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Introduction
The Phoenix Suns is a professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Their home arena is the US Airways Center in downtown Phoenix.
The Suns have emerged as a successful team ever since they began playing as an expansion team in 1968. Since forty years of their career, they have to their record seventeen fifty-win seasons. They have made eight trips to the Western Conference Finals, advancing to the NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993. However, they have yet not won an NBA title. The team became a hot favorite after they won the 2006 NBA Europe Live Tour.
The Inception
On January 22, 1968, the NBA awarded expansion franchises, one to an ownership group from Phoenix and the other from Milwaukee. The primary investors in the Phoenix franchise at its inception had close ties with Tucson, Arizona's second largest city.
The 21 Century
1996-97 season
In the 1996-97 season, the Suns started miserably 0-13 which was a franchise record for the worst start. However, during the 13th game, the coach was replaced and former player Danny Ainge took over. The Suns put an 11 game win streak that helped them make to the playoffs.
2000 season
Before the 2000 NBA season, the Suns made a change in players. Once the Suns entered the 2000 playoffs, they scored 3-1 in the best of five series. The Suns fell to the final champion Los Angels Lakers in a 4-1 series.
2001-02 campaign
The Suns continued to make the playoffs until the 2001-02 campaign, when they fell short for the first time in 14 years. That season marked the trade of a valuable player, Jason Kidd, partly due to a publicized domestic violence episode, to the New Jersey Nets for Stephon Marbury.
2002-03 campaign
The 2002-03 campaign saw the emergence of Amare Stoudemire, a graduate from Cypress Creek High School (Orlando, Florida). He became the first ever high school player to win the NBA Rookie of the Year in the 2002-03 season, during which the Suns posted a record of 44-38 and returned to the playoffs. The Suns were eliminated in the first round once again by the San Antonio Spurs, but only after a six game series with the eventual NBA champions.
2003-04 season
In the 2003-04 season, the Suns found themselves out of the playoffs. The Suns made a blockbuster mid-season trade sending Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway to the New York Knicks.
Logos and uniforms
Logos
For the 2000-01 season, the Phoenix Suns introduced three new logos. Two of these were merely updates to existing logos, modernizing the themes and adding the gray color. The logo had a mythical phoenix bird into the existing Suns' theme. The logo illustrates the team's hometown by picturing the bird it was named after.
Uniforms
Since the 2000-2001 season, the Suns have used the same white home and purple road uniforms. On October 20, 2003, an alternate uniform was introduced that was to be used at a minimum, five games a year. This orange uniform is used both at home and on the road and always used in selected consecutive games on the road and in the playoffs. It is the only uniform in the NBA that has an abbreviated version of the city name, PHX, across the front chest. For the 2006-2007 season the Suns removed the uniform number from the side of the shorts, replacing it with the same sun logo that is found on the other side.
Suns mascots
The Suns Gorilla
For the first eleven seasons of their existence in the NBA, the Suns had no official mascot. An early attempt was made involving a sunflower costume, but it never caught on. In the winter of 1980, a singing telegram named Henry Rojas from Eastern Onion Telegram service was sent to the arena in a gorilla costume. Security saw him and suggested to him to stay for a while to entertain the fans during the breaks. He kept coming to games until officially invited to be the Suns' mascot.
Since then, the gorilla, named Go, has been known for his slapstick humor during the games such as his routine push-ups and stadium stairs all to the sound of the Rocky Theme, and the fantastic dunks that are performed before each 4th quarter.
Conclusion
The Suns despite ups and downs still have managed to captivate a lot of fans with their games.
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