Setting Suns Hey, If They're Dumb Enough To Live In Phoenix, They Didn't Deserve Barkley In The First Place. By Tom Danehy OKAY, WHAT ELSE can go wrong here? The Phoenix Suns, not that long ago the model NBA franchise, completed its fall from grace by trading Charles Barkley to the Houston Rockets. It wasn't that long ago that the Suns were within a sapo three-pointer of reaching Game 7 in the NBA Finals. (For the uninitiated, "sapo" is Spanish for "frog," but somehow it also means "lucky." Hey, I don't make these things up; I just traffic in the vernacular.) Since that defining moment when John Paxson drained a three to put the Bulls up and then the gutless refs refused to call a foul on Kevin Johnson's last-second shot, the Suns have gone from the penthouse to below the outhouse in record time. The season after the near-miss in the finals, the Suns were up 2-0 in games on the Houston Rockets when Barkley injured his back. The Rockets went on to win the series and the world championship. The next year, the Suns acquire Danny Manning, who blows out his knee and watches the Suns blow another 2-0 lead to the Rockets, who go on to repeat as champions. This past season, the Suns just pretty much sucked from the jump. Barkley rightly fumed all season over the fact that the Suns had unnecessarily dismantled the team which came within an eyelash of giving Phoenix its first-ever championship in anything. By the start of the 1996 season, only two players remained from the squad which came this close to winning it all. The Suns started shopping Barkley around the league as trade bait, Charles took it as an insult, and then he and owner Jerry Colangelo waged a long-distance quote battle in the papers all summer. For a while, it looked like things might calm down and Barkley would stay in Phoenix, but then the Suns pulled the trigger on the trade over the weekend and the Barkley Era came to an unsatisfying end. It doesn't matter that the Suns got four players in the deal. Unless they received Hakeem Olajuwon, the Suns were gonna get screwed no matter how many Rockets they got in exchange for Barkley. Even with his prodigious skills in the early stages of decline, Barkley remains my favorite player in the NBA. Next to Michael Jordan, he's the current NBA player most likely to make the Hall of Fame, and he's done it with a body only slightly distinguishable from that of Rush Limbaugh. He plays harder than anybody else in the league, including Jordan, and it will be a shame if he retires without an NBA championship. (Those two Olympic gold medals he's won oughta be bronzed in honor of the competition against whom they were "earned.") Barkley's outspokeness has caused me to reconsider my own feelings about players who run their mouths, but I can't help it. As much as I dislike on-court shit-talkers, I just love Charles Barkley. And now I'm going to have to root for the Houston Rockets and hope they can squeeze out another championship before Hakeem, Charles and Clyde Drexler get too old. That championship window of opportunity may be all of one season long. In the meantime, the Suns get four players, all of them decent, but none (either alone or in conjunction with the others) makes my heart beat fast. It looks like the Suns will just coast along this season, win as many games as they can, then dump a lot of driftwood to free up money under the salary cap. They might even have trouble making the playoffs. Houston, San Antonio, Utah, Seattle, Sacramento and the Lakers all look solid for the playoffs, leaving only two spots. Denver has improved, and if the two idiots in Dallas (Jimmy Jackson and Jason Kidd) can ever zip their pants and stop feuding over Toni Braxton, the Mavericks could make a playoff run. Plus, Portland and Golden State aren't horrible, so the Suns will have to battle just to reach the bloated big dance. I know that trades are part of sports, but this one makes no sense. The Suns let egos get in the way, and Suns fans suffer. It must be noted that I do not speak for all Suns fans on this matter. A couple weeks ago, I took my daughter to the Gloria Estefan concert up in Phoenix. Before the show started, the arena announcer mentioned upcoming events, including one which would include Barkley in some capacity. A substantial number of people booed at the mention of Barkley's name, leaving me puzzled. Then I realized that these were mostly Phoenix people, and if they had a lick of sense, they wouldn't be living there in the first place. They're all morons and they've never deserved Barkley. I'm going to miss him big time. I FEEL OBLIGATED to mention the Gloria Estefan concert was one of the best I've attended in years. This is attributable to any or all of the following: 1. I don't go to many concerts these days. 2. I'm getting really old. 3. She's an incredible performer and it was a really hot concert.

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