Players from the 1992-93 season provide a personal update on what they are doing today:
– Charles Barkley: I want to be a GM. I’m going to get that. I’m not going to campaign for it. I’ve got three years left on my TV deal. I’ll do three more years, and then I’m done. If everything goes perfect, I’ll get a GM job before then, but I’m not in a rush. They (Turner broadcasting) have done some things for me. I like going out on the road and doing the games. That gave me a lot of energy this year. I really enjoyed doing that.

The Suns were not very good with basketballs this year so now they get to take their crack at ping-pong balls.
The projected prizes in this draft, albeit no sure things, come in the top three spots. That makes having the fourth-best draft lottery odds a bad fit for the drawing (5:25 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN).

DENVER — Looking to examine an area of the club he called a “work in progress,” manager Kirk Gibson said he printed out a sheet detailing all of the Diamondbacks’ steal attempts so far this season.
It’s been an area that needs improvement. With just 15 steals in 29 attempts, the Diamondbacks have a 52 percent success rate, the worst in the majors. Most clubs aim for a rate between 75 and 80 percent.

DENVER — The rave reviews keep rolling in for Diamondbacks left-hander Pat Corbin.
He was called “nasty” in a tweet by Atlanta Braves legend Chipper Jones. Diamondbacks General Manager Kevin Towers said a scout told him Corbin was just a tick below Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, a Cy Young Award winner.

The easy part of life is understanding it backward. Richard Dumas complicated it by living life backward.
Two decades ago, Dumas found the kind of wealth and results on his job that others can only chase for most of their careers. He was a rising NBA star with a shot so soft and springs to loft. The prototypical small forward averaged 16 points as a Suns rookie and resuscitated championship hopes in Game 5 of the 1993 NBA Finals with a dazzling 25-point game against Scottie Pippen to postpone Chicago’s coronation.

While many of us have been reminiscing about the 1992-93 Suns NBA Finals season lately, another story has quietly unfolded almost 2,000 miles away in Toronto.
Reportedly, Tim Leiweke, the incoming CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which includes among its holdings the Toronto Raptors of the NBA, will replace the team’s President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo, possibly with Colangelo’s former assistant Masai Ujuri of the Denver Nuggets.

What do I remember most about covering the 1993 NBA playoffs and the Suns’ championship series in the Finals against the Chicago Bulls?
Well, as exciting as all the basketball was, I tend to look back and recall more of the social elements that came along with those assignments 20 years ago.

It’s funny how when we recall the big events in our lives, it’s often the little stuff that first pops into mind.
It’s the friend who drank too much at your wedding, the woman who danced funny at your folks’ 50th anniversary, the boss who called you out of your wife’s labor delivery room to ask who was going to write the Northern Arizona University football advance.

Charles Barkley was traded to the Phoenix Suns prior to the 1992-93 season. During his time in Phoenix, he was a colorful, quote machine.
On his knowledge of history:

Experience an Arizona Rattlers practice through the eyes of quarterback Nick Davila, receiver Kerry Reed and defensive back Virgil Gray

Suns fans have a visceral connection to the 1993 NBA Finals. They still hear the swish that accompanied John Paxson’s title-winning 3-pointer, still feel the 105-degree heat that baked the city during the celebratory downtown parade.
For Jerry Colangelo, the memories are particularly powerful because events on and off the court during that series helped define his legacy.

Suns players from the 1992-93 season talk about the high point of that season.
– Danny Ainge: I don’t remember any one. I just remember it being as fun a time as I’ve ever had playing basketball. I thought Coach Westphal did an amazing job of coaching that team and that group of personalities. He was a great fit in his approach. He let players talk. He let players have input. He always said he coached the way he wanted to be coached and we had a very good group. Charles was in great shape and he just made coming to work fun. The guy made me laugh every single day I came to work. KJ was a great player and Dan was a great worker. Just wonderful teammates.

Charles Barkley was the main identifying image during the 1992-93 run to the Finals. We caught up with him recently for an update on his feelings about a few subjects from that memorable Suns era.
– About it being a 20-year anniversary: “Damn, it’s been 20 years. It was a spectacular time. Michael Jordan was at the top of his superpowers. It was a great series and just a really cool thing.”

There was no way it was going in.
John Paxson, a great shooter, exactly who you don’t want spotting up for a game-winning 3-point shot, was positioned to bury the Suns.

On paper, the 1992-93 Suns looked like a championship contender from the get-go.
After all, where could that addition of a superstar such as Charles Barkley to the nucleus of a club that had averaged 54 wins a season the previous four years go wrong?

– Danny Ainge: I don’t remember any one. I just remember it being as fun a time as I’ve ever had playing basketball. I thought Coach Westphal did an amazing job of coaching that team and that group of personalities. He was a great fit in his approach. He let players talk. He let players have input. He always said he coached the way he wanted to be coached and we had a very good group. Charles was in great shape and he just made coming to work fun. The guy made me laugh every single day I came to work. KJ was a great player and Dan was a great worker. Just wonderful teammates.
– Charles Barkley: Meeting expectations. A lot of people picked us to get to the Finals. And then when we lost the first two games at home (in the first round), we came back under pressure. We were in shock after we lost the first two at home. We were down and depressed. The reporters came in and we were all sitting there with our heads down. A guy said, ‘Did you hear what Westy (Paul Westphall) just said?’ I said, ‘No, we’ve been in here.’ ‘He said you were going to LA and win Game 3 and then win Game 4 and then come home and win Game 5, and people will say what a hell of a series it was.’ We were ready to go then. People forget we had the best record in the NBA. But to get punched in the mouth off the bat was not easy.

Mighty Casey or Nathaniel Causey. Eventually, baseball humbles everyone.
A week after his two-out, ninth-inning grand slam to win a game, Arizona State’s Causey hit into a game-ending double play Sunday as rival Arizona escaped with a 7-6 win at Packard Stadium.

PHOENIX — It was the play the 4,021 in attendance at US Airways Center on Sunday hoped to see.
The Mercury’s No. 1 overall pick, Brittney Griner, ran down the court on a fast break and into an open lane, took a pass from Diana Taurasi and soared toward the basket for the dunk.

Sunday’s 87-64 preseason win over the Japanese national team at US Airways Center wasn’t the last chance for the Mercury players on the fringe of a roster spot to prove their worth.
But it was still a big opportunity as preseason training camp winds down this week.

MIAMI — Manager Kirk Gibson said outfielder Gerardo Parra likes to compete and be challenged.
For some reason, opposing teams continue to challenge him when it comes to making throws from the outfield. Parra continues to make them pay.

MIAMI — After the Diamondbacks romped to an easy victory on Friday night, this series against one of baseball’s two truly awful teams had the feel of formality. The Diamondbacks would show up and the Miami Marlins would collapse, and then it would be on to Colorado fresh off a sweep.
It didn’t quite work out like that. The Diamondbacks still escaped town with a series victory, but they scored just two runs in the final two days of the series. On Sunday afternoon, they were shut down by Marlins right-hander Ricky Nolasco and lost 2-1 despite a desperate rally in the ninth inning.

At the time, it seemed audacious even to Paul Westphal, the first-year head coach who had guided the Phoenix Suns to the best record in the NBA during the 1992-93 regular season.
But in the first round of the 1993 NBA playoffs, the Suns lost the first two games of the best-of-five series against the Los Angeles Lakers, at home no less. No team in NBA history ever had escaped from such a fix.

Three Arizona State freshmen pitchers combined to limit Arizona to three runs Saturday night in a 6-3 baseball win that takes the entire Territorial Cup Series down to the final rivalry meeting of the school year.
The winner of Sunday’s 12:30 p.m. game wins the baseball point in the Territorial Cup Series, which ASU believes it leads 9.5 points to 8.5 and UA insists is tied at 8.5. The schools are in dispute over whether men’s indoor track should count in the series.

It isn’t easy to take the circle a day after throwing a no-hitter, and somehow one-up your own performance.
But that’s exactly what Dallas Escobedo did Saturday, tossing a one-hit shutout as No. 5 Arizona State defeated Georgia 2-0 in the Tempe Regional at Farrington Stadium.

My first extended stay in Phoenix occurred in 1993, when I covered the Western Conference finals for the Chicago Sun-Times. My job was chronicling the Bulls’ next opponent and, eventually, the NBA Finals.
I remember a lot.