As I type this, the Phoenix Suns are losing by 19 points to the San Antonio Spurs.  It looks like they are going to go down 0-3 in this first round best of 7 playoff series, and in all likelihood, they’re season is, in the immortal words of some unspecified girl on either Laguna Beach, or the Hills; “Dunzo”.  A Greg Norman syndrome of sorts.

It’s inherently sad for me to see these Suns struggle.  They represent all that is good and noble in the NBA.  They embody fun, seemingly effortless basketball.  They try and score as much and as fast as possible, and they deal with the consequences later, a veritable college student drinking heavily on Cinco de Mayo.  They’ve had all kinds of regular season success, and even moderate to strong postseason success, but can’t seem to grab that championship.

Their qualities alone are enough to make my heart frown when the Suns struggle, but even moreso, the rise and fall of the Suns parallels my college career, and to witness their last stand brings to the forefront the fact that I’m graduating in about 3 weeks.  Appropriately, my college years will die with these Suns.

Let’s hope in our DeLoreans and drive* back to July 14th, 2004.  An 18 year old version of myself had just graduated high school and was enjoying the rest of the summer before falling down the coast to college.  The Phoenix Suns, coming off a 29-53 season, signed Steve Nash when the Mavericks weren’t all that interested in trying to bring him back.  Both of our futures were bright.

The next four years saw the Suns win 62, 54, 61, and 55 games, arguably the most successful run in their history.  The same could be said for me, I learned a lot, had a few drinks and laughs with friends, enjoyed the company of probably a few more beautiful women than I deserved, traveled around the world, and even fell in love once.  The Suns and I both inhabited a charmed, higher level of existence.

This season, faced with their inability to get to the NBA Finals, the Suns made a bold, borderline reckless, trade.  They traded Shawn Marion, a swiss army knife of a basketball player, and backup point guard Marcus Banks, to the Miami Heat for Shaquille O’Neal.  It was unclear at the time whether or not Shaq was still alive.  (Like I said, it was a bold trade.)  The trade meant the end of the Suns as we knew them.  Suddenly decision making was needed, sobriety was required.  There were some half court sets, and definitely more throwing the ball into the post than anybody was comfortable with.  The Suns were growing up.

So was I.  I knew this was my last year.  I did stuff solely for the sake of my resume. I added the extra internship and classed up the wardrobe.  I had one foot on the next step and one foot still on the ground floor.  I still would run and play, but always washed my hands afterwards.  Suddenly decision making was needed, sobriety was required.

Now the Suns are crashing and burning, and if Game 1 was any indication, quite spectacularly.  Steve Nash is getting old, Grant Hill is held together by scotch tape and Elmer’s glue at this point, we now know that Shaq is alive, but he’s certainly staring his own mortality right in the eyes.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see some big changes for them this summer.  The prevailing sentiment seems to be to make some trades and build around Amare Stoudemire and Leandro Barbosa.  I like to think I’m not crashing and burning, but my college years certainly are.  They’re just about over, it’s sad solely for that reason, but also because, like I said, their story played out a lot like the Suns did.  Plenty of success, but ultimately their potential was never reached.

I don’t regret anything, but I know I could have stood out a bit more, really made my mark.  Sometimes I was too content to do well enough, the equivalent of lots of regular season success and less post season success.  I didn’t fail by any means, but I didn’t necessarily come through in the clutch.  I imagine the Suns feel the same way, in no way do they regret anything, but they’ve got to feel a bit whistful about what could have been.

Both the Suns and I face uncertain times this summer and on.  We’ll both be ending a really great chapter and hoping to write an even better one.  I imagine J.K. Rowling felt like this after she wrote Half Blood Prince and felt Deathly Hallows looming.  The pressure is formidable, and I hope I am too.

-Zanramon
zanramon@addictedtowords.com

*Or fly, I’m not really sure.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 10:40 pm and is filed under Magical Things, All, NBA, Sports, Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.