Suns Lose - I'm Out

I'm back in Phoenix and have been here long enough to get unhealthily geeked up for a thrilling Suns championship run in the NBA playoffs - only to have it all come crashing down on me in a sputtering first round loss to the ever-present, ever-solid, ever-dominant San Antonio Spurs.

I was in a state of limbo for the first few weeks in April when I got back into town, not knowing where I was going or what I was going to do next. The only sure fire thing was that I'd schedule everything around the Suns and their playoff run.

Well, after the Suns' series squandering game 5 loss Tuesday night, my schedule's pretty flexible now. I'll be moving to Santiago, Chile in early June to work at The Santiago Times, the city's biggest (from what I've seen so far) English newspaper. This gig is more of an internship (no pay) and will go for at least six months. Pretty excited for my first full-time journalism job. I'll probably be teaching English on the side to get by also.

I've got a few more things to post about Japan on this blog (my crippling experience with the Japanese Department of Motor Vehicles in addition to pretentious, nostalgic and broad sweeping thoughts upon/after leaving), but I'll start a new one for Chile once I move down there.

Back to the Suns.

Enduring the heartache of last year's Western Conference Semi-finals loss to the Spurs, from Japan, through online play by play game casts and cell phone score updates was one of the most difficult sports experiences of my life. It's up there with the '93 Suns' loss to the Bulls in the NBA Finals; breaking my wrist freshman year of high school, a day before our first game, sidelining me for the whole season; the '03 Cubs' NLCS collapse; and my middle school RAMS basketball team's first round playoff loss - down by one with 4 seconds left in the game, forcing a pass that wasn't there into Bodie (our team's first round pick and dominant low post presence - forgot his last name) on the right block and turning the ball over.

After thinking about all that, I guess the Suns' elimination this year isn't that bad. But it still sucks.

Everyone is ripping on Nash for his late game turnovers in game 5, and D'Antoni for never practicing defense, and Shaq for slowing the team down and missing free throws. While I do agree that these were all bad things that contributed to our disappointing season - I'm stunned at how nobody (NOBODY - newspaper, radio, TV, fellow Suns fans (except for Greg Levin), basketball fans in general) is talking about Amare Stoudemire's complete no-show, lack of aggressiveness and failure to step up when the team needed him.

He's been getting abused on defense all year long, but the Spurs attacked him and made him look like a kid who just had his shovel and bucket jacked while playing in the sandbox. Everyone's complaining about game 1 and how lucky the Spurs were when Duncan hit his only three of the season at the buzzer to tie the game and send it into a second overtime - but not many people mention Stoudemire's defensive breakdown - failing to switch and cover Michael Finley as he nailed a wide open 3 pointer to tie it up and send it into the game's 1st overtime. Champions don't break down like that in crunch time.

In Game 4 we blew out the Spurs getting great performances from roll players like Boris Diaw , Raja Bell and Leandro Barbosa. It was the first time in the series we were gelling and making it look like the Spurs had some weaknesses we could exploit. Diaw was the main factor scoring 20+ points for the first time in a long time. But what did Stoudemire put up? 7 . And it wasn't a supportive 7 points with a bunch of boards, hustle on defense and smiles and high fives for all. It was a sulking performance - like he was playing second fiddle and upset that everyone was looking to Boris instead of him.

Then Game 5. Stoudemire was nowhere to be found in the fourth quarter. The season's on the line - we've got a close game that we can win - we need some big plays on offense (where he should be shining as our self-touted go-to-guy and franchise player) and he might as well have been in the locker room. Nash has to force passes to him that aren't there because he's not cutting and moving without the ball. When the rock does end up in his hands it's like he's got a hot potato and it's shoveled off to Diaw or Shaq - or back to Nash who's getting smothered and needs some help.

This is the guy who's taking us to the promised land? Where's the player of two and three years ago who just feasted when he got the ball within 15 feet of the basket? The guy who attacked the hoop like a rabid animal The guy who put the team on his back against the Spurs in the '05 Conference Finals after Joe Johnson's fluke concussion that sidelined him for the series. The guy we're gladly paying $15+ million this year and $16+ million next year.

Instead we get the guy with his hands on his hips during crucial late game possessions. The guy who gets caught in no-man's-land (that should be his new nickname: No Man's Land) on every pick-and-roll. The primadonna who can't be taught how to play defense because he's too groomed to accept criticism.

Still, the only mention of Stoudemire in The Arizona Republic the day after the Suns lost was a half-page article about whether or not the Suns' "star" would play in the Olympics this summer. Give me a break. The picture on the other page, however, said a lot more to me. A small shot of the "star" sulking, arms crossed, without his jersey on, soaking his feet in a tub of ice with his knees heavily wrapped...alone.

There's a lot more that goes into the pain Suns fans feel (or should feel) after another disappointing year. Bill Simmons' article goes into greater detail than I ever could.

What I'll focus on here is the fact that we'll never get a championship with Amare unless he improves - defensively, mentally and emotionally. And the first step to improving is admitting that there is a problem - something he has yet to do.