| 02 May 2010
It's time for me to come out of the closet (no, not that closet). Ok, here it goes - I'm a Phoenix Suns fan. I have been since the late 1980s. Now, while I'm not ashamed to admit that (other than the fact that it shows how old I am) I did hesitate to write it due to my profession being that of a sports writer. I feel writers should remain unbiased in order to keep their integrity in the eyes of their readers. While I've never let my fandom of any team colour my articles (at least not consciously), I've always felt it was best to keep my team allegiances a secret. But, considering no one is really reading this other than my mom (you are reading this, right Mom?!), I feel safe admitting it here.
So, as a Phoenix Suns fan I have one question: WHY THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS AGAIN?! Why does it have to be the Spurs?! Any team other than the Spurs would have been preferred as a second round opponent for the Suns. I would have rather the #2 seed Dallas beat San Antonio and go up against the Suns in the second round, even though that meant Phoenix wouldn't have home court advantage. I feel about as unconfident as you could feel rooting for a #2 seed with home court advantage going up against a #7 seed.
Obviously this uneasiness stems from the past. Four out of the past five playoff appearances for the Suns ended at the hands of San Antonio. And while the Suns are the favoured team this year, and beat the Spurs two out of three times in the regular season, I'm still uneasy. Even though Robert Horry isn't around anymore to do a Gordie Howe impersonation on Steve Nash, and the odds of Tim Duncan hitting another dagger three are slim, I'm still not confident in the Suns' chances of winning this series. Perhaps I'm letting the ghosts of the past continue to haunt me and cloud my vision.
Or, perhaps, this Suns team has very similar weaknesses as previous incarnations that have lost to the men from San Antonio. Most notably, who is going to guard - and stop - Tim Duncan? While Amar'e Stoudemire has been on fire the past few months, he is still an offensive player and not capable of guarding premiere post players (not to mention he doesn't rebound enough for my liking). The Suns best post defender, Robin Lopez, is questionable for Game 1 due to his ongoing back woes. So basically the Suns have no one who can stop Duncan, and probably no one who can stop Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker either (and no one who can stop anyone on the Spurs roster, or any other team's roster, to be perfectly frank). While the Suns are still entertaining, and can light up the scoreboard with numerous offensive heroes every night, they don't appear to be a team built for the playoffs. I foresee more heartache in the future for Phoenix fans. I just can't tell you who will be the Spurs villain that breaks our heart this time around - but at least it won't be Horry again.
(There - despite being a Suns fan I wrote a negative story about them. My integrity is still intact!)
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