Throwback Thursday, NBA-style

A lot of people don’t know this, but yes, I covered the NBA for two seasons back when I was the Phoenix-based reporter/columnist for the Tucson Citizen.

One of those seasons was 1998-99, when the NBA had a shortened season due to the lockout. Jerry Colangelo was the owner back then and heavily involved in the labor negotiations as well. He was one of the keys to getting the deal done to save the season even though the agreement was detrimental to his own team.

The reason why was the player the Suns were being built around, former University of Alabama forward Antonio McDyess, whom Phoenix gave up a lot to acquire from Denver the previous year. Under the new agreement McDyess suddenly became a free agent and subsequently reached a verbal deal to return to the Nuggets.

At McDyess’ invitation, three Suns players -- Jason Kidd, Rex Chapman, and George McCloud -- flew to Denver to try and talk him out of it during an Avalanche game. However, according to Sports Illustrated, Nuggets president Dan Issel told security to not let them into the building and they never saw their former teammate.

McDyess signed with the Nuggets, averaged 21.2 points and 10.7 rebounds per game that season, but two years later sustained a bad knee injury and was never quite the same again.

Neither were the Suns, who had just five players under contract when the labor dispute was resolved.  Kidd was an assist machine, averaging 10.8 per game, while  Tom Gugliotta averaged 17 points ahead of Kidd’s 16.9 and Clifford Robinson’s 16.4. With Danny Ainge the coach, they made the playoffs, but were swept by the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round. 

In November, a story I did about the subsequent season’s outlook had the following headline: “Suns shine so brightly foes will need shades.” No, I didn’t write it, and it still cracks me up. It was for a column about the Suns trading for Penny Hardaway.

The Suns had also drafted Shawn Marion, who may have been the best dunker I’ve ever seen, and signed center Luc Longley. The former Chicago Bull once told me about sitting on a scorpion in his own house, which promptly stung him in the rear.

Also on the team were popular guard Kevin Johnson, who came out of retirement to help with the playoff run (and gave me some great restaurant recommendations), and massive center Oliver Miller.  There was never a dull moment even with Scott Skiles as coach, but the Suns lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the 1999-2000 playoffs.

Phoenix made the postseason only two of the subsequent four seasons before retooling and enjoying the Steve Bash era.