azdad1978
Championship!!!!
Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
May. 2, 2005 12:00 AM
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The soap opera of Steve Nash the possible MVP and the Dallas team that spurned his devotion has not even materialized, and he is already dealing with the possible drama.
Phoenix's first-round sweep of Memphis will pit the Suns in a Western Conference semifinal against Houston or Dallas, who are squared off in an Interstate 45 series where no home team has won entering Game 5 tonight in Dallas.
The Suns will take a couple of days off entirely this week and spend the others playing scrimmages with officials to stay sharp.
They will not play again until at least Saturday and perhaps as late as Tuesday, leaving Nash with the angst of whether he would like to see best friends Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley again or avoid the specter of how he felt Mavericks owner Mark Cuban disrespected him during the summer free-agency process that sent him to a Phoenix team that showed him more love financially and pragmatically.
"That'd be fun to play those guys, but at the same time, it'd be a pain in the butt to be asked the same questions over and over again," Nash said.
"It'd be great and exciting to see them. In many ways, it'd be fun to go back and play there."
Suns guard Jim Jackson, a brilliant bench scorer in the road games that closed out the series, does not hold the same mixed emotions about facing an old team. He has been on 11 NBA teams so returning to the Houston team that traded him in the middle of the season does not draw the same sentimental value as it does for Nash, who never thought he would leave Dallas after six seasons of building a contender that left him with "unfinished business."
Jackson played for the Suns in three of the four meetings with Houston. He had just been traded to New Orleans from Houston, where he never reported, prompting a deal with Phoenix, before the teams' first meeting.
"It wouldn't be awkward," Jackson said. "I've already played them three times. I've played for both teams (Houston and Dallas). It's more about what we do."
Phoenix will use the rest to its advantage to help heal Nash's ongoing hamstring problems and Shawn Marion's wrist sprain, which he said would have kept him out of regular-season games.
"It gives us time to focus on and correct some mistakes we made," Jackson said. "It gives us a chance to get our legs back and come out the next series 100 mph."
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/0502sunside0502.html
The Arizona Republic
May. 2, 2005 12:00 AM
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The soap opera of Steve Nash the possible MVP and the Dallas team that spurned his devotion has not even materialized, and he is already dealing with the possible drama.
Phoenix's first-round sweep of Memphis will pit the Suns in a Western Conference semifinal against Houston or Dallas, who are squared off in an Interstate 45 series where no home team has won entering Game 5 tonight in Dallas.
The Suns will take a couple of days off entirely this week and spend the others playing scrimmages with officials to stay sharp.
They will not play again until at least Saturday and perhaps as late as Tuesday, leaving Nash with the angst of whether he would like to see best friends Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley again or avoid the specter of how he felt Mavericks owner Mark Cuban disrespected him during the summer free-agency process that sent him to a Phoenix team that showed him more love financially and pragmatically.
"That'd be fun to play those guys, but at the same time, it'd be a pain in the butt to be asked the same questions over and over again," Nash said.
"It'd be great and exciting to see them. In many ways, it'd be fun to go back and play there."
Suns guard Jim Jackson, a brilliant bench scorer in the road games that closed out the series, does not hold the same mixed emotions about facing an old team. He has been on 11 NBA teams so returning to the Houston team that traded him in the middle of the season does not draw the same sentimental value as it does for Nash, who never thought he would leave Dallas after six seasons of building a contender that left him with "unfinished business."
Jackson played for the Suns in three of the four meetings with Houston. He had just been traded to New Orleans from Houston, where he never reported, prompting a deal with Phoenix, before the teams' first meeting.
"It wouldn't be awkward," Jackson said. "I've already played them three times. I've played for both teams (Houston and Dallas). It's more about what we do."
Phoenix will use the rest to its advantage to help heal Nash's ongoing hamstring problems and Shawn Marion's wrist sprain, which he said would have kept him out of regular-season games.
"It gives us time to focus on and correct some mistakes we made," Jackson said. "It gives us a chance to get our legs back and come out the next series 100 mph."
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/0502sunside0502.html
