Top 10 Arizona sports stories of the year, as selected by FOX Sports Arizona staff.
The Fourth of July in Phoenix provided disparate lurches toward unexpected and controversial pro basketball independence.
For the Phoenix Suns, Independence Day 2012 suggested a long-awaited commitment to rebuilding their roster. For Steve Nash, this day was marked by the opportunity to join a team seemingly capable of contending for an NBA championship right away.
But when the smoke cleared from the transaction fireworks, Suns fans were informed that their two-time MVP -- and future Hall of Famer -- would be working for the hated Los Angeles Lakers.
Even worse, in terms of perception, was news that the Suns facilitated such treason by trading the 38-year-old Nash to L.A.
With their decision to part ways with Nash in free agency making this separation a formality, the Suns granted the point guard’s wish to play for a top contender. A Suns-complicit sign-and-trade was the only way Nash could land in land in L.A. with a sufficient payday. The Suns’ motivation for this unsavory act of kindness was the return haul of Lakers draft picks that (by themselves) didn’t seem capable of yielding early selections.
Beyond management’s decision to hand Nash to the Lakers, Suns fans were obliged to assimilate the knowledge that their long-time hero was voluntarily dribbling off to join the enemy. This compromise of loyalty certainly approaches a Coke-Pepsi-type co-mingling.
"For me, it would be hard to put on a Lakers jersey," Nash said in a June 25 interview. “That’s just the way it is.”
Nash’s change of direction reminded Suns fans that basketball freedom isn’t free -- or anywhere close to market value.
As for what Nash left behind, it scarcely resembles anything he would recognize. Grant Hill and Robin Lopez also moved on, and in their place the Suns are scuffling along well below .500 with an assemblage of new arrivals that includes the returning-from-exile Goran Dragic, Michael Beasley, Luis Scola and Jermaine O'Neal.
--Randy Hill
