Suns updates and discussion for the 2022-23 season

djm75

Rookie
Joined
Jan 20, 2023
Posts
75
Reaction score
65
Location
Spain
But the biggest game we had tickets to was the one that never came to pass… lower Bowl tickets to Game 7 of SUNS V. BULLS. A game for THE AGES! Until Paxson for 3.

UGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
OMG, that three still stings even after all these years.
 
OP
OP
Mainstreet

Mainstreet

Cruisin' Mainstreet
Supporting Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Posts
118,319
Reaction score
58,667
A number of teams are signing players to two-way contracts. The Suns have a slot open.
 

Cheesebeef

ASFN IDOL
Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2003
Posts
91,516
Reaction score
68,797
They played a helluva game of hot potato on offense those last few possessions. The Barkley Suns were incredibly mentally weak.
Majerle shot an eight footer on the baseline as the shot clock expired… that was so short, it barely even grazed the net.

Had the ball… up 4, after a Barkley offensive rebound with 56 seconds left and Westy called a TO giving our own guys a mocking “Choke” sign… all fun and games!

For some reason, I watched a 20 minute version of Game 7 v. Drexler Rockets last night. Still crazy we lost that game even with a limping Barkley. The Rockets couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn most of the first half where we held a consistent 15 point lead. Then they just made some of the toughest shots over and over again, while KJ and Ainge’s three point shooting kept us neck and neck. KJ went to the line with 20 seconds, down 1, 45 points and 20/20 from the line… made the first and then missed his first FT all day.

And then for some mind boggling reason we decided we were going to TRAP Kenny Smith right before he hit half-court where he easily got rid of the ball sending the entire D scrambling with guys wide open towards the Rockets hoop ending with Elie all by himself, no one within ten feet for an easy corner 3.

WHY THE HELL WERE WE TRAPPING AND DOUBLE TEAMING THERE?!?
 

Proximo

ASFN Icon
Joined
Mar 8, 2015
Posts
12,718
Reaction score
10,619
They played a helluva game of hot potato on offense those last few possessions. The Barkley Suns were incredibly mentally weak.
Mentally weak? A mentally weak team never wins Game 5 in Chicago. Sorry not buying that at all.

That team was one John Paxson Missed three from winning a title, well at least having a great chance anyway. Amazing how much that would have changed history.
 

Cheesebeef

ASFN IDOL
Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2003
Posts
91,516
Reaction score
68,797
Convince me that the Barkley Suns were mentally weak in general. That mentally weak team had taken one of the mentally strongest players of his time, Michael Jordan, to six games. The reason we can know those Suns gave the Bulls a tough series was that the Bulls coach personally said so. I'll grant that Danny Ainge might have been mentally weak, though. (In addition to being counterproductively arrogant.)

And the Bulls could make many teams look mentally weak. Dennis Rodman did it to Shaquille O'Neal and Michael Jordan did it to Karl Malone.

And if the Suns made errors against the Rocks, well, the Rocks had the one player whom Michael Jordan admitted to fearing!
Weird post. Every team took MJ to 6 games in the Finals so the Suns were nothing special there.

Ainge was probably our mentally toughest player on the team.

And Barkley himself admitted they were scared in the first two games of the Finals. That’s a hallmark of a mentally weak team.
 

Cheesebeef

ASFN IDOL
Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2003
Posts
91,516
Reaction score
68,797
Okay, but I call it mere inexperience, not mental weakness. Only the same problem that let the pre-dynasty Bulls keep losing to the Celtics and Pistons.
And what was the excuse when they totally choked away back to back series against the Rockets when they were the more experienced team?
 

Covert Rain

Father smelt of elderberries!
Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2005
Posts
36,536
Reaction score
15,631
Location
Arizona
Barkley was never mentally weak. His overconfidence and the ability to back it up is the opposite of mentally weak. Maybe he was referencing the team in general but Barkley hasn't been mentally weak his entire career. It takes a village and a little luck to win a title.
 

Finito

ASFN Icon
Joined
Oct 23, 2005
Posts
21,064
Reaction score
13,837
That’s sport’s culture now. No one can ever just lose or miss a shot it’s gonna be cause they’re weak or soft.
 

djm75

Rookie
Joined
Jan 20, 2023
Posts
75
Reaction score
65
Location
Spain
That's easy, partly because I already said it. Two words: Hakeem...Olajuwon. For two consecutive playoffs, he didn't take down just the Suns, he took down the entire West. With a mediocre team. Olajuwon deserves to be remembered as one of the two best players of the nineties. It means something when Michael Jordan admits to having feared a player.

(It also means something that the only Suns player who one remembers successfully ramming his way to the basket against Olajuwon wasn't Barkley.)
“Little man, you got me, little man, don’t do it again, though, little man”
 
OP
OP
Mainstreet

Mainstreet

Cruisin' Mainstreet
Supporting Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Posts
118,319
Reaction score
58,667
Kevin Johnson showed no fear of going to the rim on anyone and was often not rewarded with a foul.

The pounding may have helped shorten his career.
 

SirStefan32

Krycek, Alex Krycek
Joined
Oct 15, 2002
Posts
18,495
Reaction score
4,905
Location
Harrisburg, PA
As amazing as that dunk was, if I remember correctly, it occurred once the game was over and the Suns had no chance of winning. I might be confusing it with some other dunk, but I am like 90% sure I am right.
 

Cheesebeef

ASFN IDOL
Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2003
Posts
91,516
Reaction score
68,797
As amazing as that dunk was, if I remember correctly, it occurred once the game was over and the Suns had no chance of winning. I might be confusing it with some other dunk, but I am like 90% sure I am right.
You’re right. That dunk was meaningless in the grand scheme and came at the end of his blowing our second consecutive home game after taking a 2-0 lead in Houston.
 

Chaplin

Better off silent
Joined
May 13, 2002
Posts
46,422
Reaction score
16,941
Location
Round Rock, TX
As amazing as that dunk was, if I remember correctly, it occurred once the game was over and the Suns had no chance of winning. I might be confusing it with some other dunk, but I am like 90% sure I am right.
Doesn’t matter. KJ tried hard to score and Hakeem definitely tried to block it. To try to excuse it as possibly Hakeem not 100% because the game was over is a fallacy.
 

Cheesebeef

ASFN IDOL
Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2003
Posts
91,516
Reaction score
68,797
Doesn’t matter. KJ tried hard to score and Hakeem definitely tried to block it. To try to excuse it as possibly Hakeem not 100% because the game was over is a fallacy.
I don’t think he meant that Dream didn’t try to block it. Only that in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that consequential to him because it came at the end of a game that not only was pretty much over, but also a devastating playoff defeat.
 

Chaplin

Better off silent
Joined
May 13, 2002
Posts
46,422
Reaction score
16,941
Location
Round Rock, TX
I don’t think he meant that Dream didn’t try to block it. Only that in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that consequential to him because it came at the end of a game that not only was pretty much over, but also a devastating playoff defeat.
But my point is that none of that matters in the context of that photo in particular. Now if you are talking about what that meant for the rest of the game, that’s fine. But there is no reason to lesson the impact of the play simply because the game was “over.” If it was then Hakeem wouldn’t have bothered to try to block it.
 

Cheesebeef

ASFN IDOL
Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2003
Posts
91,516
Reaction score
68,797
But my point is that none of that matters in the context of that photo in particular. Now if you are talking about what that meant for the rest of the game, that’s fine. But there is no reason to lesson the impact of the play simply because the game was “over.” If it was then Hakeem wouldn’t have bothered to try to block it.
Agree to disagree.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
554,125
Posts
5,413,936
Members
6,320
Latest member
jeremynshell
Top