CRICKET ADMIRE-LESS

The Houston Rockets are not the only thing streaking....

VIDEO

Andrew Symonds pwns a nude man at a
cricket match in Australia Wednesday.

THE SUN-NY IMPAIRED TRAGEDY HOUR?

Suns stumbling to keep pace in the race

It still early March, but the heat is turning up at a sweltering rate. No, not our one-time friends that we don't want to be associated with anymore playing junior varsity ball down in South Florida, but perhaps the temperature in the deserts of the Southwest. Or maybe the competitiveness of nine or ten playoff-worthy clubs jockeying for position in a cramped 8-passenger playoff van headed for May. But more assuredly, it could refer to the increasingly blistering heat in the office of Steve Kerr at US Airways Arena.

It has been nearly a month into the 2008 Shaq Experiment. Is it still to early to say “oops”?

The Phoenix Suns are the most successful franchise in the NBA that has never played up to potential in early and mid-June. Over the last 17 seasons, Phoenix has only missed post-season play twice, and in the modern Nash-era over the past three and a half years, they have won at least one playoff series and have twice taken the court as one of the league’s final four. They have truly mastered the art of successful futility, drawing heavy influences from franchises including the Buffalo Bills and the Seattle Seahawks.

Last summer, Steve Kerr put down the TNT broadcasting headset and picked up the executive telephone for the Suns (there’s only so much of Marv’s “serve up a facial!” a man can take). Trying to take the franchise to a previously-unattained level, Steve took the ultimate gamble and brought in Superman to park his 7-foot-1 frame in the unpainted lane in hopes of bringing the O'Brien trophy to Arizona. Shaq and Kerr each brought a fair amount of jewelry (a combined eight rings) with them to the desert, so honestly, neither of them can be too bummed about watching the Lakers and Celtics play in June.

To make all of you in Cactus Land feel a little better about your team (and also about living in America’s “outdoor shed”), they haven’t been walking on a golden road the past few weeks, bumping into the likes of the Lakers, Pistons, Celtics, and Hornets. But there’s no getting around the fact that before the Shaq deal, the Suns managed a stout 37-16 record, and since suiting the Diesel up in the ugliest colors in the NBA, they have stumbled to a rare 3-5 stretch mark over the past 15 days, free-falling to the sixth seed, and in foreseeable danger of finding themselves on the outside-looking-in on a Western Conference playoff picture as crowded as below-deck on the Amistad. (Get the point? It’s crowded out here.)

Shaq told me to write this one down: “The Sun will rise in Phoenix”. Well Dr. O’Neal, it’s freezing out here and I still can’t see anything.