Burns: Is January 28th the Suns’ lucky day?
Jan 31, 2011, 3:36 PM | Updated: 3:47 pm
If it happens again, the Suns should make January 28th an official organizational holiday. They could call it “Turnaround Day” or “New Season’s Eve” or something hokey like that. I haven’t put a ton of thought into what to call it; I’m not terribly convinced I’ll need to. Odds are I have a better chance of convincing management that Arbor Day should be a paid holiday.
If the Suns can find a way to, once again, re-start a stalled out season on January 28th, something celebratory has to be done to mark the occasion.
On January 28th last year, Amar’e Stoudemire marked the occasion by sitting and watching. Everyone remembers the now infamous fourth quarter benching during a comeback win over the Dallas Mavericks. Stoudemire collected ZERO defensive rebounds that night. Their postgame explanations didn’t pass the smell test.
Yeah Right Moment #1: Coach Alvin Gentry told us not to read into it. Yeah Right Moment #2: Stoudemire insisted he was “all good” with it even though he admitted it was the first time it had ever happened. The spin didn’t matter, the results did. The Suns went 28-7 from that point on, Amar’e played at an MVP level and the Suns got to the Western Conference Finals.
So here we are, one year later, on January 28th. The day prior, on January 27th, the team literally circled the wagons on the practice floor to participate in some kind of group therapy session. The team president called the postgame on Sports 620 KTAR to respond to fan criticism. The owner gave his glass-is-half-full testimony to the paper. The best of times had the day off. It was merely the worst of times.
But on this January 28th, nobody had the night off. Instead, they were ticked off. The Suns played an angry, physical brand of basketball against the Celtics. Kevin Garnett delivered a cheap shot to Channing Frye that got the former MVP run from the game.
