Gibberman: Here comes the Suns

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been clear

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

The sun is slowly starting to shine through for the Phoenix Suns.

One rival down, one more to go.

The Suns kicked the Spurs in the gut, and as they were keeled over they knocked them out with a Mike Tyson like upper cut (vintage Tyson, not after jail Tyson).

Watching the Suns come out onto the court and celebrate in the AT&T Center you could see in the players faces how much they cared.

Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire, Grant Hill, and Leandro Barbosa were thrilled because they finally got to return the favor to the team that drilled them over, over, and over again.

Jared Dudley, Goran Dragic, Channing Frye, and Louis Amundson were thrilled because they helped the old guard get past their demons.

Go back and listen to Nash and Stoudemire at the podium after the Suns Game 4 victory.

Stoudemire talked about leaving San Antonio almost in tears he was so heart broken from previous series loses.

Nash finally got to talk about being on the winning side. He didn’t have to get into anything about refs, cheap shots, or the Suns not having a fair series.

These guys wanted this series bad and they got it.

The Suns didn’t play their best basketball, but they did enough to win. Nash carried Game 1, Dudley and Frye were huge in Game 2, Dragic had a historical performance in Game 3, and Stoudemire was the closer in Game 4.

The thing that shocked me most happened when Gregg Popovich and Manu Ginobili met with the media after they were swept by one of their biggest rivals. They did nothing but shower praise to the team in purple and orange. It was strange, it almost sounded like they were happy for them.

There was no Popovich shooting snide remarks towards reporters or Ginobili making excuses.

Coach Pop gave credit to Steve Kerr for having patience in building the team. He complimented Alvin Gentry, his former assistant, for getting the Suns to buy into playing defense.

When the Spurs were down 105-101 Ginobili had a three-pointer at the top of the key rim in and out. A reporter asked him if he thought there should have been a foul call. Ginobili answered no and throughout his post-game press conference said the Suns were the better team and they deserved to win.

Credit needs to be given to San Antonio for losing with class.

After disposing of the Spurs the road doesn’t get any easier for the Suns. Waiting on the other side are the big, bad Los Angeles Lakers (yes I know the series isn’t “over” yet, but lets be honest the series is over).

The nine days off for the Suns is huge and so is the fact they are playing another one of their rivals.

After four emotionally draining games, if the Suns had a quick turnaround and were playing, say the Utah Jazz, I could see the Suns being complacent. They would think we just beat the Spurs, we accomplished something, we are now invincible.

That doesn’t happen when you look across the court and see Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol.

That doesn’t happen when you see Phil Jackson yelling from the sidelines.

The nine days give the Suns a great opportunity to mentally recoup and get ready for what is going to be another grueling series for the chance to get one step closer to the ultimate goal.

Here comes the sun.

Follow @Tyler_Bassett