The mirror tells the story

[Walton Buys Off Me]

Trust me I'm not complaining but wouldn't it be nice if the Spurs took on the fiery, intense iden y of their bench boss the same way the Phoenix Suns emulate their coach by whining every chance they get like Lorraine Bracco in Goodfellas? Steve Nash used to be a very likeable, very humble, down-to-earth guy you couldn't help but cheer for. Now every time I see him, he's crying about how unfair the series was last year, how rough Bruce Bowen was with him, how the league made the wrong call in suspending Stoudemire and Diaw and now how Tim Donaghy (this one I don't get) may have cost his team a le. Steve Nash now sounds like one of these young Hollywood starlets that blame everyone from their personal assistants to their pets because they've become glorified crack heads in designer shoes.

Get over it Steve, your team got beat by a unit that actually plays defence, something you guys aren’t used to under Bill Paxton-From-True Lies D'Antoni, which explains why you’re so upset about Bowen guarding you; someone playing defence is alien to you. Tim Donaghy called 20 fouls in game 3- 10 against your team and 10 against the Spurs. You also played at full strength in game 6 facing elimination and were down 20 in the fourth quarter. You're a Steve, just like your wannabe big man Amare, just like your wannabe Mark Cuban owner, just like your deer-in-the headlights coach that thought a six-man rotation playing European run and gun mixed with street ball can get you a le.

Look in the mirror, something our culture has seemingly forgot how to do.

[SRJ]

The Suns and their fans have yet to explain how they lost game one at home.

They have yet to explain how they blew a big lead in game five at home.

They have yet to explain how they played a compe ive first half in game six and no-showed in the second.

They can't explain how they have lost five out of six in Phoenix against the Spurs in the 2005 and 2007 playoffs.

They ignore the big picture while focusing on a couple of itty-bitty little details which MIGHT have changed the outcome of this series.

You know what this is like? 2004. We could until the cows come home about the 0.4 shot, but it's irrelevant if the Spurs win game six in that series. The 2004 Spurs weren't good enough to overcome a setback, and neither were the 2007 Phoenix Suns.

In the end, this is the relevant issue. It does not one bit of good to day and night about those things which are out of one's control, but Suns Nation would rather do that than admit that their team just isn't good enough. They're damn good, but damn good doesn't win championships - the best do.

[Leetonidas]

The Suns and their fans have yet to explain how they lost game one at home.

The refs cheated and wouldn't let Steve Nash back in the game!!!

[sandman]

The refs cheated and wouldn't let Steve Nash back in the game!!!

I could have sworn that it was because knowing ahead of time that TP was going to headbutt Nash if the game was close in the 4th quarter, we bought off the PHX trainer to keep putting Spiderman themed Bandaids on Nash's face versus taking him to get s ched up.

[Hillcrest]

The Suns and their fans have yet to explain how they lost game one at home.

They have yet to explain how they blew a big lead in game five at home.

They have yet to explain how they played a compe ive first half in game six and no-showed in the second.

They can't explain how they have lost five out of six in Phoenix against the Spurs in the 2005 and 2007 playoffs.

They ignore the big picture while focusing on a couple of itty-bitty little details which MIGHT have changed the outcome of this series.

You know what this is like? 2004. We could until the cows come home about the 0.4 shot, but it's irrelevant if the Spurs win game six in that series. The 2004 Spurs weren't good enough to overcome a setback, and neither were the 2007 Phoenix Suns.

In the end, this is the relevant issue. It does not one bit of good to day and night about those things which are out of one's control, but Suns Nation would rather do that than admit that their team just isn't good enough. They're damn good, but damn good doesn't win championships - the best do.

Good post...I agree completely. Nice touch referring to .04 too...that's true...we can't about that.

[hater]

I don't think nash owns mirrors

[Spurs Brazil]

Nash: 'I think we can keep getting smarter'
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
(Archive)
Updated: July 26, 2007
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Nash: We Are a Championship TeamVANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Steve Nash was expecting a crowd of a couple hundred Canadians last week when he opened up an environmentally friendly health club in his home province.

A couple thousand showed up instead.

Not that Nash should have been surprised by the flood of autograph seekers. The reverence he commands from his countrymen is best captured by the nickname they use for Nash at another Vancouver ins ution: Electronic Arts' massive games-producing campus in nearby Burnaby.

"Everyone here calls him Can-Je," said Sean O'Brien, a veteran producer on EA Sports' March Madness series.

"That's short for Canadian Jesus, because he walks on water when he's up here."

Guess we were pretty lucky, then, to sneak in 10 quick questions with No. 13 between the health club's ribbon-cutting ceremony and his annual charity game over the weekend.


Jeff Vinnick/NBAE via Getty Images

Want to be worshipped? Just become the best baller your country has ever seen and win two MVP awards.
1. When the Suns were eliminated by the Spurs, you said that the outcome "will forever haunt us." Roughly two months later, are you feeling any differently about the series?

I'm over it until someone brings it up again. I've tried to put it out of my mind as much as possible, because it's very frustrating to go back to that series and retrace the suspensions and all the other events.

2. In each of the past three postseasons since you went back to Phoenix, your team has had to deal with various injuries and curveballs. And now comes word that Tim Donaghy, one of the referees in Game 3 of the San Antonio series, is being investigated by the FBI for betting on games. How much does that add to the Suns' disappointment?

I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say about that right now. It's an unfortunate situation. It's a shame that something like this happened, but I believe that the game is bigger than anything. The game is strong enough to [weather] this.

3. Can you just speak generally about the Suns' recent playoff fortunes?

There have been some events that, yeah, sometimes it makes you [wonder], "How high is the mountain?" At the same time, I can point the finger at myself and my team for not overcoming some of those things. Hopefully we keep getting better as a team and I still feel like I'm still getting better individually.

4. What does Grant Hill add to the mix?

It's a really good addition for us. We are trying to [maintain] a salary structure, so to sign a veteran of that quality and experience for a veteran minimum is a great move. He's still a great player, he's a great teammate and he's going to make us older in a good way.


Jeff Vinnick/NBAE via Getty Images

Summer drills: Nash practices his off-hand dribbling, staying low and protecting the ball.

5. But you've lost Kurt Thomas from last season's team. If Hill is the only significant addition to the roster before camp opens, how much better are the Suns next season?

I think [Hill] does make us better, but we've still got a lot of work to do on the court. It's not just what it looks like on paper. We need a little more toughness, be a little more intelligent as a group. But I think, as a group, we're working toward that. I think we can keep getting smarter. We've still got a really young team that's growing.

6. How tantalizing was it to hear that Phoenix is where Kevin Garnett wants to go if he finally leaves Minnesota?

I love Kevin. I'd love to play with him [someday]. But I love my team, so I don't really think about it. We've got a great team moving forward. That's all I think about.

7. You and KG are said to have become pretty good friends in recent years. How did that happen?

Really just from playing in All-Star Games, but we haven't been able to spend that much time together. It would be overstating it to say we're super close. But he's a great person, great for the game. He's got to be one of the [all-time] top 50 guys, easy.

8. A lot of the speculation around the draft about KG's coming to Phoenix involved Amare Stoudemire. How involved were you in the organization's attempts to reassure Amare that he wasn't going to be traded?

I really think Amare's fine. I know he's been in the gym a lot getting ready for next season. He sent me a text [message] just before he went to [join] Team USA and you could tell he was pretty excited. It's going to be a lot of fun for him this summer to be healthy after what he went through [coming back from two knee surgeries].

9. Speaking of health, how are you feeling? After 11 seasons, have you given much thought to how much longer you want to play?

I've been getting a lot of "window" questions lately, but I don't think about stuff like that. It's not up to me as much as my body and how I feel, but I have no reason to believe that I won't be playing for a long time. I feel great right now.

10. You have three years left on your contract, which would take you past your 36th birthday. What happens if you don't win a championship in that time?

I'm going to try as hard as I can and hopefully that'll be good enough. If it's not good enough, what am I going to do? It's not like I'm going to go into seclusion if I never win one.

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/column...Nash-interview

[SRJ]

What the [ ] was in those [brackets] interspersed throughout [that] Nash [interview]?

I don't understand how someone can conduct an interview with someone and just plug in these words. I understand if you're taking a sentence out of context and filling it back in, like "...[the Wolf] threatened to blow the house down.", but how does it work in the case of something like:

I love Kevin. I'd love to play with him [someday].

WTF?

If the original sentence was, "I love Kevin. I'd love to play with him.", then how does the goddamn writer just decide that Nash intended to say "someday"? Here are more:

The game is strong enough to [weather] this.

There have been some events that, yeah, sometimes it makes you [wonder], "How high is the mountain?"

It's a really good addition for us. We are trying to [maintain] a salary structure,

WTF?? Some of the brackets made sense, but it's like the writer is putting words in Nash's mouth here.

[Warlord23]

Here's a question for Nash: When is he planning to stop being Tim Duncan's ?

Since the 2003-04 season Duncan's Spurs have a 19-6 record vs Nash's team (the Suns).
Between 2000-01 and 2002-03 Duncan's Spurs have a 16-6 record vs Nash's team (the Mavs).
I'm ignoring 1999-00 when Duncan didn't play.

Basically since the turn of the century Duncan's teams have a staggering 35-12 head-to-head record vs Nash's teams combining the regular season and postseason. O-W-N-A-G-E.

Now the Suns get softer by adding Hill and dumping Kurt Thomas and Nash thinks they are close to a championship? GMAFB.

[da_suns_fan__]

Spurs fans are CLINGING to the fact that the Suns lost game one.

So?

They won game 4. If the Spurs had won game 4, no one would be questioning the validity of their win.

But they didn't. The Suns won back home court advantage.

[CubanMustGo]

Spurs fans are CLINGING to the fact that the Suns lost game one.

So?

They won game 4. If the Spurs had won game 4, no one would be questioning the validity of their win.

But they didn't. The Suns won back home court advantage.

Dance, monkey, dance!

[thispego]

Spurs fans are CLINGING to the fact that the Suns lost game one.

So?

They won game 4. If the Spurs had won game 4, no one would be questioning the validity of their win.

But they didn't. The Suns won back home court advantage.

so they only needed to win two of the remaining three?? what happened?

[da_suns_fan__]

so they only needed to win two of the remaining three?? what happened?

Suspensions.

This cons utes the first asterisk for the Spurs.

The other, of course, being the crooked ref.

[thispego]

Suspensions.

This cons utes the first asterisk for the Spurs.

The other, of course, being the crooked ref.

who got suspended and why? you'll have to fill me in

[da_suns_fan__]

who got suspended and why? you'll have to fill me in

You must be like the rest of the nation.

You don't watch the Spurs?

[saporvida]

Suspensions.

This cons utes the first asterisk for the Spurs.

The other, of course, being the crooked ref.

get the out of here... tu cabeza es dura. wha wha wha wha... bebe.

[FromWayDowntown]

It's not even worth arguing with someone who never feels constrained to limit himself to the facts.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

It's not even worth arguing with someone who never feels constrained to limit himself to the facts.

Those are the perfect people to argue with. You just have to fight fire with fire. Observe:

Suns fans love to about Donaghy fixing Game 3 of the WCSF, but they are strangely silent about how badly the refs had to fix the series against the Lakers just so the Suns could get out of the first round.

[SRJ]

Spurs fans are CLINGING to the fact that the Suns lost game one.

So?

They won game 4. If the Spurs had won game 4, no one would be questioning the validity of their win.

But they didn't. The Suns won back home court advantage.

Which they promptly gave right back (game five) and lost for good (game six).

How did you lose game five? How? You guys were killing the Spurs that night! If you weren't a bunch of dumbasses and chokes, you'd have put that game five away. If you weren't a bunch of dumbasses and chokes, you'd have stayed in game six instead of folding up faster than the XFL in the third quarter.

We don't "cling" to anything. We have the scoreboard to point to. You guys take a little detail and run it into the ground under the banner of injustice. Guess what? There are setbacks lurking about in every playoff series - the best teams deal with them.

In game five, you were well-positioned to overcome the "unjust" suspension; you did not take advantage.

Your team failed.

That is all.

You can spin all you like, but the Suns failed.

Again.

[da_suns_fan__]

Those are the perfect people to argue with. You just have to fight fire with fire. Observe:

Suns fans love to about Donaghy fixing Game 3 of the WCSF, but they are strangely silent about how badly the refs had to fix the series against the Lakers just so the Suns could get out of the first round.

Again, I bet you would be hard pressed to find a Laker fan who believes their team was on the same level as the Suns.

On the other hand, most of the nation believes the Suns were BETTER than the Spurs.

These facts just help that argument.

[Mister Sinister]

It's not even worth arguing with someone who never feels constrained to limit himself to the facts.

Well, it's at least fun to watch Suns fans cry like the schoolgirls they are.

[Mister Sinister]

Again, I bet you would be hard pressed to find a Laker fan who believes their team was on the same level as the Suns.

On the other hand, most of the nation believes the Suns were BETTER than the Spurs.

These facts just help that argument.

Most of the nation doesn't know how the game is supposed to be played. Moot.

[CubanMustGo]

Most of the nation? Proof, please, tool. Arizona != "most of the nation."

[SRJ]

On the other hand, most of the nation believes the Suns were BETTER than the Spurs.

And of course, sports is a democracy, right?

Let's just turn the NBA into American Idol so that your Suns won't fail, for once.

[thispego]

You must be like the rest of the nation.

You don't watch the Spurs?

i'm familiar with the suspensions that were legitimate. no suspensions were asterisk worthy that i am aware of.