Two of Shaquille O’Neal’s old teams on the road in two nights. Two losses. Tuesday night, it was to the Orlando Magic, and Wednesday it was to Dwayne Wade, Shaq’s brother in arms in the 2006 NBA championship, and the Miami Heat. It wasn’t Shaq’s fault that the Phoenix Suns lost to…
You could see this coming after Kurt Warner’s trip to visit the San Francisco 49ers and his compromise offer to the Cardinals: He has agreed to a two-year, $23 million contract, with a $15 million signing bonus and $4 million in base salary. The remaining $4 million would be paid…
On tap tonight in Miami: basketball at its most poetic and primal. Heat shooting guard Dwyane Wade, the NBA’s most elegant player, will provide the athletic iambic pentameter. A couple of aging but still dominant alpha bulls named O’Neal — the Heat’s Jermaine, the Suns Shaquille — will bang their…
It was billed as a battle of Supermen — old-school man of steel Shaquille O’Neal versus youngblood Dwight Howard — but the key players in last night’s Suns/Magic game in Orlando turned out to be a bunch of zebra-shirted mental midgets who whistled way too much while they worked. While we hate to…
Kurt Warner makes a Christian move (sort of). In what ESPN’s calling a “hometown discount,” the Arizona Cardinals starting quarterback and his agent, Mark Bartelstein, apparently have amended his contract demand to the team to a two-year, $23 million deal, with $12 million guaranteed. The Cardinals had been offering $20 million over two…
Finally. A signature win for the Phoenix Suns (see Sunday’s 118-111 conquest of the Los Angeles Lakers) and it’s all because of Shaquille O’Neal. Without starters Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire, Shaq has really stepped up in a big way, netting 45 and 33 in consecutive wins against the Toronto…
Question: How much money does Kurt Warner need?! Answer: As much as he can possibly get. Forget all that Christian stuff when it comes to big-time athlete bucks; everybody wants every million they can wring out. Warner’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, wants us to believe that Kurt’s too moral to create a controversy to…
What a weekend for Planet Orange, and its largest inhabitant! We’re beginning to think of the Phoenix Suns as a planet again, after back-to-back victories against the Toronto Raptors and the Los Angeles Lakers at US Airways Center Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Shaquille O’Neal’s certainly big enough to be Jupiter, and…
Okay, Kurt Warner’s on the open market. He and the Arizona Cardinals, though talking, didn’t come to terms on a contract before the free-agency deadline today. What does this mean? Well, he could go to another team, that’s what it means. How much does this matter. Maybe a lot (it…
The Phoenix Suns have built a presence on social networking site Twitter, and now some local Twitterers and Suns fans are helping to bring Suns players and fans together via a site called sunstweets.com. Several months ago, the Planet Orange presence on Twitter was started by Amy Jo Martin, Director…
www.nba.com Lamar Odom: “The Goods” played out of his skull in L.A. last night. For a precious few minutes in the first quarter of last night’s Suns/Lakers game in La-La Land, the Suns held their own against the NBA’s best. No, it was better than that. They were rolling, running,…
We’ll say this about the Giants-Dodgers rivalry: It gets normally sedate California fans riled up. Even at a Spring Training game — opening day at the Giants’ Old Town Scottsdale park — they were excited for this match-up between divisional rivals who’ll play each other another 10 times this season…
After all is said and done in the regular college basketball season (that would be next weekend) and the Pac-10 conference tournament, the ASU Sun Devils and the Washington Huskies will find themselves playing somewhere in the Big Dance. But all that seems so far away at the moment. At hand, in…
Like we’ve been saying all along, Cardinals starting quarterback Kurt Warner may be playing elsewhere next season. A blogger on azcardinals.com., the team’s official Web site, reports that Warner and the team are still about $4 million a year apart on a contract. Warner wants to be paid in the range of the top…
We admit we don’t get out to Goodyear much. But, with a new Spring Training stadium opening in the western West Valley city Wednesday, we made the drive (“Just 20 minutes from downtown Phoenix!” Goodyear likes to claim) to check out the new home of the Cleveland Indians, former spring Floridians…
With a 4-1 record in the Alvin Gentry era, the Phoenix Suns are winning the games they’re supposed to win. However, they’re still faltering against the NBA’s elite, evident by Sunday’s ass-whopping against the defending champion Boston Celtics. But that’s ok. The reason Terry Porter was run out of this…
Didn’t we predict it would come to this? Yes we did, over and over. We said Kurt Warner would seek the highest salary possible following his improbable Super Bowl run, and that the Arizona Cardinals would resist. For two reasons: Because the Bidwills who own the franchise are known to…
In this corner, wearing the purple and orange shorts, please welcome a man who’s won four NBA championships, Suns center Shaquille O’Neal! And in the other corner, wearing the pink underwear and panting like a dog with emphysema, give it up for the man who’s had at least nine inmates…
There were hugs all around, before Tuesday night’s game got started and after the final buzzer. Raja Bell and Boris Diaw seemed happy to be back home in Phoenix, even if they are now starters for head coach Larry Brown’s Charlotte Bobcats. So much so that they were the high scorers in…
World Wrestling Entertainment owner Vince McMahon and a cadre of his superstars rubbed elbows and traded jokes with Arizona Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt during a press conference this afternoon announcing next year’s WrestleMania XXVI at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. As we reported yesterday, WrestleMania is considered the Super…
The Phoenix Coyotes are seven months behind in rent to Jobing.com Arena, and the city’s been footing the bill, the Glendale City Council found out through 12 News.According to this story on AZCentral.com, Glendale’s been letting the team play rent-free at the stadium. The story estimates the team’s break on rent…
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…
