The bitter end

May 18, 2007 by Mike Olbinski

The post-game comments by Steve Nash said it all.

“I don’t know what to say,” said Nash. “It would be wasted words. It’s very difficult for us to finish the season like this.”

Nash was about the lowest I’ve ever seen him. Beaten down. Run through the mud. Ragged.

It’s funny. The NBA officiates the game differently in the playoffs. Suddenly you can yell at the refs more and not get called for a technical foul. And yeah, you can hand-check, bump and grab Steve Nash all night (Bruce Bowen) and not get called for any of it like you would during the regular season.

Nope, the playoffs are more intense. More emotional. So they let things slide a bit.

Except for the one stupid rule that takes players away from a team who did absolutely nothing. Not the guy who kicked Nash in the groin. The two guys who were worried about their captain.

Anyways, that’s in the past. The problem is, we Suns fans will never get over it. This season was our best chance since 1993 to win a championship. And with the momentum from a road win in Game 4, we could have taken Game 5 and then had two chances to win the entire thing.

But it will never happen and we’ll never know what might have been. And we’ll never forget that.

It burns me up. It aches. I saw Nash’s reaction after the game during the interview and could feel his pain.

The Spurs played a heck of a game tonight. They were solid and the Suns just weren’t focused for the entire 48 minutes to pull it off. Certain players, like Barbosa, couldn’t find the bucket to save their lives. It was hard for Amare and his 38-points to carry his entire team.

They were tired anyways. Nash especially. He played his butt off, as did everyone. Even if certain guys couldn’t shoot, they all played hard. I am proud of them.

A great season once again. The return of Amare Stoudemire. The 6th Man of the Year. 61 wins.

The Suns will be back, and I think they’ll be tougher and ready for another run. It took Michael Jordan a few years of losing in the playoffs before he won his first title. The Suns have grown this season and these playoffs. A few tweaks in the off-season and the next level is right there. Nash has at least a few years left and he was even better this year than the last two seasons where he won the MVP award.

Who knows what they play on doing to shake things up. Shawn Marion might not be back and I’ll miss him. They need to get another solid bench player to help deepen the rotation.

Man, it sure sucks talking about next season already. I have to admit, I wasn’t even THINKING about it until we lost tonight. I never truly believed it would be over.

It is though. And I’m sad. And bitter. It’s enough to make someone upset at the NBA and just veto it forever.

But the Phoenix Suns had nothing to do with it. They are classy. They are the love of all native Arizonians. They are OUR team, born and raised here. I will support them forever, because they know how to run a sports franchise.

The NBA needs to learn how to run a league.

The rest of the playoffs are meaningless to me now. The Spurs will win it all and it will be another asterisk on their great championship history.

I’m rambling now. Probably because I don’t want the season to end and I’m having a hard time giving it up.

Well, as a Suns fan for 25 years, there is only one way to end this blog, which is to say the same thing I’ve said every year after being eliminated from the playoffs.

“There is always next year.”

Posted in basketball, phoenix suns