Interesting Sportingnews.com Suns related content

[Chaplin]

Got the mag in print today, and they reproduced it online. I'll put the Suns-related stuff down here. Basically, it was a bunh of "What If" scenarios...

The first is "What if the Blazers had taken Michael Jordan with their pick instead of Sam Bowie?

6. Jordan and Drexler win five championships for the Blazers. The Blazers also reach The Finals in two other seasons, but they lose to Pat Riley's Knicks in 1993-94 and to the Pacers in 1995-96 when Reggie Miller hits a 3-pointer at the buzzer in Game 7. The Blazers also are denied in the 1991-92 conference finals by the Malone- and Stockton-led Jazz, which then beat Mark Price and the Cavaliers in The Finals. The Jazz prevails after Stockton eludes Craig Ehlo and nails a shot from the top of the key in the closing seconds of a decisive Game 6. Stockton's fist-pumping celebratory jump becomes a classic NBA postseason highlight. In the '92-93 conference finals, Barkley's Suns take advantage of the Blazers' poor shooting and advance to The Finals, during which they sweep the Knicks for the franchise's first title. Jordan retires before the 1999 lockout season and turns to professional golf.

Then, there is another "What if..."

The Suns had won the Lew Alcindor coin toss?


Phoenix and Milwaukee finish last in their conferences in 1968-69 to qualify for the coin flip that determines which team gets the No. 1 pick.

The Suns win the toss and end up with Alcindor. They also trade for power forward Paul Silas and sign free-agent small forward Connie Hawkins.

To this day, the makeover is considered the most successful offseason overhaul in NBA history. As the anchor of the league's top front line, Alcindor leads the Suns to four titles in six years. He then tries to force a trade to a bigger city, but the Suns hold firm.

Alcindor, now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, plays his entire 20-year career in Phoenix. -- Stan McNeal

 

[Beaver]

Stupid Blazers. Cost us a championship!

 

[devilalum]

The Suns had won the Lew Alcindor coin toss?


Phoenix and Milwaukee finish last in their conferences in 1968-69 to qualify for the coin flip that determines which team gets the No. 1 pick.

The Suns win the toss and end up with Alcindor. They also trade for power forward Paul Silas and sign free-agent small forward Connie Hawkins.

To this day, the makeover is considered the most successful offseason overhaul in NBA history. As the anchor of the league's top front line, Alcindor leads the Suns to four titles in six years. He then tries to force a trade to a bigger city, but the Suns hold firm.

Alcindor, now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, plays his entire 20-year career in Phoenix. -- Stan McNeal


This is the best what if I have ever seen (Just don't show it to Jerry, I've heard that no one in the organization is aloud to mention the coin toss.)

Alcindor, Silas and Hawkins would have been the best front line in the history of the game.

 

[George O'Brien]

One of the problems with many "what-if" scenerios is that the biggest relates to injuries. If Sam Bowie had been healthy, the Blazers migh very well be remembered as "the" dominant team in the late 80's and early 90's. Imagine if you could add a healthy and mobile center to their starting lineup:

C - Sam Bowie (rather than Duckworth)
PF - Buck Williams
SF - Jerome Kersey
PG - Terry Porter
SG - Clyde Drexler

With Cliff Robinson, Danny Ainge, and Kevin Duckworth.

This could have been one of the great teams, but Bowie was never healthy and long gone by 1990 when they first went to the finals.

 

[Yuma]

Hey Chaplin, the what-if scenario that REALLY haunts me:

What-if Ainge had NOT left Paxson to try and triple team Jordan? It would go something like this:

"One of basketball's greatest defensive plays ever has to be Danny Ainge's stealing of Michael Jordan's pass in the NBA Finals. With the clock winding down, the Chicago Bulls give the ball to Jordan and he is suddenly double teamed and seemingly unable to get a shot of. In trouble Jordan tries to pass to John Paxson for a three pointer, and the wiley veteran Danny Ainge steals the ball to seal a victory for the Suns who end up winning their first NBA Championship. Later, a joyfully sobbing Jerry Colangello declares Ainge is a Sun for life!"

Also, later that day in a joyfully exhuberant display, Charles Barkley throws two bar patrons through plate glass windows!!!"



You have to feel for Ainge when you watch the replays of that game. He tries to cheat into Jordan and gets caught in no man's land. You can see on his face he KNOWS he screwed up. Then the shot goes in and Ainge visably slumps. I read an interview over a year agao where Ainge lamented his instinct to try an help out on Jordan. He realized he couldn't have got there in time if Jordan was going to shoot, plus he sagged so far in that he couldn't cover Paxson either. For Ainge it was like one of those nightmare's where no matter how fast you try to run you aren't getting anywhere. When I was up in Portland a long time ago, Ainge was thought of like we think of Danny White here, as Oregon's best athlete ever.

 

[Chaz]

Originally posted by Yuma
Hey Chaplin, the what-if scenario that REALLY haunts me:

What-if Ainge had NOT left Paxson to try and triple team Jordan? It would go something like this:

"One of basketball's greatest defensive plays ever has to be Danny Ainge's stealing of Michael Jordan's pass in the NBA Finals. With the clock winding down, the Chicago Bulls give the ball to Jordan and he is suddenly double teamed and seemingly unable to get a shot of. In trouble Jordan tries to pass to John Paxson for a three pointer, and the wiley veteran Danny Ainge steals the ball to seal a victory for the Suns who end up winning their first NBA Championship. Later, a joyfully sobbing Jerry Colangello declares Ainge is a Sun for life!"

Also, later that day in a joyfully exhuberant display, Charles Barkley throws two bar patrons through plate glass windows!!!"



You have to feel for Ainge when you watch the replays of that game. He tries to cheat into Jordan and gets caught in no man's land. You can see on his face he KNOWS he screwed up. Then the shot goes in and Ainge visably slumps. I read an interview over a year agao where Ainge lamented his instinct to try an help out on Jordan. He realized he couldn't have got there in time if Jordan was going to shoot, plus he sagged so far in that he couldn't cover Paxson either. For Ainge it was like one of those nightmare's where no matter how fast you try to run you aren't getting anywhere. When I was up in Portland a long time ago, Ainge was thought of like we think of Danny White here, as Oregon's best athlete ever.

DOH! Ainge was helping on Grant, not Jordan.

 

[Yuma]

Ainge was on Paxson. Jordan had the ball and two guys immediatly went to him. Ainge tried to sag in and help on Jordan, he turned and fired it to Paxson. The rest is history. Try catching that game on ESPN classic and you will see it's just as I described. You must be nuts to think they would give the ball to Grant with the clock winding down when you have MJ on your squad!

 

[Chaz]

Originally posted by Yuma
Ainge was on Paxson. Jordan had the ball and two guys immediatly went to him. Ainge tried to sag in and help on Jordan, he turned and fired it to Paxson. The rest is history. Try catching that game on ESPN classic and you will see it's just as I described. You must be nuts to think they would give the ball to Grant with the clock winding down when you have MJ on your squad!

I have that game on tape. If I have time I will check it later tonight.

From Suns.com

In the Finals against Chicago. Phoenix lost the first two games at home, but won two of the next three in Chicago, including Game 3, a historic triple-overtime affair that saw Dan Majerle tie an NBA Finals record with six three-pointers and KJ set an NBA Finals record with 62 total minutes played. Down three games to two, the Suns returned to the AWA and appeared poised to send the series to a Game 7 in Phoenix. But suddenly, disastrously, amazingly, there was Bulls guard John Paxson wide open beyond the arc with only a few seconds to go and the Bulls down two. The Shot.

"The worst thing that could have happened at that time was a three," says Frank Johnson, a reserve guard for the Suns that season. "If they would have hit a two, we would have been all right, overtime. They didn't really want the overtime, because they were fatigued. If you think about it, Michael (Jordan) wasn't even involved in the play. The best player wasn't involved in the play."

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Originally posted by Yuma
Ainge was on Paxson. Jordan had the ball and two guys immediatly went to him. Ainge tried to sag in and help on Jordan, he turned and fired it to Paxson. The rest is history. Try catching that game on ESPN classic and you will see it's just as I described. You must be nuts to think they would give the ball to Grant with the clock winding down when you have MJ on your squad!

you are wrong. grant had the ball under the basket and passed it out to paxson.

 

[elindholm]

It was on an offensive rebound, wasn't it? Maybe Ainge was still lost from having helped out on Jordan for the initial shot.

 

[Chaz]

Well I found my tape of the game.

On the last scoring play of the 1993 Finals game 6

Jordan receives the inbound pass. Jordan pressured by Johnson.

Jordan passes ahead to Pippen. Pippen penetrates down the lane and passes to a cutting Grant. Grant immediatly passes out to Paxon who shoots and makes the three.