Heartbreaking: A history of Arizona sports

It has been said that love is not for the faint of heart.

Because, often times, it only leads to your heart breaking.

It is with that in mind that we have compiled some of the most heartbreaking moments of any Arizona sports fans’ lives into one easy-to-avoid-if-you-wish page.

Some of these are based on your contributions:

(For extra impact, feel free to click here before scrolling through the article.)

Cardinals

With 2:37 left on the clock, Larry Fitzgerald caught a 64-yard touchdown that gave the Cardinals a 23-20 lead and possibly the team’s first Super Bowl title. Santonio Holmes put an end to all of that with his toe-tapper touchdown catch with 35 seconds left in Super Bowl XLIII. Pretty sure it does not get any worse than this.

Suns

The 1993 NBA Finals pitted league MVP Charles Barkley’s Suns against Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. It was Game 6 in Phoenix and the best player in the world (Jordan) had scored all of his team’s points (9) in the fourth quarter. The final shot was definitely going to Michael Jordan, right? Wrong. Instead it was John Paxson who hit the game-winning three-point bucket with 3.9 seconds left leaving Suns fans not only sad, but cursing Danny Ainge for leaving the sharpshooter open to double-team Horace Grant.

In the 1994 playoffs, the Suns took a commanding 3-1 series lead over the Houston Rockets before falling in seven games. That couldn’t possibly happen again, right? Ugh. The Suns again went up 3-1 on Houston (now the defending NBA champs) in the 1995 conference semifinals, only to drop the next two. But unlike the year before, Game 7 this time around would be at America West Arena. The Suns saw their 10-point halftime lead turn into a two-point deficit heading into the fourth quarter, and after a back and forth period, Mario Elie hit a game-winning three before giving the Suns the infamous, ‘Kiss of Death.’ Five years later the Suns signed Elie, but could anyone from the Valley really cheer for the guy?

Diamondbacks

The D-backs surprised the baseball world by winning 94 games and the NL West, and had battled back from a 0-2 series deficit to force a decisive Game 5 in Milwaukee in the NLDS. As they had done so many times that season, Arizona rallied to tie things up in the ninth-inning 2011 NLDS. Nyjer Morgan’s walk-off single in the 10th ended Arizona’s season. Couldn’t have happened for a nicer guy, right?

Coyotes

It was the conference quarterfinals of the 1999 season and the Coyotes, who had never made it past the first round of the playoffs, were at home for Game 7. With no score in regulation, the St. Louis Blues won when Pierre Turgeon’s deflection goal slipped by Nikolai Khabibulin. Ugh.

Sun Devils

The Sun Devils were at the peak of the Pac-12 in 1997, playing in the Rose Bowl with a shot at the national championship. With just over a minute remaining in the game, Jake Plummer sprinted for an 11-yard touchdown run and it looked like ASU was going to get the win. But Joe Germaine led the Ohio State Buckeyes on an 88-yard touchdown drive that ended with his five-yard touchdown pass to David Boston with 19 seconds left. Is it better to have come close and lost than to never have come close at all? Ask a Sun Devil fan for your answer.

Just a year ago, the Sun Devils were in a battle with Texas in the NCAA tournament. In a high-scoring affair, knotted at 85 apiece, Jonathan Holmes threw up a brick and it looked like the game was going to overtime. Cameron Ridley got the offensive rebound and put it back up and in at the buzzer, ending ASU’s season.

Wildcats

In 2005, the Wildcats earned a 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They handled Utah State 66-53 in the first round and UAB 85-63 in the second round before Salim Stoudemire’s jumper lifted them by Oklahoma State 79-78 in the Sweet 16. That led to a matchup with No. 1 seed Illionis in the Elite 8, and after building a 15-point lead with just over four minutes left in regulation, the Illini stormed back to force overtime and eventually win 90-89. It would be six years before Arizona again played for a shot at the Final Four.

Sadly for Arizona fans, things have not gotten much better of late.

The Wildcats have experienced three close losses in the NCAA tournament the last four years, two of which were in the Elite 8. If you have masochistic tendencies, you can click here for the 2011 game and here for the 2014 game But in the 2013 Sweet 16, LaQuinton Ross hit the only true game-winner in 2013 with his tiebreaking three-point basket with two seconds left in the game for the Ohio State Buckeyes.