Party's Over, Now You're a Man.

I caught the last quarter of the Suns/Spurs game. Observations.

Jason Richardson is at his most vital since his says as a "We Believe" Warrior. The brotherhood between "those Suns" and "those Warriors" and Richardson as a lost Ronin finding purpose with the more mature, but still philsophically dangerous "New Suns" is an under reported story line. Probalby because it makes no fucking sense.

The pick and roll is being held in its highest regard by commentators since the 2008 playoffs, when the very Suns who dominated because of that play tonight were being dismissed/scorned/chastised for their inability to defend it against the Spurs. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it the "D'Antoni can't figure out the Pick n' Roll" meme that finally drove him out of Phoenix?) Nevertheless, feels like the good old days. [Last year's post-Olympic homogenization nearly ruined basketball for me.]



A'Mare occupies a lonely territory in this league. He's no longer a cult favorite, and still too peculiar to be embraced as a"face of the new league" superstar, despite the fact that he's still so young. BUT. When healthy and motivated by moments, he's one of the most insidiously dominant players in basketball. Whereas LeBron is a conspicuous force of nature, A'Mare's 30/10 is less nature's agent than it is nature its very self. LIKE. It's sort of like the difference between being eaten alive by a shark and getting drowned by the rising tide. Both'll get you dead, but at least you can throw a few feckless punches at Jaws. Maybe we've all slept on STAT (can we bring that back) because he hasn't played healhty and important basketball in nearly two years. Before that, there was the Shaq debacle, and before that, there was the suspension that undid it all.



When you think about it, A'Mare's just getting back to where he belongs, right about the top of the list of the league's best power forwards. Pau Gasol, have you been formally introduced?

The images of Al Sharpton leading a group of protesters toward the US Airways Center were thrilling. Politics aside, the cohesion between Team/City/Sport/Activism/Unity at the very least made it seem, for a moment, that Phoenix was again where it belonged. At the center of the Basketball Universe.