Phoenix is supposed to be the end of the line. It’s a retirement and rehabilitation haven surrounded by harsh desert conditions.
Yet, the city has become the NBA’s center of renewal, the place where players and even coaches can revitalize and enhance their careers.
Charles Barkley arrived in Phoenix in 1992 as an accomplished veteran with an Olympic gold medal and six consecutive All-Star selections.
Sir Charles would go on to experience the most success in his career with the Phoenix Suns, winning the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award after his first season, as the team finished the season with an NBA-best record of 62-20. Barkley took the team all the way to the 1993 NBA Finals where the Suns fell to four games to two to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls.
In 1996—the same year Barkley left the team—Phoenix acquired the Dallas Mavericks’ exciting, young point guard Jason Kidd and embarked on a mission to revive his career. The No. 2 overall pick in the 1994 NBA Draft was named 1994-95 co-Rookie of the Year, but the Mavericks finished 36-46 and 26-56 in his first two seasons with the team.
Kidd’s tenure in the Valley of the Sun would feature five consecutive playoff appearances, three All-Star selections, and he led the league in assists per game three times.
In 2004, another Mavericks All-Star and a former Sun, Steve Nash, came back to Phoenix to play for head coach Mike D’Antoni, a former NBA point guard who implemented a coast-to-coast, running style of basketball that lit up scoreboards all over the league. While Nash was already a very good player, he hadn’t led the league in assists per game and D’Antoni’s record at that point was a dismal 35-76.
But D’Antoni and Nash proved to be a very suitable tandem as Nash led the league in assists per game for the first time and won the first of back-to-back MVP awards in his first season with the Suns. Phoenix finished with the league’s best record in 2004-05 (62-20) and D’Antoni was named NBA Coach of the Year.
After six disappointing seasons with the Orlando Magic, Grant Hill came to the Suns with a reputation as an injury-prone former superstar. Hill, a consistent member of the Eastern Conference All-Star team early in his career suffered a myriad of injuries to his leg, groin, and ankle with the Magic.
With an 82-game slate in the NBA’s regular season, Hill only managed to play 67 games in his best season, failing to reach 30 games in four of his six seasons with the team—including missing the entire 2003-04 season.
Amazingly, Hill came to a young, fast Phoenix team in 2007 and played in 70 regular season games, the most he had played in since his last season in Detroit in 1999-2000. After making the move in 2007-08, Hill returned stronger than ever in 2008-09, appearing in all 82 games for the first time in his career—an astonishing revitalization for the 36-year-old forward.
The most ironic Phoenix resurgence may have been Shaquille O’Neal’s comeback in 2008-09.
O’Neal arrived from the Miami Heat in a midseason move at the trading deadline in February 2008. Shaq only appeared in 40 games for Miami in the 2006-07 season and made plenty of noise about wanting to play for a contender as his usually dependable stats fell to career lows with a Heat squad that would finish the season with an NBA-worst record of 15-67.
In Shaq’s first full season with the Suns in ’08-‘09, he played 75 regular season games, all starts, the most regular season games he competed in since the 1999-2000 season when he won the first of his four championships.
Shaq returned to the All-Star game after a one-year absence, and the 7’1”, 325-pound center improved his scoring average from the previous season from 13.6 to 17.8.
The Suns allowed Shaquille O’Neal to leave in a trade with the Cavs that should give the 37-year-old a great chance to win his fifth NBA title with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Don’t doubt the huge financial stimulation Phoenix offers, either.
Steve Nash, a 35-year-old point guard, just signed a $22 million, two-year contract extension with the Suns. Mike D’Antoni left Phoenix after accepting a four-year, $24 million deal with the New York Knicks. Joe Johnson, the No. 3 scoring option on the Suns’ stellar ’04-’05 team, was able to garner a five-year, $70 million contract with the Hawks.
Now, I’m not saying that Sasha Pavlovic will be an All-Star, but there’s something in the air out there
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