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http://www.azcentral.com/sports/heatindex/articles/2008/12/14/20081214spt-p2young.html
After all these years, Quentin Richardson is expected to play Monday against the Suns in Phoenix for the first time since he was traded for Kurt Thomas after the 2004-05 season.
You may recall that team started the season 31-4 en route to an NBA-best 62-20 record - despite having the youngest roster in the league.
Almost immediately, the Suns began tinkering with that club, trading Richardson and then sending Joe Johnson to Atlanta in a sign-and-trade.
Some deals made sense at the time. Some didn't.
We wondered if Richardson ever thinks about what might have been had the Suns kept that 2004-05 core together and let it ride.
We only had to ask once:
"The most amazing thing is that most of us are still tight to this day. Every time we go to Atlanta, I go over to Joe's house. When they're in New York, he'll come hang out. In the summer, I'll go to Atlanta. Joe will come to Chicago. We'll see Shawn (Marion) all summer, and we'll hang out with Stat (Amaré Stoudemire). No matter where we are, we always talk about that - 'Why did they have to do what they did?' "
He wasn't done:
• "If you look at it, we were really just a healthy Joe Johnson away from being able to compete with San Antonio. It's unfortunate, but sometimes that's the way the NBA is. They think they have to do this or that to fix something, when the reality is if you give us another one or two or three years with our same core group of guys, we would have won a championship."
• "The most frustrating part about it all, when you've been around the league you know when you have a special group of guys with that blend of talent and the kind of egos that allowed it to work, allowed everybody to be who they were. You don't come across that a lot."
• "You get teams with a lot of talent, but you don't have guys who are willing to sacrifice and are willing to say, 'OK, we'll take the back seat.' Guys who really know what it takes to win."
• "Everybody is making money and having good careers, but at the same time we all realize and acknowledge that we had something pretty good. Even from coach. We had a great coach that everybody got along with. You never get that - all the players on the same page and the coach likes everybody and everybody likes the coach. We had a rare thing, and it was pretty much dismantled in the snap of a finger."
• "The way it unraveled, nobody expected. It would have been different if we weren't getting along or we weren't having success and we had a clue that it was coming. We were ready to go right back at it again, then boom, it just exploded, and it has been one piece after another since then."
• "I mean, dead serious, we still talk about it till this day because we had a great time. We loved the fans, loved being here, and we had a great group that all hung out together. That (62 wins) is the result you get. I definitely, in my heart of hearts, know we would have won it if we had a couple years."
• "I was especially disappointed about Joe. I know who Joe is, and the way they tried to portray how everything came down. . . . I watched the game when he came back here when they were booing him. Anybody who knows how Joe is, they know he won't say anything controversial. He just took it with a grain of salt and played. But anybody that knows him, knows the spin that was put on it, it was never like that."
• "The whole season long, they told him he's the top priority in the off-season. Then he's not the top priority. Then they tell him to go get a new deal. They signed Raja Bell before they got him signed, so if he's the top priority, why are any moves being made before he's taken care of?"
• "Joe was important. He was our backup point guard, too. People forget that, and they're still looking for a backup point guard."
• "They said he was going for the money. Yeah, after you stick it to him once, twice - man, you still think he's coming back here? Joe did not want to leave. But that's the business part. They have to cover their own butts so the fans won't say, 'You ruined our team.' In actuality, they did."
After all these years, Quentin Richardson is expected to play Monday against the Suns in Phoenix for the first time since he was traded for Kurt Thomas after the 2004-05 season.
You may recall that team started the season 31-4 en route to an NBA-best 62-20 record - despite having the youngest roster in the league.
Almost immediately, the Suns began tinkering with that club, trading Richardson and then sending Joe Johnson to Atlanta in a sign-and-trade.
Some deals made sense at the time. Some didn't.
We wondered if Richardson ever thinks about what might have been had the Suns kept that 2004-05 core together and let it ride.
We only had to ask once:
"The most amazing thing is that most of us are still tight to this day. Every time we go to Atlanta, I go over to Joe's house. When they're in New York, he'll come hang out. In the summer, I'll go to Atlanta. Joe will come to Chicago. We'll see Shawn (Marion) all summer, and we'll hang out with Stat (Amaré Stoudemire). No matter where we are, we always talk about that - 'Why did they have to do what they did?' "
He wasn't done:
• "If you look at it, we were really just a healthy Joe Johnson away from being able to compete with San Antonio. It's unfortunate, but sometimes that's the way the NBA is. They think they have to do this or that to fix something, when the reality is if you give us another one or two or three years with our same core group of guys, we would have won a championship."
• "The most frustrating part about it all, when you've been around the league you know when you have a special group of guys with that blend of talent and the kind of egos that allowed it to work, allowed everybody to be who they were. You don't come across that a lot."
• "You get teams with a lot of talent, but you don't have guys who are willing to sacrifice and are willing to say, 'OK, we'll take the back seat.' Guys who really know what it takes to win."
• "Everybody is making money and having good careers, but at the same time we all realize and acknowledge that we had something pretty good. Even from coach. We had a great coach that everybody got along with. You never get that - all the players on the same page and the coach likes everybody and everybody likes the coach. We had a rare thing, and it was pretty much dismantled in the snap of a finger."
• "The way it unraveled, nobody expected. It would have been different if we weren't getting along or we weren't having success and we had a clue that it was coming. We were ready to go right back at it again, then boom, it just exploded, and it has been one piece after another since then."
• "I mean, dead serious, we still talk about it till this day because we had a great time. We loved the fans, loved being here, and we had a great group that all hung out together. That (62 wins) is the result you get. I definitely, in my heart of hearts, know we would have won it if we had a couple years."
• "I was especially disappointed about Joe. I know who Joe is, and the way they tried to portray how everything came down. . . . I watched the game when he came back here when they were booing him. Anybody who knows how Joe is, they know he won't say anything controversial. He just took it with a grain of salt and played. But anybody that knows him, knows the spin that was put on it, it was never like that."
• "The whole season long, they told him he's the top priority in the off-season. Then he's not the top priority. Then they tell him to go get a new deal. They signed Raja Bell before they got him signed, so if he's the top priority, why are any moves being made before he's taken care of?"
• "Joe was important. He was our backup point guard, too. People forget that, and they're still looking for a backup point guard."
• "They said he was going for the money. Yeah, after you stick it to him once, twice - man, you still think he's coming back here? Joe did not want to leave. But that's the business part. They have to cover their own butts so the fans won't say, 'You ruined our team.' In actuality, they did."
