Losing my faith

I have a bizarre collection of favorite sports teams. The logical reason for this is that I have never lived in a major sports city, the actual reason for it is that I wanted to root for teams that no one else I knew rooted for. I'm not sure how I settled on the Minnesota Vikings as my favorite football team, I just remember them playing the defending champion Redskins in a playoff game and wanted to see the champs go down. Plus I needed a token black friend, and Dennis Green seemed just as good a choice as anybody. It took me awhile to pick a baseball team cause I never played the game as a kid, but I moved to the Pacific Northwest in 95 during the Mariners breakout season and kind of got caught up in the excitement. But my favorite sport has always been basketball, and my favorite sports team has always been the Phoenix Suns.

My love affair with the Suns stared in the 92-93 season, the first year of the Charles Barkley era. The Chicago Bulls had won the last two championships, and worse, every one of my childhood friends loved them. I LOATHED them. And when the Suns got out to a hot start that season, I jumped on the bandwagon, hoping they could end the freaking Bulls dynasty and shut all my snot nosed friends up. I probably cared about the 93 NBA Finals more than anything else in my entire life.

However, it wasn't to be. And despite the fact that Jordan decided to play with much smaller balls the next year, the Suns never did win a championship with Barkley, or even make the Finals again. The team had a history of losing the big games, and Barkleys "unusual" physique began to break down. After the 96 season, when the team went 41-41, the Suns decided to get rid of their biggest star and start over. It would be awhile before they became relevant again.

Well, it seems that history is repeating itself. Its impossible to not see the similarites between Barkley's four years in Phoenix and their last four years with Steve Nash. The team was always good, but never great. And with age and other teams catching up to the team, it appears that another big shakeup is in the works. Their one elite player, Amare Stoudemire, can be had for any reasonable package. Their newest acquistion, Jason Richardson, can be had for even less. (Never mind that the Suns shipped out a good young player in Boris Diaw and a reliable veteran in Raja Bell for him just a couple months ago). And their legendary player, Shaquille O'Neal, can be had for a case of hot pockets.

This all just makes me sick to my stomach. My all time favorite sports team was the 05-06 Suns, when Steve Nash led the team to the Western Conference Finals despite losing Amare for the season due to injury. They were probably the best team in 06-07, but had to deal with a ref who was CONVICTED OF FIXING THE FREAKING GAME in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals against the Spurs. Then Amare and Diaw were suspended for Game 6 of the series when they objected to Robert Horry tackling Nash at the end of Game 5, and they lost the series in 7. No seriously, I'm completely over it.

Of course, the next year they decided to trade for Shaq. Because when you have the fastest team in the NBA, and you have an opportunity to add the slowest player in the NBA, you have to do it. It was a dumb trade, everyone killed them for it, but they weren't going to win the championship anyway. The seven seconds or less era was over. And now it appears its fire sale time for the Suns. I understand why they are doing it cause they are old and not getting any younger, but its depressing none the less.

Anyway, I hope they trade Amare to the Cavaliers for Wally Szckzmkqcpvibak and other used parts, just to make sure that the Lakers or Celtics don't win it. Its practically giving him away, but I don't have the heart to watch them lose