't involved.

 

[elindholm]

That was our chance for a championship. Probably never get that close again.

This is where I am.

I started following the Suns in 1979-80. They've been a big deal for me along the way. When they went up 2-0 against the Bucks, I thought they were going to win. I felt relieved and calm. I don't know any other Suns fans (unless you count the electronic interactions on this board), so I wouldn't have anyone to celebrate with, but I'd be happy, and I'd move on with my life.

Then I watched them lose. Even in the fourth quarter of Game 6, I was still rooting for them, hoping they'd find a way to turn it around. But it seemed clear that the Bucks were the better team, they had figured out how to win, and they were ready for the moment in a way the Suns were not.

TV coverage showed Booker sitting on the bench at the end of Game 6, trying to come to terms with how it had all gone wrong, and mouthing the S-word. That was how I felt. What looked like a sure thing had been snatched away.

But, weirdly, the feeling of calm did not leave me. The Suns had given me what they had. It wasn't enough, but it was time to move on.

By the start of last season's playoffs, computer rankings had the Suns as the best team in the league, and of course their record supported that assessment. But serious fans knew something was off. The team stumbled to the end of the regular season, struggled to get past the sub-.500 Pelicans, and won the first two games against Dallas only behind Paul's late-game heroics, when the offense had otherwise completely broken down.

I figured they'd eventually get by the Mavericks, but I wasn't too sanguine about their chances after that. And after the first few minutes of Game 7, it was clear that they didn't care, or at least didn't care in the right way. Well, damned if I was going to care more than the team itself was.

You never know when you're going to catch lightning in a bottle, so I was okay with bringing back the same squad for this season. That obviously hasn't worked, whether it's for reasons of chemistry, injuries, or a simple shortage of talent.

But, whatever, it's a basketball team. They'll have good years and bad years. I would have liked to see them win a championship, but it's beyond my control. So life goes on.

 

[Yuma]

No. Teams up 2-0 in the Finals win the championship at a rate of 89%. Following that up with a historic playoff embarrassment......well.....

Insert Seinfeld I'm Done gif

Quoting Seinfeld, "Do you know what 89% means? No. I don't think you do." Paraphrasing the rental car scene.

 

[leclerc]

I've been a fan since KJ, Chambers, X-Man, Horny, Eddie Johnson, those guys, before the Barkley trade. My interest has gone up and down over the years, but I've always been a Suns fan and never cared for other teams. I sometimes root for ex-Suns players when the Suns are not in the playoffs, or I root against whoever are playing teams I really don't like.

It's a shame we going from the Finals and best in the league last year, to this crap with injuries and change of ownership, not to mention the playoffs exit we had last year. Not impressed by the job Jones has done, and I'm starting to dream of a new coach. I also think we should flip Chris Paul for anything we can get and try to keep contending with another star plus Booker, Ayton, and Bridges.

 

[Yuma]

I've been a fan since KJ, Chambers, X-Man, Horny, Eddie Johnson, those guys, before the Barkley trade. My interest has gone up and down over the years, but I've always been a Suns fan and never cared for other teams. I sometimes root for ex-Suns players when the Suns are not in the playoffs, or I root against whoever are playing teams I really don't like.

It's a shame we going from the Finals and best in the league last year, to this crap with injuries and change of ownership, not to mention the playoffs exit we had last year. Not impressed by the job Jones has done, and I'm starting to dream of a new coach. I also think we should flip Chris Paul for anything we can get and try to keep contending with another star plus Booker, Ayton, and Bridges.

I am thinking both JJ and our coach are hands tied until ownership changes. Obviously they can't make trades right now, and Monty is dealing with what he has available. I think once ownership changes this team WILL get better.

 

[Mainstreet]

I am thinking both JJ and our coach are hands tied until ownership changes. Obviously they can't make trades right now, and Monty is dealing with what he has available. I think once ownership changes this team WILL get better.

Something needs to happen before the trade deadline. Let's hope the vetting process is complete for the new owners before then, or James Jones can work some magic with a trade that meets restrictions.

 

[Superbone]

That was our chance for a championship. Probably never get that close again.

That's what it always feels like until it doesn't. Up 2-0, I thought it was finally happening too. We'll be there again. I just hope I'm still alive.

 

[AzStevenCal]

That's what it always feels like until it doesn't. Up 2-0, I thought it was finally happening too. We'll be there again. I just hope I'm still alive.

We're about to see the Suns come up short in their 55th attempt to win it all. I'm to the point where I'm now hoping we follow that up with 55 more seasons without a championship and that I'm still alive when we finally win it all 56 years from now. I'll be 124 and more than ready to celebrate it.

 

[Superbone]

We're about to see the Suns come up short in their 55th attempt to win it all. I'm to the point where I'm now hoping we follow that up with 55 more seasons without a championship and that I'm still alive when we finally win it all 56 years from now. I'll be 124 and more than ready to celebrate it.

You better work on your celebration facial expressions. It might be your head floating in a jar.

 

[AzStevenCal]

You better work on your celebration facial expressions. It might be your head floating in a jar.

I was thinking my skin would be stretched out like a trampoline, Doctor Who style.

 

[Western Font]

Maybe it’s because I live around a lot of Bills and Leafs fans, but I just don’t feel like the Suns are as cursed as others do.

Six current franchises have never made the finals, and four more have only lost the finals. Eight current franchises have won a single championship, three of them in previous cities. The difference between one title and zero feels huge to us, but the Suns may well win one before a bunch of other franchises get their first one, another one, or first in their current location.

Maybe I’m just feeling really positive about Sarver’s departure. This probably isn’t true but it really felt like the Suns could only win it all despite him.

 

[elindholm]

Maybe it’s because I live around a lot of Bills and Leafs fans, but I just don’t feel like the Suns are as cursed as others do.

Six current franchises have never made the finals, and four more have only lost the finals.

The Suns are the only NBA team to have made the Finals at least three times and not claimed a single title.

 

[Western Font]

The Suns are the only NBA team to have made the Finals at least three times and not claimed a single title.

You’re absolutely correct, but I still don’t feel like it’s a category apart from say the Jazz and Nets each losing their two finals in a row, or the Nuggets and Clippers having never made the finals. Hopefully Ishbia is our Cuban and brings us a title, because the Mavs would otherwise be right down there with us all.

 

[Phrazbit]

You’re absolutely correct, but I still don’t feel like it’s a category apart from say the Jazz and Nets each losing their two finals in a row, or the Nuggets and Clippers having never made the finals. Hopefully Ishbia is our Cuban and brings us a title, because the Mavs would otherwise be right down there with us all.

I disagree. I think it stings worse to have had the level of success the Suns have had in their history and have not won the title. I'd say the Jazz are comparable, but these teams that are perpetually trash... who cares? The Cardinals are one of the most inept franchises in sports history, I am basically numb to their trash level of play because it's expected.

The Suns on the other hand... they just find new ways to make it sting, bring my hopes up, only to knife my heart again.

 

[Western Font]

I disagree. I think it stings worse to have had the level of success the Suns have had in their history and have not won the title. I'd say the Jazz are comparable, but these teams that are perpetually trash... who cares? The Cardinals are one of the most inept franchises in sports history, I am basically numb to their trash level of play because it's expected.

The Suns on the other hand... they just find new ways to make it sting, bring my hopes up, only to knife my heart again.

Fair enough. With the Cards the SB really stung for me because it seemed so miraculous that they were there and seemed (seems?) so impossible that they’d get back. I’ve always had more faith in the Suns because of the success, but I understand how that can add to the frustration.

 

[Yuma]

Something needs to happen before the trade deadline. Let's hope the vetting process is complete for the new owners before then, or James Jones can work some magic with a trade that meets restrictions.

Heard today that Crowder's contract is over the minimum, so technically Sarver can block it.

 

[Mainstreet]

Heard today that Crowder's contract is over the minimum, so technically Sarver can block it.

I understand a trade can be made for a player making the league average pay.

 

[Yuma]

I understand a trade can be made for a player making the league average pay.

I meant average pay. Sorry! You knew what I meant!