The most resilient team EVER!!!

[nowagimp]

I disagree here. I don't think the bias is big city or east coast. If you really want to psychoanalyze the critics and what their problem is with the Phoenix Suns then you have to go a little deeper than that. The problem, I believe, is that the Suns play an international style of basketball. They play how D'Antoni's teams in Italy played. They play fast, open court, team style of basketball which is the staple of the European leagues.

Look, the fact is that the USA has egg on it's face from being ousted as the undisputed champions of basketball. To admit that a European type of team is good enough to win in "American style basketball" (not to mention all the international players that we have on the team) would be essentially saying that the Americans aren't the best basketball players in the world.

Quite honestly, to me this is David Stern's worst nightmare.

Good insight, I agree on almost all points. The Barkley's, Scotty Pippens, and Gregg Anthony's of the world(and those of their ilk) made their careers on the 2 man slug it out game with dominant scoring superstars and dominant low post players. The nonathlete sports journalists have made a living learning and understanding that generation of players/strategies. When the "european game" eclipses their world, they become irrelevant as "experts".

One thing, where I differ is in the stern "nightmare". NBA profits and ratings are likely to be up alot this year, and think of all the future european fans that will gravitate to the NBA game. Stern is a prostitue to the dollar, and will embrace anything that brings in more money. Stern is not a purist, over his 22 years as commish he has presided over MANY rule changes. He started in 1984, at the height of showtime basketball, and changed the rules to 1/2 court mug-a-thon and now its changing back. Dont be fooled, his motivations are all about MONEY.

 

[Shawty]

OAlso I would like to point out how ridiculous the calls were for Harris tonight...

Wait till you get a load of the No-Touchie-Dirkie calls. Brilliant! Excellent game for the Suns.

 

[TucsonDevil]

Okay, you lost me. The Suns have historically been an offense-oriented "finesse" team, and they have historically gotten little respect in the national media. So what's ridiculous about noticing that?

My point is this - let's not kid ourselves that the lack of repect is due to our style of play... The lack of respect that we receive is the same lack of respect that EVERY TEAM in the West receives, not named the LA LAKERS. Style of play is not the issue... national media is looking for "popular franchises" and "large passionate markets" to be successful. The only time we received our "due" attention/respect is when we featured the most outlandish character in the game - Charles Barkley. To say that we don't get respect because we play like "a European Squad" is just silly. Keep in mind, 90% of the Media has fallen asleep at tipoff of our games.

 

[elindholm]

The Houston championship teams got respect when they featured a (more or less) traditional center as their dominant player.

However, I take your general point. The teams that get respect are (a) those who have won titles, and (b) those who play in the major Eastern U. S. media markets. The Suns are in neither category.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

insightful commentary PHX, you bring a lot to the board. I just wanted to thank you personally.