Before You Go. AZcentral.com, the website for Phoenix's largest newspaper, the Arizona Republic, is predicting low 80s for Tuesday afternoon, and high 50s for the evening. So the legendary Arizona "dry heat" could be an issue. Once you get on the plane, you'll want to ditch your jacket.
UPDATE: According to a January 30, 2019 article in Thrillist:
Occasionally, retired Kroger business executives from Ohio and their Pilates-instructor second wives will accidentally move to Flagstaff and get very sad and angry when they realize the average winter temperature is somewhere in the 20s. But most of Arizona offers up that dry desert day heat that is good for arthritis and any lingering guilt about leaving their first wives to deal with their delinquent teenage kids back in Indian Hill.
Arizona's infamous Daylight Savings Time issue has been settled: The State is on Mountain Time when New York is on Daylight Savings Time, and on Pacific Time when we're on Standard Time. This will be the day after DST ends, so you'll be on Mountain Time, 2 hours behind New Jersey and New York City. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.
If you're thinking of making a side trip into Mexico, you should know that it's a 4-hour drive at the least. No public transportation. You'll need a passport, and you'll also need Mexican driving insurance, which you might be able to get at the Mexican consulate in New York or Phoenix. In other words, it's not really worth the trip.
Tickets. The Suns averaged 16,866 fans per home game last season, about 91 percent of capacity. So, despite being Arizona's oldest team (and, if you believe the Diamondbacks' 2001 title was a fluke or a cheat, the State's most successful team), getting tickets will probably not be hard.
Suns tickets are among the cheapest in major league sports. Seats in the lower level, the 100 sections, are $125 between the baskets, and $46 behind them. In the upper level, the 200 sections, seats are just $25 between the baskets and $10 behind them. In the uppermost corners, they're only $6.00.
Getting There. It's 2,458 miles from Times Square downtown Phoenix. In other words, if you're going, you're flying.
You think I'm kidding? Even if you get someone to go with you, and you take turns, one drives while the other one sleeps, and you pack 2 days' worth of food, and you use the side of the Interstate as a toilet, and you don't get pulled over for speeding, you'll still need nearly 2 full days to get there. One way.
But, if you really, really want to... You'll need to get on the New Jersey Turnpike. Take it to Exit 14, to Interstate 78. Follow I-78 west all the way through New Jersey, to Phillipsburg, and across the Delaware River into Easton, Pennsylvania. Continue west on I-78 until reaching Harrisburg. There, you will merge onto I-81. Take Exit 52 to U.S. Route 11, which will soon take you onto I-76. This is the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the nation's 1st superhighway, opening in 1940.
The Turnpike will eventually be a joint run between I-76 and Interstate 70. Once that happens, you'll stay on I-70, all the way past Pittsburgh, across the little northern panhandle of West Virginia, and then across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, into Missouri.
At St. Louis, take Exit 40C onto Interstate 44 West, which will take you southwest across Missouri into Oklahoma. Upon reaching Oklahoma City, take Interstate 40 West, through the rest of the State, across the Texas Panhandle and New Mexico, into Arizona. At Flagstaff, take Interstate 17 South, which will take you into Phoenix.
If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and 15 minutes in New Jersey, 5 hours and 30 minutes in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in West Virginia, 3 hours and 45 minutes in Ohio, 2 hours and 45 minutes in Indiana, another 2 hours and 45 minutes in Illinois, 5 hours in Missouri, 6 hours in Oklahoma, 3 hours in Texas, 6 hours and 15 minutes in New Mexico, and 5 hours and 30 minutes in Arizona. That's about 42 hours. Counting rest stops, you're probably talking about 55 hours.
That's still faster than Greyhound, averaging around 68 hours, including a 1:45 bus-change in Richmond, a 1:15 stopover in Charlotte, an hour's bus-change in Atlanta, an hour's stopover in Birmingham, a 45-minute stopover in Jackson, Mississippi, an hour's stopover in Shreveport, a 1:30 bus-change in Dallas (that's right, changing buses 3 times each way), and a 1:15 stopover in El Paso.
It's $672 round-trip, but it can drop to $462 with advanced purchase. The station is at 2115 East Buckeye Road, adjacent to Sky Harbor International Airport. Number 13 bus to downtown.
Amtrak doesn't work, because you'd have to board the Crescent at Penn Station, ride a full day to Union Station New Orleans, stay overnight in New Orleans, and ride another overnight, the Sunset Limited, to Maricopa. And since the Sunset Limited only runs every other day, you'd have to leave tomorrow, and arrive at at 8:52 PM on Sunday night -- nearly 46 hours before tipoff.
And you'd still have to get from Maricopa station, at 19427 N. John Wayne Pkwy., to downtown Phoenix, 35 miles to the north, as Amtrak closed Union Station in Phoenix a few years back. And if you can't rent a car, then you'll have to take a cab, because there's no train or bus from Maricopa to Phoenix. And, to get back, you'd have to get to Maricopa in time to catch the 5:40 AM Sunset Limited back to New Orleans on Tuesday morning -- yet another unncessary overnight. Total fare: $709 -- not counting the taxis.
Flights to Phoenix are usually among the cheapest to any big-league city. Not this time: For nonstop flights between Newark and Sky Harbor, you'll have to pay over $1,200. The city's light rail system can get you downtown in 36 minutes.
Once In the City. Of the 4 major league sports teams that call Phoenix home, the Suns are the only ones still using the city's name, rather than the State's name -- apparently from a Native American word meaning "small spring" -- as their geographic identifier. Nevertheless, Phoenix is the capital of the State of Arizona.
The State House in Phoenix,
apparently in 2012, the 100th Anniversary of Statehood
Jack Swilling, a Confederate veteran who founded the place in 1867, accepted the suggestion of a fellow settler, an Englishman named Lord Duppa: Since it was on the site of a previous Indian civilization, it should be named Phoenix, for the mythical bird that rose from its own ashes. The city was incorporated in 1881, making it the youngest city in American major league sports. Along with New Mexico, Arizona gained Statehood in 1912, the 47th and 48th States of the Union.
Home to just 100,000 people in 1950, Phoenix saw huge growth in the 2nd half of the 20th Century: 440,000 by 1960, 580,000 by 1970, 800,000 by 1980, and it surpassed the 1 million mark in the early 1990s. It's 1.6 million now, with about 4.6 million people in the metropolitan area.
All this made it an expansion target. The NBA's expansion Suns arrived in 1968. The NFL's St. Louis Cardinals in 1988, changing their name from the Phoenix Cardinals to the Arizona Cardinals in 1993. The USFL's Arizona Wranglers played there in 1984, and became the Arizona Outlaws the following year. This was around the time that the Philadelphia Eagles nearly moved there due to owner Leonard Tose's fractured finances.
The MLB team that became the Diamondbacks was awarded in 1995, to begin play in 1998. And the NHL's 1st Winnipeg Jets became the Phoenix Coyotes in 1997, changing their name to the Arizona Coyotes in 2013. This was after the World Hockey Association had the Phoenix Roadrunners in the 1970s -- and, yes, I'm well aware of the cartoon connection: Roadrunners replaced by Coyotes. The WNBA's Phoenix Mercury also began play in 1997. Today, the Suns are the only Phoenix-area team to keep the city's name as their identifier, rather than the State's name.
The sales tax in Arizona is 5.6 percent, but it's 8.3 percent within the City of Phoenix. ZIP Codes for Arizona start with the digits 85 and 86, and the Area Codes are 602 (for Phoenix), 480 and 623 (for the suburbs). Arizona Public Service provides electricity and water. The Phoenix metropolitan area has a population that is about 58 percent white, 31 percent Hispanic, 5 percent black, 3 percent Asian, and 3 percent Native American.
Although Phoenix has had a gang problem, its bigger problem has been the racism of the white people to the Mexican-American community, symbolized by Joe Arpaio, Sheriff of Maricopa County from 1993 to 2017, who had people arrested without cause and tortured in his jails. After losing his last bid for re-election, he was convicted for contempt of court. He then became the 1st criminal pardoned by Donald Trump, and ran for his old office again in 2020, and lost.
Central Avenue is the source street for east-west house numbers; oddly, the north-south streets are numbered Streets to the east, and numbered Avenues to the west. Washington Street divides addresses into north and south. State Route 101 forms a partial "outer beltway," while Interstates 10 (north and east) and 17 (south and west) form an "inner beltway." A single ride on Phoenix buses and Valley Metro Rail is $2.00, with an All-Day Pass a bargain at $4.00.
Going In. The Talking Stick Resort Arena is named for a luxury hotel & casino on Native American property in nearby Scottsdale. Previously, it was named the US Airways Center, and the AmericaWest Arena for a previous airline. The Suns and the Arena Football League's Arizona Rattlers have played here since it opened in 1992, and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury since their inception in 1997. The NHL's Phoenix Coyotes played here from 1996 to 2003.
The hockey team is now named the Arizona Coyotes. The Suns are the last major league team in the State still using the city's name, Phoenix, as their identifier, rather than the State's name, Arizona.
The arena's address is 201 E. Jefferson Street, 2 blocks from Chase Field, home of MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks, at 401 E. Jefferson Street. Both buildings can be reached on Metro Light Rail via the Jefferson Street & 3rd Street station. The Jefferson Street Garage provides parking for both buildings. Parking can be had for as little as $5.00.
If you're entering from the light rail station or the Jefferson Street Garage, you'll most likely be entering from the east or the north. The court is laid out north-to-south. The seats are purple, in line with the Suns' logo, and so the arena is nicknamed the Purple Palace.
Since the Suns' arena is downtown, it gets far more concert dates than the Coyotes' arena. The reason the Coyotes left the downtown arena in the first place is because its retrofit meant losing about 2,000 seats for hockey (some due to removal to fit a rink in, some due to obstructed views -- one of the nets couldn't be seen), resulting in poor revenue.
The Talking Stick Resort Arena is also a regular host for "professional wrestling," and has hosted fights by Hispanic boxers, including Oscar de la Hoya and the final professional fight of Julio Cesar Chavez.
A Valley Metro Rail train
Going In. The Talking Stick Resort Arena is named for a luxury hotel & casino on Native American property in nearby Scottsdale. Previously, it was named the US Airways Center, and the AmericaWest Arena for a previous airline. The Suns and the Arena Football League's Arizona Rattlers have played here since it opened in 1992, and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury since their inception in 1997. The NHL's Phoenix Coyotes played here from 1996 to 2003.
The hockey team is now named the Arizona Coyotes. The Suns are the last major league team in the State still using the city's name, Phoenix, as their identifier, rather than the State's name, Arizona.
The arena's address is 201 E. Jefferson Street, 2 blocks from Chase Field, home of MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks, at 401 E. Jefferson Street. Both buildings can be reached on Metro Light Rail via the Jefferson Street & 3rd Street station. The Jefferson Street Garage provides parking for both buildings. Parking can be had for as little as $5.00.
The arena under its former name, the US Airways Arena
Yes, the seats are purple.
The Talking Stick Resort Arena is also a regular host for "professional wrestling," and has hosted fights by Hispanic boxers, including Oscar de la Hoya and the final professional fight of Julio Cesar Chavez.
(UPDATE: In 2021, the Suns' arena was renamed the Footprint Center. Footprint is an Arizona-based "material science" company.)
Food. As a Southwestern city, you might expect Phoenix to have Mexican, Spanish, Western and Southwestern food themes. Which is the case. Tortas del Sol is behind Section 112, and Tortas el Ray at 119.
Levy Restaurants runs the arena's concessions. Links & Lagers specializes in sausages and sausage hoagies, at 106 and 221. ZZ's To Go serves salad, pizza, sandwiches and pasta at 119. Fractured Prune Doughnuts is at 101, but they serve many flavors, not just prune. BrewMaster's Pub is a walk-in lounge at 119. The Coop specializes in chicken and garlic Parmesan fries. And the arena also features the Coors Light Zone Patio, in the style of a beer garden, with barbecue-style food.
Team History Displays. By far the oldest major league sports team in Arizona, the Suns have some history, and they've usually been at least good. But they've never been great enough to put it all together. They haven't won a World Championship yet, making them the oldest NBA team to have not done so. But they won the Western Conference in 1976 and 1993, and have won their Division 6 times: In 1981, 1993, 1995, 2005, 2006 and 2007. (They reached the Finals in 1976 despite not finishing 1st in their Division.)
Unlike the Suns, the Mercury have won their league -- 3 times, in 2007, 2009 and 2014. They also won the WNBA's Western Conference and made the Finals in 1998.
The Suns have a Ring of Honor in their arena, honoring 15 men, including a whopping 10 retired numbers:
* From the early days, but not making it to 1976: 42, forward Connie Hawkins.
* From the 1976 Conference Champions: 5, guard Dick Van Arsdale; 33, center Alvan Adams; 44, guard Paul Westphal; head coach John MacLeod.
* From the 1981 Division Champions: MacLeod, Adams, and 6, guard Walter Davis.
* From the 1993 Conference Champions: Westphal as head coach; 7, guard Kevin Johnson; 9, forward Dan Majerle; 24, forward Tom Chambers; 34, forward Charles Barkley.
* From the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Division Champions: 13, guard Steve Nash.
* Spanning the eras: Former owner, coach and executive Jerry Colangelo; former coach Cotton Fitzsimmons; broadcaster Al McCoy; and trainer Joe Proski.
In 1999, Suns fans voted on an All-Century Team. Westphal was named as a player on the 2nd Team and head coach of the 1st Team. The 1st Team was Adams, Johnson, Chambers, Barkley, and guard Jason Kidd. The 2nd Team was Hawkins, Westphal, Davis, Majerle, and center Mark West from the 1993 team.
In 2008, Suns fans voted on a 40th Anniversary Team. The guards were Van Arsdale, Westphal, Davis, Johnson and Nash. The forwards were Hawkins, Chambers, Barkley and forward Shawn Marion from the 2000s' Division titlists. The centers were Adams and 2000s' Division titlist Amar'e Stoudemire, recently of the Knicks. A 50th Anniversary Team has not been chosen.
There are 12 people in the Basketball Hall of Fame who are associated with the Suns. Hawkins, Barkley and Colangelo were elected largely on the basis of their time with the Suns. Gail Goodrich was taken by the Suns in the 1968 expansion draft, but after just 2 years was sent back to the Lakers, whom he helped win the 1972 NBA title. Another '72 Laker titlist was Pat Riley, who played just 1 season with the Suns, but it was the 1976 Finals season.
Gus Johnson played for them only in 1972. Dennis Johnson was famously traded by the Seattle SuperSonics to the Suns, even-up for Westphal (who is not in the Hall), and was part of their '81 Division winners, before going to the Boston Celtics and winning 2 titles with them on top of the 1 he won in Seattle.
Already in the Hall when she got the job, Ann Meyers has been a Vice President of the Suns since 2005. And Shaquille O'Neal only played 1 season with the Suns. There were 5 of them elected this year: Nash, 1970s star Charlie Scott, Jason Kidd, Grant Hill, and former team president Rick Welts.
Barkley was the only player named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players in 1996 who had spent any time with the Suns, although Shaq did so later. Nash already the 1st and, for the moment, the only basketball player yet elected to Canada's Walk of Fame.
Tom Van Arsdale, Dick's twin brother, was a 3-time NBA All-Star, but had his best years with the Cincinnati Royals, before wrapping up his career playing the 1976-77 season alongside Dick. Wearing Number 5 for most of his career, like Dick, he switched to 4 in Phoenix.
The Mercury have retired Michelle Timms' Number 7. Cappie Pondexter (better known with the New York Liberty, now with the Chicago Sky) and Diana Taurasi (still with them) were named to the WNBA's 15th Anniversary 15 Greatest Players in 2002. Both were also named to the WNBA Top 20 at 20 in 2016 -- in the 20th Season, rather than at the 20th Anniversary.
There is an Arizona Sports Hall of Fame, and it has elected Dick Van Arsdale, Adams, Barkley, Majerle, Fitzsimmons, MacLeod, Colangelo, McCoy, early part-owner Karl Eller, and sportscaster Bob Vache, who was the first voice of the Suns but was elected for other contributions.
Stuff. The Team Shop is located on the ground floor of the north side of the arena. Suns, Mercury and Rattlers merchandise can be purchased there. Perhaps, due to Arizona's Western heritage, you can find cowboy hats with the team's logo on them. It is open from 10 AM to 5 PM on non-game days.
There aren't many books about the Suns, despite nearly a half-century of play. After the 1993 Conference title, Lee Shappell published Phoenix Suns: Rising to the Top with the "Team of Oddities." Sports Illustrated's Jack McCallum covered their Steve Nash all-offense-and-no-defense years, and wrote Seven Seconds or Less: My Season on the Bench with the Runnin' and Gunnin' Phoenix Suns. And in 2013, Howard A. DeWitt published The Phoenix Suns: The View From Section 101.
Since the Suns haven't yet won an NBA title, there's no commemorative DVD package. And their 40th Anniversary passed in 2008 without a team history DVD. Maybe the upcoming 50th Anniversary will change that. The only videos I found about them on Amazon.com were VHS cassettes about their 1993 Conference title season.
During the Game. A November 13, 2014 article on DailyRotoHelp ranked the NBA teams' fan bases, and listed the Suns' fans at 15th, on the plus side of the league's exact middle, praising their showing up no matter what, and their rather generous reactions to the departures of Shaq and Nash.
Wearing Knicks or Nets gear in Phoenix will not endanger your safety. The Suns' biggest rivals are the Los Angeles Lakers, the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs, not either of the New York teams. For the most part, Arizona fans are okay, not making trouble for fans of teams playing the NFL Cardinals, NHL Coyotes or MLB's Diamondbacks, either. In fact, their biggest rivalry is intrastate: The University of Arizona vs. Arizona State University. It's a heated rivalry... but it's a dry heat.
This Saturday's game against the Nets will not feature a promotion, but the December 13 game against the Knicks is Phoenix Night, and the Suns will be giving away posters.
This Tuesday's game against the Nets will be College Night, with fans receiving Hawaiian shirts with Suns logos on them. The March 6 game against the Knicks will be Pride Night. Arizona trying to send New York a message? Not that there's anything wrong with that.
The Suns hold auditions for National Anthem singers, instead of having a regular singer. Their introduction song is "Zombie Nation" by Kernkraft 400. There's not much in the way of fan chants, except the very ordinary "Let's go, Suns!"
The mascot is Go the Gorilla. He was the 1st NBA mascot to do trick dunks, preceding Charlotte's Hugo the Hornet by years. This makes him perhaps the most famous NBA mascot, unless you want to count Lucky the Leprechaun, and the Celtics didn't have a live Lucky until recently.
On April 8, 2017, Andrew Lynch ranked the NBA mascots for Fox Sports' website. He ranked Go 3rd, saying, "The Gorilla is a legend, through and through." He, the Phillie Phanatic, and the San Diego Chicken were the 1st 3 inductees into the Mascot Hall of Fame, in 2005.
After the Game. Phoenix does have crime issues, but you should be safe as long as you stay downtown. It's incredibly unlikely that Suns fans will bother you, and the fact that the Knicks and the Nets aren't rivals to them helps.
As for anything New York-friendly, the closest I can come at this time is a place called Tim Finnegan's, the local Jets fan hangout, but that's 11 miles north of downtown, at 9201 North 29th Avenue. It appears that the local football Giants fan club meets at the Blue Moose, at 7373 East Scottsdale Mall, 13 miles northeast of downtown. I've also heard that Loco Patron, at 1327 E. Chandler Blvd., is a Giants fan hangout, but that's 21 miles south.
I've read that a Yankee Fan hangout is at LagerFields Sports Grill, at 12601 N. Paradise Village Pkwy. W., 14 miles northeast of downtown. Alas, I can find nothing Mets-specific in the area.
If you visit Phoenix during the European soccer season, as we are now in, the best "football pub" in Arizona is the George & Dragon Pub, which opens at 7:00 AM on matchdays. 4240 N. Central Avenue, about 3 miles north of downtown. Bus 13 to Buckeye Road & Central Avenue, then transfer to Bus ZERO to Farrington Lane. Unless you're a Liverpool fan, or you'd prefer to stay downtown, in which case you can go to the Rose and Crown, at 628 E. Adams Street, 2 blocks north of the ballpark.
Sidelights. Phoenix's sports history is relatively brief, and not very successful. But there are some notable locations.
UPDATE: On November 30, 2018, Thrillist published a list of "America's 25 Most Fun Cities," and Phoenix came in 21st.
* Chase Field. The Arizona Diamondbacks have played since their 1998 inception at Chase Field, a retractable-roof stadium, originally named Bank One Ballpark, and having that name during what remains the Diamondbacks' only World Series thus far, 2001. It looks like a big airplane hangar, without much atmosphere. True, there is that pool in the right-center-field corner... but what's a pool doing at a ballpark?
Major League Baseball is now concerned enough about developments at Chase Field that it might force the Diamondbacks to move. For now, though, they are playing at Chase Field, which is at 401 E. Jefferson Street, 2 blocks east of the Suns' arena, and also uses the Jefferson & 3rd light rail station.
* State Farm Stadium and Gila River Arena. The Glendale Sports & Entertainment District, in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, consists of State Farm Stadium (until this year known as The University of Phoenix Stadium), home to the Arizona Cardinals since 2006; and the Gila River Arena, home to the Coyotes since 2003.
The complex is about 17 miles northwest of downtown Phoenix. The official address of the stadium is 1 Cardinals Drive, and that of the arena is 9400 W. Maryland Avenue. Number 8 bus from downtown to 7th & Glendale Avenues, then transfer to Number 70 bus, to Glendale and 95th Avenue, then walk down 95th. If you drive in, parking starts at $10.
New York Tri-State Area sports fans know the stadium as the site of Super Bowl XLII, where the Giants derailed the New England Patriots' bid for the NFL's first 19-0 season. The Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Eagles there in January 2009 to advance to Super Bowl XLIII. The Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers there in Super Bowl XLIX. It is set to host Super Bowl LVII on February 5, 2023.
The stadium is also home to the Fiesta Bowl, and thus what has amounted to 3 National Championship Games: 2006-07, Florida over Ohio State; 2010-11, Auburn over Oregon; and 2015-16, Alabama over Clemson.
In 2017, it became the 1st building in Arizona to host a Final Four, with North Carolina defeating Gonzaga in the Final. It will host the Final Four again in 2024. It's hosted 3 matches of the U.S. soccer team, most recently a 1-0 loss to Colombia in the 2016 Copa America. (UPDATE: On January 27, 2019, it hosted a 3-0 win over Panama. It hosted 2 Quarterfinals of the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup. It will host the Final Four again in 2024.)
Food. As a Southwestern city, you might expect Phoenix to have Mexican, Spanish, Western and Southwestern food themes. Which is the case. Tortas del Sol is behind Section 112, and Tortas el Ray at 119.
Levy Restaurants runs the arena's concessions. Links & Lagers specializes in sausages and sausage hoagies, at 106 and 221. ZZ's To Go serves salad, pizza, sandwiches and pasta at 119. Fractured Prune Doughnuts is at 101, but they serve many flavors, not just prune. BrewMaster's Pub is a walk-in lounge at 119. The Coop specializes in chicken and garlic Parmesan fries. And the arena also features the Coors Light Zone Patio, in the style of a beer garden, with barbecue-style food.
Team History Displays. By far the oldest major league sports team in Arizona, the Suns have some history, and they've usually been at least good. But they've never been great enough to put it all together. They haven't won a World Championship yet, making them the oldest NBA team to have not done so. But they won the Western Conference in 1976 and 1993, and have won their Division 6 times: In 1981, 1993, 1995, 2005, 2006 and 2007. (They reached the Finals in 1976 despite not finishing 1st in their Division.)
Unlike the Suns, the Mercury have won their league -- 3 times, in 2007, 2009 and 2014. They also won the WNBA's Western Conference and made the Finals in 1998.
And, for some reason, Google Images has a photo
of the Mercury's banners, but not of the Suns' banners.
The Suns' are not as prestigious, but they are more numerous.
The Suns have a Ring of Honor in their arena, honoring 15 men, including a whopping 10 retired numbers:
* From the early days, but not making it to 1976: 42, forward Connie Hawkins.
* From the 1976 Conference Champions: 5, guard Dick Van Arsdale; 33, center Alvan Adams; 44, guard Paul Westphal; head coach John MacLeod.
* From the 1981 Division Champions: MacLeod, Adams, and 6, guard Walter Davis.
* From the 1993 Conference Champions: Westphal as head coach; 7, guard Kevin Johnson; 9, forward Dan Majerle; 24, forward Tom Chambers; 34, forward Charles Barkley.
* From the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Division Champions: 13, guard Steve Nash.
* Spanning the eras: Former owner, coach and executive Jerry Colangelo; former coach Cotton Fitzsimmons; broadcaster Al McCoy; and trainer Joe Proski.
Nash and MacLeod on the Ring of Honor
In 1999, Suns fans voted on an All-Century Team. Westphal was named as a player on the 2nd Team and head coach of the 1st Team. The 1st Team was Adams, Johnson, Chambers, Barkley, and guard Jason Kidd. The 2nd Team was Hawkins, Westphal, Davis, Majerle, and center Mark West from the 1993 team.
In 2008, Suns fans voted on a 40th Anniversary Team. The guards were Van Arsdale, Westphal, Davis, Johnson and Nash. The forwards were Hawkins, Chambers, Barkley and forward Shawn Marion from the 2000s' Division titlists. The centers were Adams and 2000s' Division titlist Amar'e Stoudemire, recently of the Knicks. A 50th Anniversary Team has not been chosen.
There are 12 people in the Basketball Hall of Fame who are associated with the Suns. Hawkins, Barkley and Colangelo were elected largely on the basis of their time with the Suns. Gail Goodrich was taken by the Suns in the 1968 expansion draft, but after just 2 years was sent back to the Lakers, whom he helped win the 1972 NBA title. Another '72 Laker titlist was Pat Riley, who played just 1 season with the Suns, but it was the 1976 Finals season.
Gus Johnson played for them only in 1972. Dennis Johnson was famously traded by the Seattle SuperSonics to the Suns, even-up for Westphal (who is not in the Hall), and was part of their '81 Division winners, before going to the Boston Celtics and winning 2 titles with them on top of the 1 he won in Seattle.
Already in the Hall when she got the job, Ann Meyers has been a Vice President of the Suns since 2005. And Shaquille O'Neal only played 1 season with the Suns. There were 5 of them elected this year: Nash, 1970s star Charlie Scott, Jason Kidd, Grant Hill, and former team president Rick Welts.
Barkley was the only player named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players in 1996 who had spent any time with the Suns, although Shaq did so later. Nash already the 1st and, for the moment, the only basketball player yet elected to Canada's Walk of Fame.
Tom Van Arsdale, Dick's twin brother, was a 3-time NBA All-Star, but had his best years with the Cincinnati Royals, before wrapping up his career playing the 1976-77 season alongside Dick. Wearing Number 5 for most of his career, like Dick, he switched to 4 in Phoenix.
The Mercury have retired Michelle Timms' Number 7. Cappie Pondexter (better known with the New York Liberty, now with the Chicago Sky) and Diana Taurasi (still with them) were named to the WNBA's 15th Anniversary 15 Greatest Players in 2002. Both were also named to the WNBA Top 20 at 20 in 2016 -- in the 20th Season, rather than at the 20th Anniversary.
There is an Arizona Sports Hall of Fame, and it has elected Dick Van Arsdale, Adams, Barkley, Majerle, Fitzsimmons, MacLeod, Colangelo, McCoy, early part-owner Karl Eller, and sportscaster Bob Vache, who was the first voice of the Suns but was elected for other contributions.
Stuff. The Team Shop is located on the ground floor of the north side of the arena. Suns, Mercury and Rattlers merchandise can be purchased there. Perhaps, due to Arizona's Western heritage, you can find cowboy hats with the team's logo on them. It is open from 10 AM to 5 PM on non-game days.
There aren't many books about the Suns, despite nearly a half-century of play. After the 1993 Conference title, Lee Shappell published Phoenix Suns: Rising to the Top with the "Team of Oddities." Sports Illustrated's Jack McCallum covered their Steve Nash all-offense-and-no-defense years, and wrote Seven Seconds or Less: My Season on the Bench with the Runnin' and Gunnin' Phoenix Suns. And in 2013, Howard A. DeWitt published The Phoenix Suns: The View From Section 101.
Since the Suns haven't yet won an NBA title, there's no commemorative DVD package. And their 40th Anniversary passed in 2008 without a team history DVD. Maybe the upcoming 50th Anniversary will change that. The only videos I found about them on Amazon.com were VHS cassettes about their 1993 Conference title season.
During the Game. A November 13, 2014 article on DailyRotoHelp ranked the NBA teams' fan bases, and listed the Suns' fans at 15th, on the plus side of the league's exact middle, praising their showing up no matter what, and their rather generous reactions to the departures of Shaq and Nash.
Wearing Knicks or Nets gear in Phoenix will not endanger your safety. The Suns' biggest rivals are the Los Angeles Lakers, the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs, not either of the New York teams. For the most part, Arizona fans are okay, not making trouble for fans of teams playing the NFL Cardinals, NHL Coyotes or MLB's Diamondbacks, either. In fact, their biggest rivalry is intrastate: The University of Arizona vs. Arizona State University. It's a heated rivalry... but it's a dry heat.
This Saturday's game against the Nets will not feature a promotion, but the December 13 game against the Knicks is Phoenix Night, and the Suns will be giving away posters.
This Tuesday's game against the Nets will be College Night, with fans receiving Hawaiian shirts with Suns logos on them. The March 6 game against the Knicks will be Pride Night. Arizona trying to send New York a message? Not that there's anything wrong with that.
The Suns hold auditions for National Anthem singers, instead of having a regular singer. Their introduction song is "Zombie Nation" by Kernkraft 400. There's not much in the way of fan chants, except the very ordinary "Let's go, Suns!"
The mascot is Go the Gorilla. He was the 1st NBA mascot to do trick dunks, preceding Charlotte's Hugo the Hornet by years. This makes him perhaps the most famous NBA mascot, unless you want to count Lucky the Leprechaun, and the Celtics didn't have a live Lucky until recently.
After the Game. Phoenix does have crime issues, but you should be safe as long as you stay downtown. It's incredibly unlikely that Suns fans will bother you, and the fact that the Knicks and the Nets aren't rivals to them helps.
As for anything New York-friendly, the closest I can come at this time is a place called Tim Finnegan's, the local Jets fan hangout, but that's 11 miles north of downtown, at 9201 North 29th Avenue. It appears that the local football Giants fan club meets at the Blue Moose, at 7373 East Scottsdale Mall, 13 miles northeast of downtown. I've also heard that Loco Patron, at 1327 E. Chandler Blvd., is a Giants fan hangout, but that's 21 miles south.
I've read that a Yankee Fan hangout is at LagerFields Sports Grill, at 12601 N. Paradise Village Pkwy. W., 14 miles northeast of downtown. Alas, I can find nothing Mets-specific in the area.
If you visit Phoenix during the European soccer season, as we are now in, the best "football pub" in Arizona is the George & Dragon Pub, which opens at 7:00 AM on matchdays. 4240 N. Central Avenue, about 3 miles north of downtown. Bus 13 to Buckeye Road & Central Avenue, then transfer to Bus ZERO to Farrington Lane. Unless you're a Liverpool fan, or you'd prefer to stay downtown, in which case you can go to the Rose and Crown, at 628 E. Adams Street, 2 blocks north of the ballpark.
Sidelights. Phoenix's sports history is relatively brief, and not very successful. But there are some notable locations.
UPDATE: On November 30, 2018, Thrillist published a list of "America's 25 Most Fun Cities," and Phoenix came in 21st.
* Chase Field. The Arizona Diamondbacks have played since their 1998 inception at Chase Field, a retractable-roof stadium, originally named Bank One Ballpark, and having that name during what remains the Diamondbacks' only World Series thus far, 2001. It looks like a big airplane hangar, without much atmosphere. True, there is that pool in the right-center-field corner... but what's a pool doing at a ballpark?
Major League Baseball is now concerned enough about developments at Chase Field that it might force the Diamondbacks to move. For now, though, they are playing at Chase Field, which is at 401 E. Jefferson Street, 2 blocks east of the Suns' arena, and also uses the Jefferson & 3rd light rail station.
* State Farm Stadium and Gila River Arena. The Glendale Sports & Entertainment District, in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, consists of State Farm Stadium (until this year known as The University of Phoenix Stadium), home to the Arizona Cardinals since 2006; and the Gila River Arena, home to the Coyotes since 2003.
The complex is about 17 miles northwest of downtown Phoenix. The official address of the stadium is 1 Cardinals Drive, and that of the arena is 9400 W. Maryland Avenue. Number 8 bus from downtown to 7th & Glendale Avenues, then transfer to Number 70 bus, to Glendale and 95th Avenue, then walk down 95th. If you drive in, parking starts at $10.
New York Tri-State Area sports fans know the stadium as the site of Super Bowl XLII, where the Giants derailed the New England Patriots' bid for the NFL's first 19-0 season. The Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Eagles there in January 2009 to advance to Super Bowl XLIII. The Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers there in Super Bowl XLIX. It is set to host Super Bowl LVII on February 5, 2023.
The stadium is also home to the Fiesta Bowl, and thus what has amounted to 3 National Championship Games: 2006-07, Florida over Ohio State; 2010-11, Auburn over Oregon; and 2015-16, Alabama over Clemson.
In 2017, it became the 1st building in Arizona to host a Final Four, with North Carolina defeating Gonzaga in the Final. It will host the Final Four again in 2024. It's hosted 3 matches of the U.S. soccer team, most recently a 1-0 loss to Colombia in the 2016 Copa America. (UPDATE: On January 27, 2019, it hosted a 3-0 win over Panama. It hosted 2 Quarterfinals of the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup. It will host the Final Four again in 2024.)
* Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The Grand Canyon State's 1st home to big-league sports, opening in 1965, was home to the Suns from their 1968 arrival until 1992, and to the World Hockey Association's Phoenix Roadrunners from 1974 to 1977. Like the Capital Centre outside Washington and the Saddledome in Calgary, it was built with a saddle-shaped roof.
The Coliseum still stands, and is part of the State Fairgrounds complex. 1826 W. McDowell Road. Northwest of downtown. Number 15 bus to 15th & McDowell, then 3 blocks west.
* Phoenix Municipal Stadium. This ballpark was home to the Phoenix Giants/Firebirds from its opening in 1964 until 1991, and is the current spring training home of the Oakland Athletics, the Diamondbacks' Rookie League team, and Arizona's State high school baseball championship. 5999 E. Van Buren Street, 8 miles east of downtown. Take the Light Rail to Priest Drive/Washington station, then a short walk up Priest. The Phoenix Zoo is adjacent.
* Scottsdale Stadium. This stadium was home to the Firebirds in their last years, 1992 to 1997. Its seating capacity of 12,000, 4,000 more than Phoenix Municipal, was meant to showcase the Phoenix area as a potential major league market. It's the San Francisco Giants' spring training site, and replaced a previous stadium on the site that dated to 1956, used as a spring training home for the Giants, A's, Red Sox, Orioles and Cubs -- sometimes all at the same time.
Because it was the Cubs' spring training home, thus leading to Phoenix becoming "Chicago's Miami," where retirees from the city tend to go (paging Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post & ESPN's Pardon the Interruption & NBA coverage), it was where former Cub catcher Randy Hundley hosted the very first baseball fantasy camp. Those of you who are Met fans, you might remember Randy's furious reaction to Tommie Agee scoring on a controversial umpiring call at home plate at Shea in September 1969. You might also remember Randy's son, former Met catcher Todd Hundley.
7408 E. Osborn Road, at Drinkwater Boulevard, 12 miles northeast of downtown. Light Rail to Veterans Way/College station, then transfer to Number 72 bus to Osborn, then walk 2 blocks east.
* Arizona State University. The University of Arizona is 114 miles away in Tuscon, but ASU is just a 24-minute Light Rail ride, 10 miles southeast of downtown. The station is at 5th Street & Veterans Way, and is 2 blocks away from Sun Devil Stadium and the Wells Fargo Arena (formerly the ASU Activity Center), home to their football and basketball teams, respectively. The arena was previously known as the ASU Activity Center. Elvis sang there on March 23, 1977.
Sun Devil Stadium was built in 1958, and ASU still plays there rather than move to the larger, more modern (but well off-campus) University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cardinals played there from 1988 to 2005, and the Fiesta Bowl was held there from 1971 to 2006. This meant what amounted to 5 National Championship Games: 1986-87, Penn State over Miami; 1988-89, Notre Dame over West Virginia; 1995-96, Nebraska over Florida; 1998-99, Tennessee over Florida State; and 2002-03, Ohio State over Miami.
The Dallas Cowboys treated it as a second home field when they played the Cardinals (mainly because there always seemed to be more Cowboy fans there), and won Super Bowl XXX there, when the world learned A) it was possible for the Pittsburgh Steelers to lose a Super Bowl, and B) Terry Bradshaw was a smart quarterback compared to Neil O'Donnell. It also hosted 2 U.S. soccer team matches in the 1990s.
Packard Stadium, opened in 1974, is home to the ASU baseball program, one of the most successful college baseball teams, east of the stadium and arena, at Rural Road and Rio Salado Parkway. The Sun Devils have won 5 National Championships, most recently in 1981. Their legends include Reggie Jackson, Barry Bonds, and current MLB stars Dustin Pedroia and Andre Ethier. Notable ASU and Met alumni include Gary Gentry, Duffy Dyer, Lenny Randle, Craig Swan, Hubie Brooks, Paul Lo Duca and Ike Davis.
ASU's Gammage Auditorium, at the other end of the campus, hosted one of the 2004 Presidential Debates between George W. Bush and John Kerry. 1200 S. Forest Avenue.
The US Airways Center, Wells Fargo Arena, University of Phoenix Stadium, and the University of Arizona's McKale Center have all hosted NCAA basketball tournament games. UA has been in the Final Four in 1988, 1994, 1997 and 2001, winning it all in 1997; but ASU has never gotten any closer than the Sweet 16, in 1995.
The highest-ranking pro soccer team in Arizona is Phoenix Rising FC, in the United Soccer League, our 2nd division. They play at the rather unimaginatively-named Phoenix Rising FC Soccer Complex, which seats 6,200. 751 N. McClintock Drive, in Scottsdale, 10 miles east of downtown Phoenix. It takes 4 buses over 2 hours to get there, so if you don't have a car, forget it.
Presuming Major League Soccer's current expansion wave passes Phoenix by, the closest MLS teams are the 2 in Los Angeles, 375 (LAFC) and 376 (LA Galaxy) miles to the west, respectively. The San Jose Earthquakes and Real Salt Lake are considerably further away.
The highest-ranking pro soccer team in Arizona is Phoenix Rising FC, in the United Soccer League, our 2nd division. They play at the rather unimaginatively-named Phoenix Rising FC Soccer Complex, which seats 6,200. 751 N. McClintock Drive, in Scottsdale, 10 miles east of downtown Phoenix. It takes 4 buses over 2 hours to get there, so if you don't have a car, forget it.
Presuming Major League Soccer's current expansion wave passes Phoenix by, the closest MLS teams are the 2 in Los Angeles, 375 (LAFC) and 376 (LA Galaxy) miles to the west, respectively. The San Jose Earthquakes and Real Salt Lake are considerably further away.
Arizona hosts a college football bowl game. From 1989 to 1996, it was named the Copper Bowl; from 1997 to 2011, the Insight Bowl after a tech company; in 2012 and 2013, the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl; from 2014 to 2017, the Cactus Bowl; and now, the Cheez-It Bowl. (UPDATE: In 2020, it became teh Guaranteed Rate Bowl.)
It was played at the Wildcats' Arizona Stadium from 1989 to 1999. It was moved to Chase Field in 2000, to Sun Devil Stadium in 2006, and back to Chase Field in 2016.
* Arizona Science Center. Phoenix is not a big museum center. And while there have been Native Americans living in Phoenix for thousands of years, and Spaniards/Mexicans for hundreds, its Anglo history is rather short. No Arizonan has ever become President (although Senators Barry Goldwater and John McCain got nominated), so there's no Presidential Library or Museum. And it doesn't help history buffs that the city only goes back to 1867, and Statehood was gained only in 1912. But the Science Center is at 4th & Washington, just a block from the ballpark and 3 blocks from the arena. And Arizona State has a renowned Art Museum.
The tallest building in Phoenix, and in all of Arizona, is the Chase Tower, bounded by Central Avenue and Van Buren, 1st and Monroe Streets. That it's only 483 feet, and that no taller building has been built in the city since it opened in 1972, says something about this city, but I'm not sure what. But the city seems to be intent on growing outward, not upward.
Television shows set in Phoenix, or anywhere in Arizona, are few and far between. The High Chaparral, another Western created by Bonanza creator David Dortort, ran on NBC from 1967 to 1971, and is fondly remembered by some. Medium was set in the Maricopa County District Attorney's office in Phoenix.
The best-remembered show is Alice, starring Linda Lavin as one of several waitresses at fictional Mel's Diner, running on CBS from 1976 to 1985. The show was taped in Hollywood (Burbank, actually), and its address was given on the show as 2128 Bush Highway. There is a Bush Highway in the area, but it starts in Mesa, well to the northeast of downtown.
But that once-famous "14-ounce coffee cup" sign is still used outside a real working diner in Phoenix. It was Lester's, until the owner agreed to change the name to "Mel's Diner" for the publicity. Today, it's Pat's Family Diner, at 1747 NW Grand Avenue, 2 miles northwest of downtown. Number 15 bus to 15th Avenue & Pierce Street, and then walk one block east to Grand, Pierce, and 12th. There are also still-in-business diners in Ohio and Florida that use the same sign design. "Pickup!"
Movies set in modern-day Arizona usually show the Grand Canyon or the Hoover Dam. Notable on this list is Superman: The Movie, in which Lex Luthor destroys the Dam; and Thelma & Louise, in which Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon drive a 1966 Ford Thunderbird into the Canyon rather than be captured by the FBI, enacting a distaff version of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. National Lampoon's Vacation and Natural Born Killers also used Arizona as a backdrop. The University of Arizona stood in for Adams College in the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds.
The vast majority of movies set in Arizona have been Westerns, including the 1957 and 2007 versions of 3:10 to Yuma, the 1950 film Broken Arrow (not the later John Travolta film of the same title), Paul Newman's Hombre, Fort Apache (not the later Newman film set in The Bronx), Johnny Guitar, A Million Ways to Die In the West, No Name On the Bullet, and all the films based on the 1881 Earps vs. Clantons gunfight, including My Darling Clementine in 1946, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1957, Tombstone in 1993 and Wyatt Earp in 1994. While not a Western, Revenge of the Nerds was filmed at the University of Arizona, in Tucson.
If you're a Western buff, and you want to see the site of the legendary gunfight, the official address is 326 East Allen Street, Tombstone, AZ 85638. Reenactments are held daily. Be advised, though, that it's 184 miles southeast of downtown Phoenix, a 3-hour-plus drive, and ain't no Greyhound or Amtrak service, stranger. It's also just 50 miles from the Mexican border.
And the other 2 things in Arizona that everybody talks about? The Grand Canyon Skywalk is 262 miles northwest of downtown Phoenix, and Hoover Dam 269 miles. They're 96 road miles apart, but about half that as the crow flies.
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If you go to Phoenix to see the Knicks or the Nets play the Suns, you won't be subjected to Arizona's usual intense heat, and you can probably see a basketball game relatively cheap. Have fun!
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