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.
The Suns are a Valley rarity. They have unbreakable roots and a deep well of loyalty. Many consider them part of the family.
But it’s not by accident. It’s not because Arizonans love basketball more than anything else, or because the Suns are our first major professional sports franchise.
CHICAGO — The Suns have a better chance of landing the No. 1 prize in Tuesday’s NBA draft lottery than they had of winning Saturday’s $600 million Powerball lottery prize.
The draft lottery determines the top three picks in the June 27 draft, which seem to have a rare consensus for the trio of Kentucky center Nerlens Noel, Kansas shooting guard Ben McLemore and Georgetown small forward Otto Porter Jr.
MIAMI — Third baseman Eric Chavez has said since spring training that if he’s healthy, he expects to be a productive player. Since the Diamondbacks’ mid-April visit to New York, he’s been both.
While the club was there for a series against the Yankees, Chavez visited a specialist he’s been seeing for years. He even brought along a member of the Diamondbacks training staff, strength and conditioning coach Nate Shaw, to observe in hopes of being able to use the same techniques throughout the season.
MIAMI — Brandon McCarthy didn’t feel good saying it, didn’t like the way it sounded, but he believed luck was a contributing factor to his brutal first month of the season. He admitted to being far from perfect, but he also was hoping for a hard-hit ball or two to start finding his defenders’ gloves.
There wasn’t much in the way of loud contact off McCarthy on Saturday night, but none of the line drives or sharply hit balls did any damage, and the Diamondbacks right-hander cruised to the third shutout of his career, beating the Miami Marlins 1-0 at Marlins Park.
My Sunday best …
Andrew Walter’s announcement that he is running for Congress in Arizona’s 9th District is hardly a surprise for anyone who was around the quarterback during his Arizona State days.
He was compelled to write a note. To show his appreciation. His excitement.
When Mercury General Manager and coach Corey Gaines saw point guard Samantha Prahalis last month when she reported to the team, he saw a different person. When he witnessed her play in informal workouts, he saw a better player. A more dedicated one.
BALTIMORE — Horse racing’s search for another Triple Crown winner will stretch into almost its fourth decade as Kentucky Derby winner Orb lost the Preakness Stakes to Oxbow, who won in a wire-to-wire finish.
Oxbow, with veteran jockey Gary Stevens aboard, finished unofficially in 1:57.54. Itsmylucky day was second, Mylute third and Orb fourth.
Sitting in an Italian restaurant in Manhattan back in 1988, Jerry Colangelo listened intently as Commissioner David Stern outlined for NBA owners how the league’s new unrestricted free-agency rules would work and which players would qualify.
Colangelo glanced down the table at Barry Ackerley, the owner of the Seattle SuperSonics at the time.
TEMPE — The defending national champion Arizona baseball team showed up Friday night at Packard Stadium, more so than the struggling Wildcats who dropped six of their preceding seven games.
Playing for its postseason life, UA broke on top 9-0 in the first 2 1/2 innings against No. 15 Arizona State then hung on to win 10-7 behind junior right-hander Konner Wade.
Injuries have so profoundly impacted the NBA playoffs this year that one can put together a pretty good All-Star Game made up only of players who are missing the playoffs because of various ailments, or have at least missed some games or had their minutes dramatically limited because of them.
And we’re not even counting a lot of players who have sucked it up to play at least close to their normal minutes despite injuries, such as Miami’s Dwyane Wade or Golden State’s Stephen Curry. Nor are we counting star players whose teams did not even make it to the postseason, such as Kevin Love of the Timberwolves.
MIAMI – Daniel Hudson already had thrown simulated games and faced hitters in a batting practice environment, but he didn’t feel like his return from elbow surgery was getting closer until he pitched to hitters wearing different uniforms on Friday morning.
“The light at the end of the tunnel is getting a little bit brighter now,” Hudson said after throwing four innings against Los Angeles Angels minor-leaguers in an extended spring-training game at Salt River Fields.
TUCSON — Since Sean Miller last held a news conference back in March, the Arizona Wildcats have made 10 player-personnel moves, lost an associate head coach and hired a former star as an assistant head coach.
Oh, yeah: There was that Pac-12 officials controversy, too.
MIAMI — Paul Goldschmidt clubbed two home runs and added two more hits in the Diamondbacks’ 9-2 rout of the Miami Marlins on Friday night, and perhaps the ultimate compliment for the burgeoning superstar is that no one seemed the least bit surprised.
“Every time he goes to the plate,” third baseman Martin Prado said, “you’re just waiting for something to happen.”
