Phoenix Suns

Lore & Background

The franchise began play in 1968 as an expansion team. Though their early years were mired in mediocrity, their fortunes changed in the 1970s after partnering Dick Van Arsdale and Alvan Adams with Paul Westphal. The team reached the 1976 NBA Finals. However, after failing to capture a championship, the Suns would rebuild around Walter Davis for a majority of the 1980s, until the acquisition of Kevin Johnson in 1988.

Under Johnson's leadership, and following the acquisition of perennial All-Star Charles Barkley, the Suns became a consistent playoff team. With contributions from Tom Chambers and Dan Majerle, the Suns reached the playoffs for a franchise-record thirteen consecutive seasons and reached the 1993 NBA Finals. However, the team failed to win the championship and entered into another period of mediocrity until the early 2000s. In 2004, the Suns signed free agent Steve Nash (who had blossomed for the Dallas Mavericks after being traded from Phoenix six years earlier), and returned into playoff contention.

With Nash, Shawn Marion, and Amar'e Stoudemire, and under head coach Mike D'Antoni, the Suns became renowned worldwide for their quick, dynamic offense, which led them to tie a franchise record in wins in the 2004–05 season. Two more top two Conference placements followed, but the Suns again failed to attain an NBA championship, and were forced into another rebuild. After ten consecutive seasons without a playoff berth, the Suns reached the 2021 NBA Finals after acquiring Chris Paul, who formed a quartet with their young core of Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges, but would eventually lose to the Milwaukee Bucks in six games.

In 2023, the Suns acquired 13-time All-Star and two-time NBA champion Kevin Durant and three-time All-Star Bradley Beal. The Suns own the NBA's fifth-best all-time winning percentage, have the highest winning percentage of any team to have never won an NBA championship, and have the most NBA Finals appearances (three) without a championship. 13 Hall of Famers have played for Phoenix, while two – Barkley and Nash – won NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) while playing for the team. Additionally, their Gowdy Award Winning radio announcer Al McCoy is the longest-tenured broadcaster in NBA history.

Reader's Guide

History 1968–1976: Team creation and early years The Suns were one of two franchises to join the NBA at the start of the 1968–69 season, alongside the Milwaukee Bucks from Milwaukee. They were the first major professional sports franchise in the Phoenix market and in the entire state of Arizona, and remained the only one for the better part of 20 years (a Phoenix Roadrunners team played in the World Hockey Association from 1974 to 1977) until the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League relocated from St. Louis in 1988.

The Suns played their first 24 seasons at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, called the "Madhouse on McDowell", located slightly northwest of downtown Phoenix. The franchise was formed by an ownership group led by Karl Eller, owner of a public enterprise, the investor Donald Pitt, Don Diamond, Bhavik Darji, Marvin Meyer, and Richard L. Bloch. Other owners with a minority stake consisted of entertainers, such as Andy Williams, Bobbie Gentry and Ed Ames.

There were many critics, including then-NBA commissioner J. Walter Kennedy, who said that Phoenix was "too hot," "too small," and "too far away" to be considered a successful NBA market. This was despite the fact that the Phoenix metropolitan area was growing rapidly, and the Suns would have built-in geographical foes in places like in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. After continual prodding by Bloch (who became president of the Phoenix Suns), in 1968 the NBA Board of Governors granted franchises to Phoenix and Milwaukee on January 22, 1968, with an entry fee of $2 million.

The Suns nickname was among 28,000 entries that were formally chosen in a name-the-team contest sponsored by The Arizona Republic, with the winner awarded $1,000 and season tickets for the inaugural season. Suns was preferred over Scorpions, Rattlers, Thunderbirds, Wranglers, Mavericks, Tumbleweeds, Mustangs and Cougars. Stan Fabe, who owned a commercial printing plant in Tucson, designed the team's first iconic logo for a mere $200. In the 1968 NBA expansion draft, notable Suns pickups were future Hall of Famer Gail Goodrich and Dick Van Arsdale.

Jerry Colangelo, then a player scout, came over from the Chicago Bulls, a franchise formed two years earlier, as the Suns' first general manager at the age of 28, along with Johnny "Red" Kerr as head coach.