Subject: Steve Kerr

• Steve Kerr's greatest moments

  April 24, 2008

• Five Shaq-tastic moments

  April 23, 2008

• Don't let the Suns catch you crying

  April 29, 2008

• THE SUNS' EXTERMINATING ANGEL

  February 9, 1994

• Tree of Life

  April 3, 2008

• Return of the Joker: Shaq-Less Suns at L.A. Lakers Tonight

  98-119. 115-122. 106-98. 124-130. 92-105. Alas, these are not Steve Kerr's winning lottery numbers. They're actually grim statistics reflecting an alarming trend: the full-on revival of the Los Angeles Lakers as a major pain in the Phoenix Suns' butt. And they may be an even bigger pain in the posterior tonight with Shaquille O'Neal out of the lineup to attend his grandmother's funeral -- unless Coach Terry Porter returns the team to the days of old under Mike D'Antoni. That is, runs up e

  December 10, 2008

• Glad You're Sitting Down: Shaq Almost Scores His Age, Proving He Can Still Do It -- Against Milwaukee

  It was his first 30-point game since March 9, 2007 when he was with the Miami Heat. In fact, 36-year-old Shaquille O'Neal scored 35 points against the Milwaukee Bucks Tuesday night to lead the Suns to a 125-110 victory, the team's largest point total of the year. We'd say this was a return to the good old days of the last few years, if we didn't know better. Thing is, the Suns always play well against Milwaukee (9-14). Especially at home, where they've beaten

  December 10, 2008

• Suns Trade Raja Bell and Boris Diaw to Charlotte for Slam-Dunk Champ Jason Richardson, Et Al

  Finally, the Suns got rid of tentative Boris Diaw -- then they threw in defensive-minded Raja Bell for good mearure. At least, these were the name players the team jettisoned to acquire talented two-guard Jason Richardson (pictured after a dunk) from the Charlotte Bobcats. The 6-foot-6 Richardson is a far better offensive player than either Bell or Diaw, averaging 18.8 points a game. But his defense is suspect -- which makes us wonder how he will fit into Suns Coac

  December 10, 2008

• Temporarily Depleted by the Monster Trade, Suns Still Give Lakers All They Can Handle in L.A.

  Down three players, the Phoenix Suns played toe to toe with the Los Angeles Lakers for four quarters before losing 115-110 at Staples Center. With the usual assortment of show-biz types in attendance Wednesday night, the Suns, with just eight players available, looked much better against the powerful Lakers than they had in the first game against Kobe's Gang this season. It made us wonder how the team might look when scorer Jason Richardson, acquired from the C

  December 11, 2008

• Prodigal Sun: Mike D'Antoni Returns Tonight When His Knicks Take on Richardson-Revitalized Phoenix

    So, when Mike D'Antoni leads his New York Knicks out of the tunnel and onto the hardwood at the Purple Palace, will you boo him or will you cheer him? What's the etiquette for a man who abandoned a listing ship? Sure, following the Suns' first-round playoff ouster by the San Antonio Spurs last season, the former Suns head coach bailed in favor of the Big Apple, but he did it nicely enough. He asked first, in an I'm-telling-you kinda way. And Suns General Manager Steve Kerr -- the

  December 15, 2008

• Suns Defense Didn't Suck, and Phoenix Won the Turnover War in Victory Over Denver

  The Suns have looked good for two games in a row! Unfortunately, they lost the first of these in a heartbreaker against an emerging Portland team. On Saturday night, Phoenix actually won the turnover war (16 to 21) against a good Denver Nuggets team, and therefore the game. Keeping turnovers down is a measure of success for a team that's been horrible at protecting the basketball this season. The 17-10 Nuggets are a much better team this year, since trading Allen Iverson to Detroit fo

  December 22, 2008

• Bear Market: Phoenix Suns at Memphis Grizzlies Tonight

  The Boston Celtics bought themselves an NBA Championship in 2007-08. The Los Angeles Lakers nearly stole one by snookering away the rights to All-Star forward Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies last February 1 for the NBA equivalent of nothing. Oh, Memphis Coach Marc Iavaroni, a former Suns assistant, called Marc Gasol (pictured), Pau's younger brother, the key to the trade. Whatever you say, Marc. Phoenix Suns fans spent the remainder of the season gnashing their teeth and hatching cons

  December 30, 2008

• Suns Battle Old Pals Boris Diaw, Raja Bell, and Joe Johnson in Charlotte Tonight and Atlanta Sunday

  Charlotte's Boris Diaw in his strange new role: starter. If Charlotte were Philly, the Phoenix Suns would be wise to beware of flying alkaline batteries and half-filled beer cups when they take the court against the Bobcats at Time Warner Cable Arena at 5 p.m. tonight. But North Carolina's still part of the genteel South, and that's good news for Suns head coach Terry Porter and company, 'cause our fair city has not been kind to poor, put-upon Charlotte of late. (Neither has the economy

  January 23, 2009

• Stoudemire Snags Just 4 Rebounds as Unraveling Suns Lose to Mediocre New York Knicks, 114-109

  Mike D'Antoni had the last laugh. His work-in-progress New York Knicks held on and beat the Phoenix Suns at Madison Square Garden by five points. Mighty mite Nate Robinsion, in 25 minutes off the bench, demolished the Suns on Wednesday night. Seemed everything the 5-9 one-time NBA slam-dunk champion threw up went in. He wound up with 20 chest-pounding points, 4 assists, and 4 rebounds. The same number of rebounds that 6-10 Amar'e Stoudemire had. Pitiful. It must've been

  January 22, 2009

• Patsy Test: Can Phoenix Suns Manage to Beat Golden State Tonight and Friday?

  NBA bad boy Stephen Jackson has found a home in Golden State. We're not big Mike D'Antoni fans. As electric as his six-and-shoot system was during the Phoenix days, it was a paper tiger that bared its cardboard fangs come playoff time. Plus, the dude began to buy into his own myth toward the end of his Valley tenure. Poor widdle Mikey didn't wike to be second-guessed. Boo hoo.  Still, we'll give Mikey D this much: He could beat the patsies. You don't win 62, 54, 61, and 55 games over

  February 4, 2009

• Phoenix Suns Play Lousy Defense as Still Another Bad Team Stomps Them

  It's past time for the Suns to panic. But they can't muster up enough energy to even care whether another sub-.500 team blows them out. Pride?  Apparently they have none. Is it that they hate Coach Terry Porter, he of the long practices, clich'ed press conferences, and tough-guy persona? Because they can't really be this bad. Can they? They've shown signs of life this season. They still have a 26-21 record -- much better than the team they played Wednesday

  February 5, 2009

• As an Amar'e Stoudemire Trade Seems Imminent, the Phoenix Suns Mount Two Impressive Weekend Wins

  Amar'e Stoudemire's practically got his bags packed. And the rest of the Phoenix Suns -- save for  vererans Shaquille O'Neal, Steve Nash, and Grant Hill -- had seemingly put up the white flag. Then... The Suns started looking like a playoff team again in the past two games against the Golden State Warriors and the Detroit Pistons.  It wasn't pretty in the first of two games with the 16-35 Warriors. The Suns were blown out in Oakland. But they came back Friday night

  February 9, 2009

• Suns Deny Rumor in New York Post About Steve Kerr Replacing Head Coach Terry Porter

  Phoenix Suns head coach Terry Porter was "visibly annoyed" today at questions related to a column in the New York Post this morning that speculated Porter was about to be replaced by Suns general manager Steve Kerr.   According to the latest media reports, both Porter and Kerr deny they've heard anything about the rumor, which came about in a column by sports writer Peter Vecsey entitled Bad Karma in Phoenix: Meanwhile, according to a Phoenix source, Porter will be replaced by Kerr, wh

  February 13, 2009

• Good Riddance: Terry Porter's Officially Fired, but Could it be Shaq Who Now Goes Instead of Amar'e?

  Well, it's official. Phoenix Suns head coach Terry Porter was fired today and replaced (on an interim basis) with long-time Phoenix assistant and former Los Angeles Clippers head coach Alvin Gentry (pictured). "I hired Terry because I believed he would be able to provide the balance our team needed in order to perform at a very high level. Unfortunately the transition from last season to this one proved to be very difficult, and we have not played to our potential. It's imperative

  February 16, 2009

• Breakneck Mountain: Phoenix Suns to Revive the Seven-and-Shoot Tonight Against Clippers Tuesday and Wednesday

  This just in from Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver and general manager Steve Kerr: Oops. Our bad. Terry Porter, we hardly knew ye. Here's a sack full of cash to salve your wounds. Amar'e -- ha ha. Those trade rumors? We were just kidding. Ya know we love ya, ya big lug. The rest of you guys, run like hell. Well, except you, J-Rich. (Shooting guard Jason Richardson, still paying penance for a pre-Christmas DUI, needs to slow waaaaaay down after being arrested in Scottsdale for doing 90 in a 35 z

  February 17, 2009

• Looking Like the Suns of Old After the Coaching Change, Phoenix Blows Out the Hapless L.A. Clippers

  It was a game in which Goran Dragic slam-dunked. Goran who? You know, the highly touted backup point guard whom fired Suns Coach Terry Porter used to ream a new one from the sidelines everytime he made a blunder. The Slovenian rookie (pictured) played with reckless abandon in the Suns' 140-100 rout of the hapless Los Angeles Clippers at US Airways Center Tuesday night. As did the rest of the Suns, who were laughing, high-fiving, and acting like a load of bric

  February 18, 2009

• Amar'e Stoudemire Scores 42 in Phoenix Suns' Second-Night-in-a-Row Rout of Clippers

  The once-again run-and-gun Phoenix Suns looked great again Wednesday night, scoring 140 points or more for the second game in a row against the dog-ass Los Angeles Clippers. This time, the score was 142-119, and supposedly on-the-trading-block Amar'e Stoudemire scored 42 points of that and pulled down 11 rebounds. We think we even saw him play a little defense. It was as if Stoudemire were saying to owner Robert Sarver and GM Steve Kerr, "You better not trade me!" In any case, we'll fi

  February 19, 2009

• Phoenix Suns' Amar'e Stoudemire Undergoes Eye Surgery; Probably Out for Rest of the Regular Season

  Just when things were beginning to look up for the Phoenix Suns. The team announced that power forward Amar'e Stoudemire -- on the trading block until he stepped up his game after a recent coaching change -- underwent surgery today for a "partially detached retina" and will be out for eight weeks "depending upon his healing process." If he's out for this average amount of time for such an injury, it means the team's high scorer (21.4 points a game) will be

  February 20, 2009

• The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Suns Blow Out the Thunder and Get Dominated by the Celtics Over the Weekend

  The good, of course, were Rajon Rondo (pictured) and the mighty Boston Celtics, who came into US Airways Center Sunday Afternoon and took care of business, 128-108, against the Phoenix Suns. The bad were the Oklahoma City Thunder, who got dominated by the Suns here Friday night, 140-118, in Phoenix's third win in a row scoring 140 points or more. The ugly was Phoenix's defense in both games. When you give up at least 118 points on your home court, you're not playing enou

  February 23, 2009

• ASU Nips Arizona Wildcats in Classic Battle at Super-Loud Home Gym

  A few sights, sounds and other memories from last night's thrilling ASU win over Arizona at the Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe: It was the loudest crowd we've heard at the campus arena since the mid- to late-1970s, when both state schools usually had excellent, evenly matched squads. The din was constant and not -- as had been the case for most of the Lute Olson era -- split about 50-50 between Sun Devils and Wildcat fans. Oh, and the place actually was sold out, a rarity even as ASU men

  February 23, 2009

• Apocalypse Diaw: Phoenix Suns Host Boris, Charlotte Bobcats Tonight

  www.nba.com Boris Diaw ain't all that. Last Thursday, in one blink of Amar'e Stoudemire's bum eye, the Phoenix Suns' playoff chances took a sucker punch to the gut. Most people's first thought: "Oh. Crap." Most people's second thought: "Oh. Crap. We traded away Boris Diaw." Our second thought: "Oh. Crap. Most people are gonna say we shouldn't have traded away Boris Diaw." Sure enough, last Friday's local sports-radio airwaves were a-buzz with revisionist invective from fans who thought

  February 24, 2009

• Supermen of La Mancha: Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James, Mo Williams Visit Phoenix Suns Tonight

  www.nba.com Mo Williams: Finally, a worthy sidekick for LeBron. Following the Phoenix Suns' figurative demise in their do-or-die game versus the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night, the dudes in orange have about as much chance of making the playoffs as did Don Quixote of slaying a windmill. But that doesn't mean the end of championship-caliber NBA hoops at US Airways Center quite yet, as the Cleveland Cavaliers and their superman of La Mancha, LeBron James, visit the PHX tonight. You'd b

  March 12, 2009

• Phoenix Suns Still (Barely) Alive in the Playoff Race After 114-109 Win Over Tough Houston Rockets

  www.nba.com It was a battle of the behemoths at US Airways Center.The most lopsided statistic in the Phoenix Suns' 5-point victory over the powerhouse Houston Rockets Wednesday night was fast-break points. The Suns had 18 and the Rockets had 4. It was run-and-gun basketball as only the Suns can do it (when their heads are in the game). But the Suns also beat one of the best rebounding teams in basketball -- which features 7-foot-6 Yao Ming -- on the boards.

  April 2, 2009

• Blame D'Antoni: Sinking Phoenix Suns Take on New Orleans Hornets Tonight

  www.nba.com Shaquille O'Neal has five games left as a Sun. Bank on it. The New York Knicks were eliminated from the playoffs last Saturday, less than 24 hours before the Phoenix Suns were in every way but mathematically terminated by the Dallas Mavericks. Anyone but a Mike D'Antoni/Planet Orange hardcore might see humor in that ironic turn. Probably not Mike D'Antoni himself. He's a self-serious dude, and he doesn't like to lose, which is about the nicest thing we can say about him

  April 8, 2009

• Phoenix Suns Win Impressively Over New Orleans, but Get Knocked Out of the Playoffs

  The Phoenix Suns were impressive against a good team Wednesday night, beating the New Orleans Hornets 105-100 on sterling play by their team leaders. www.nba.com Why's GM Steve Kerr smiling? The Suns didn't make the playoffs for the first time in the Nash era.But it doesn't matter. The Dallas Mavericks demolished the Utah Jazz 130-101 later in the evening and knocked Phoenix out of the playoffs. Remember, going into Wednesday night's games, the Suns had to win all five of their

  April 9, 2009

• Letters from the issue of Thursday, May 8, 2008

  May 8, 2008

• Steve Kerr's been beating the odds his whole life

  April 24, 2008

• Last Chance Thursday

  September 27, 2007

• Phoenix Suns Finish Season With Second-Best Record of Any Team Not Making the Playoffs in NBA History

  www.nba.com For the first time in his career, Grant Hill played in all 82 regular-season games. He had 27 points against Golden State last night.The Suns set in the West on Wednesday evening. And they dropped below the horizion with a purple and orange glow, beating the Golden State Warriors in the last game of the season for both teams, 117-113. Phoenix wound up two games out of the Western Conference playoffs, behind the Utah Jazz. It was surely the last time this versio

  April 16, 2009

• Root for the Home Team

  April 8, 2004

• Flashes

  December 12, 1996

• End Game: Phoenix Suns Face an Offseason of Discontent

  www.nba.com Many will go. Grant Hill will return. We hope. A mere week into the new season, the Arizona Diamondbacks' top pitcher is on the disabled list with a sore wing and the D-Backs couldn't hit a slow-pitch grapefruit with a two-by-four. You think they've got problems? This year's star-crossed campaign for Your Phoenix Suns mercifully comes to an end sometime after 9:30 tonight when the clock runs out on their 82nd game, versus the Golden State Warriors, and a season that began wit

  April 15, 2009

• Unwigged and Unloved: Spinal Tappers Play for Small but Appreciative Crowd

  Luke Holwerda"Spinal Tap" metal and "A Mighty Wind" folk each got their due Monday night.Before the Unwigged & Unplugged show even started last night, the official Spinal Tap moment had already happened. When the announcer came onstage at Dodge Theatre to do the customary plugging of upcoming shows, he looked over the half-full house and noted that the guys backstage had asked him if they'd advertised this show. It's too bad that more people didn't get to see Christopher Guest, Michael McKea

  April 28, 2009

• Amar'e Stoudemire Backstabs Hispanic Fans; Signs on as "Special Deputy" Under Sheriff Joe Arpaio

  Seems Big Stat has some eye trouble when it comes to Arpaio's bigoted misdeeds...(Hey, wasn't he in Escape from New York?)Is Phoenix Suns forward Amar'e Stoudemire blind to the truth about Sheriff Joe Arpaio?Apparently so, and in more than one eye. According to recent news reports, Big Stat was sworn in this afternoon as a "special deputy" for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. For Sheriff Joe, it's a publicity coup, coming at just the right time, with African-American Arpaio critic Al

  June 16, 2009

• The Big Cactus Becomes the Big Abandoned Steel Mill. Good for Cleveland, but It Leaves Us with Zilch

  www.nba.com O'Neal and King James reunited on the same team, this time for what the Cavs hope is a championship season.So what's Shaq gonna be called now that he's no longer the Big Cactus? Maybe the Big Abandoned Steel Mill or the Big Mistake By the Lake. Actually, O'Neal's trade looks good -- for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers! But what WTF did the Phoenix Suns get out of this? We'll tell you what: The deal saves owner Robert Sarver at least $10 million. What did Phoen

  June 25, 2009

• Steve Nash Agrees to Rich Contract Extension, but Why Do the Phoenix Suns Want to Keep the Aging Superstar at All Costs?

  Beats us why Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver would bend over frontwards to keep a point guard who's too old and slow to keep up defensively with practically any other starter at his position in the nba.com No way the two-time league MVP should be the Suns' top priority. National Basketball Association.   Come on, the Suns are in a rebuilding mode. From the looks of things so far, we predict they'll be only slightly more competitive next season than the Arizona Diamondbacks ha

  July 20, 2009

• Foul Play: Remembering Horry/Nash as Fun 'n' Gun Phoenix Suns Open New Season in L.A.

  Robert Horry and Steve Nash scuffle after Horry's infamous decking of Nash on May 14, 2007. The play sent the Suns into a tailspin they're still trying to recover from.​ Suppose for a sec that Robert Horry, on the morning of May 14, 2007, had looked in the mirror and said, "Today, I'm not going to be a total dick." True to his nature, though, Horry decked Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash during the waning seconds of that night's Western Conference semifinal game four, almost certainl

  October 28, 2009