Chaplin,
I apologize if my tone offended you. I think, by and large, when it is my intent to offend someone, it's usually pretty obvious. My impression is that you talk down to me more than I do to you, but you may not see it that way.
but this little "deal" you're making basically says "when I'm right in 2 years, you'll have to brown nose your way into my good graces."
Actually, no. I might slip up and say "I told you so," but that won't be my motivation. It's the complaining that others do about external things that gets to me. Some people complain about "power rankings," or the officiating, or a post by a fan of some other team. I confess I haven't kept track of what complaining you've done. But the Suns make their decisions and have to live with them, and if we buy into them when they're made, we have to live with the consequences. Those consequences include all of that other nonsense, because it is the makeup of the team that leads to those other issues.
I have also consistently expressed my opinions moreso in regards to this season, rather than 4 or 5 years down the road... It's been 35 years--I want the Suns to put a competitive team on the floor.
It hasn't been 35 years since the Suns put a "competitive" team on the floor. They were good enough to advance in the playoffs just a handful of years ago. This year's team cannot realistically compete for a championship, if that's what you mean with your reference to 35 years.
And besides, Marbury's contract extension does nothing to help this year's team.
I do disagree, however, of the way you present said opinion... talking down to people like you do doesn't make your opinion anymore valid than slinslin's, or hcsilla's...
I can't believe that when I explain things, you put that in the same category as the bickering you, slinslin, and hcsilla seem to be so fond of. I put a lot of thought into trying to explain my way of thinking, because some people, including you, seem interested.
The Colangelo's past record tells me they aren't just sitting on their hands and doing nothing like you think they are.
I have already said -- twice -- that I think they have a well formed plan, and they are following it strategically.
but in my experience, the C's have consistently tried to find a mix that would work--it hasn't worked for 35 years, but they keep trying.
I have a confession to make. I think that the Colangelos' priorities have changed. I really believe that. I don't know if it's because Jerry's losing piles of money on the Suns and Diamondbacks, or if it's because he won a World Series, or if he's just getting too old and has partly given up. I have no idea.
But these latest moves really seem doomed to me, in a way that earlier moves never did. I'm one of the few die-hard Suns fans who supported the Majerle/Williams trade from the beginning. I thought (incorrectly, as it turned out) that Longley was worth a shot. I thought that they acquired Barkley at the right time, and then dumped him at the right time. And I also believed that, if the Colangelos thought that an extra $5 million a season would help the team win a championship, they would spend it.
But now I don't know what to think. On the same day that the team says that it wouldn't consider paying Dikembe Mutombo $1 million a year, it pays Stephon Marbury $20 million. On the same day that the team finds itself with no healthy center on its roster, it makes a move that will make having depth on future rosters all but impossible. In the same week that the team dumps one of its more promising recent center prospects in the name of "flexibility," it locks itself into a single strategy through the end of the decade, with no backup plan.
Does every team have winning a championship as its goal? I think we'd agree that the answer is no. As we all know, professional sports is a business, and maybe the business side of Jerry Colangelo is starting to overtake the "fan" side.
I just don't see how paying Marbury $20 million a year instead of $17 million puts the Suns closer to a title. But what it does is make everyone happy (well, almost everyone) and ensure an attractive entertainment product. As fans, we all have to live with this decision. I guess all I was trying to say before was, we can question it now, or we can question it later.