The Grip - WED 9.12.18

Let's talk late-90s Suns

September 12, 2018

9.12.18

  Written while listening to Nas’ Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park)

Hall of Fame Weekend = excuse to revisit a great point guard trio

The 2018 Basketball Hall of Fame class, which was inducted this past weekend, had a lot of people you’ve never heard of. That’s because the Hall of Fame is a mess, and we covered that here.

To prove a point: Charlie Scott and Dino Radja got in this year. If you don’t love the ABA or 1990s international basketball, you probably don’t know those people.

BUT, there were some big names: Grant Hill, who was a mini-LeBron James early in his career, Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, and another great old guard, Maurice Cheeks, all got the nod this year. What took so long for Cheeks is a good question. The committee is just lucky he’s alive, unlike poor Dennis Johnson, who had to be enshrined posthumously.  

With the podcasts and preview articles of the 2018-19 season just beginning to peek back into our lives, let’s use the 2018 list of inductees as an opportunity to get real random and remember the late-1990s Phoenix Suns. 

Here was Phoenix's backcourt in 1996-97

STARTING: 30-year-old Kevin JohnsonSTARTING: 23-year-old Jason KiddBENCH: 22-year-old Steve Nash

Kevin Johnson was a Hall of Fame-worthy player, even if his post-playing career has been jail-worthy. Jason Kidd came in halfway through that season in a trade from Dallas, which broke up a great young core of him, Jimmy Jackson and Jamal Mashburn, and Nash was a rookie that year.

Johnson is from Sacramento (he was the mayor of Sacramento) and went to Cal. Kidd’s from Oakland and went to Cal. Nash is Canadian but went to Santa Clara, about an hour from Cal.

And here they were, on the same team for a brief window, coached by Danny Ainge.

“I hadn't really shown the level I went on to show early in Dallas. But I think Jason could see it,” said Nash in the Bill Simmons Podcast.

In ‘96-97, Johnson was still in his prime: 20PPG/9.3APG. Kidd was an all-star: 11.6PPG/9.1APG/4.8RPG. He also at one point had blonde hair.

Nash was a relative unknown out of a small school

He played only 10 minutes per game for 65 games that year, and the 40-42 Suns lost to the Seattle Supersonics in the first round.

In ‘97-98, Johnson fell off a cliff and retired the next year, but Kidd was again Kidd and Nash began to develop his game: 9.1PPG/3.4APG in 76 games and 22 minutes. The Suns went 56-26, but lost to the Spurs and rookie Tim Duncan in the first round, because losing to the Spurs is mostly what you did in the West in the late ‘90s and 2000s.

Then, the pairing was over. Nash was shipped to Dallas (Kidd’s first team) for a first round pick which became Shawn Marion, who became Nash’s running mate for Phoenix Pt. 2.

In Dallas, Nash and Dirk became an impossibly intriguing duo that made the Western Conference Finals in 2002-03 before losing to the Spurs, but Mark Cuban refused to pay him in ‘04 -- possibly because of this scarring photo -- so he went back to Phoenix, won two straight MVPs and revolutionized basketball, but, of course, kept losing to the Spurs.  

Kidd was traded to New Jersey in 2001 for Stephon Marbury -- because we need another all-star point guard in this mix -- had some good years, lost to the Spurs in the 2003 NBA Finals, then won a title in 2010-11 with his first team, the Dallas Mavericks, alongside Dirk, which was supposed to be Nash’s destiny. 

All of these asinine parallels -- interesting, right?

Nash, chill as ever, is back in The Bay as an advisor for the Warriors, collecting the rings that eluded him as a player. Kidd, always looking for more, has so far quit one coaching job and been fired from another.

(From an outsider-looking-in perspective, Kidd always seemed like only 90 percent of the player he thought he was. Perhaps that arrogance is what’s plagued him as a coach so far.)

Both are Hall of Famers, though, and among the best point guards ever. And both were Suns for formative parts of their careers, which is especially funny now, because in a four-year stretch from 1997 to 2001, Phoenix had Kevin Johnson, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Penny Hardaway and Stephon Marbury.

Four years ago, they had Isaiah Thomas, Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragić on the same roster.  

Last month, they traded Brandon Knight with an ACL tear, who was the closest thing they had to a point guard.  

The Press

Some of the best NBA stories are the ones hiding out in the loose-leaf pages of actual books, most of which you can’t find on this dang internet machine. Here’s the newest addition to our ongoing segment where we recommend the best from our own archives.  

Pistol: The life of Pete Maravich Mark Kriegel

From his prodigal upbringing to his early death, Pete Maravich was much more than a fancy pass or his floppy hair. From Aliquippa to Raleigh to Baton Rouge to New Orleans, Kriegel does a formidable job of telling the story of an embattled great white hope. Learn more on here. 

 Month in review

Media news

More links

 From the retirement home

  • Goodbye, Boris Diaw [Deadspin]

  • David West was a baaaaaaad man during his NBA career [Washington Post]

  • Manu Ginobili played basketball with reckless abandon and perfect control [The New Yorker]

More good reads

  • Welcome to the NBA's hall of absolute absurdities [ESPN]

  • The Candidates we’d put in the hall [ESPN]

  • I’m tired of hearing about the 2008 Celtics! [Deadspin]

  • Manu Ginobili was the perfect Spur [GQ]

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