If you’re a betting man, there’s no way you placed a wager on the Suns to win it all before the season started. Because why would you waste your money on a team that oddsmakers pegged as 100-1 longshots to win the franchise’s first championship?
Phoenix’s rabid fan base, since it’s so good at landing shots, probably had a few nuts who took a flyer at cashing in on those long odds before the 2020-21 regular season tipped off in December. But even they would have to admit it’s kind of crazy that the Suns could finally be on the verge of an NBA championship after 53 years of existence, the past of 10 of which featured a lot of dark days.
NBA observers thought the Suns, a talented but still very young squad, had a chance to sneak into the playoffs after the offseason acquisition of Chris Paul changed everyone’s outlook. But the idea of earning the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference seemed absurd, only slightly less ridiculous than the idea of Phoenix going on a run that would have them take out the Lakers, Nuggets, and Clippers on their way to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1993.
Yet here we are. In a season full of turmoil and agonizing twists and turns nobody could see coming, the Finals tipping in Phoenix Tuesday night feels pretty damn appropriate given the 72-games of chaos and the topsy-turvy first three rounds of the playoffs. The Suns, of course, will host the Bucks, a team whose run to its first finals since 1974 wasn’t nearly as far-fetched as Phoenix’s. It’s a matchup that you either find extremely intriguing since you’re a serious basketball fan or a yawner since it’s bereft of the kind of star power (where have you gone LeBron James?) we’ve become accustomed to seeing on the NBA’s biggest stage.
As always, there are important questions that must be asked and only hours before the league’s showcase event tips off we’re throwing them out there for public discussion. The answers aren’t obvious, and may not be revealed for a week or two, but that just comes with the territory when we’ve reached this point of the NBA calendar.