After what seemed like a long 5 hour flight from Washington to Phoenix we had finally arrived! The whole crew was pumped upon landing despite how tired we should be, something about finally being in Phoenix rejuvenated the entire group and we were ready to paint the town red.

We headed to our rental house down in south west phoenix only to find out other people were staying there…. This was the first spanner in the works and we stressed majorly about where we were going to stay.  After phoning the agent for the house we discovered we were given the wrong contract by their incompetent office and eventually we ended up at our 4 bedroom house, unpacked, and as it was already midnight we got some zzzz’s in readiness for the day ahead.

January 29^th – day of Suns vs Spurs

After speaking to Jeramie McPeek (Suns_Webmaster) we arranged to meet him down at the arena at 1 pm. We got there quite early and as a hoop was set up outside the arena we decided to buy a ball from the suns store and shoot some hoops outside the US Airways centre.  During this time, a number of people actually stopped and asked if we were the crazy suns fans from down under and gave us their thoughts on our trip, that was pretty cool, and at 1pm Jeramie came down and whilst chatting out the front we were lucky enough to be introduced to Dave Griffin, Josh Hall, Steven Koek (SKJOEK) and Brad Faye, who was the camera man for the day, and we chatted about our trip for a while. It was great the way everyone was so interested in our trip and took the time to talk to us etc.  Dave Griffin asked if we liked Pizza, which was like asking if we liked the Suns!!  He suggested we try Pizzeria Bianco just east of the building, which usually has a 3-4 hour wait for anyone, celebrities included. But as the owner was a HUGE suns fan, Dave called him and arranged for us to get the VIP treatment and skip the queues and we had a booking arranged for 6:30 before the game!!  Something about having the VP of the best franchise in the NBA booking tea for us seemed so surreal, but then again, surreal seems to be the key theme of this trip.  After this we were introduced to the voice of the suns Al McCoy, that’s a voice that I’ve heard maybe more than my wife’s over the last 10 years ,  and then headed on into the arena for a tour.  Along the way we were introduced to Mark West who is now the VP of Player Progams with the team. We walked past suns great Alvan Adams but didn’t want to interrupt him as he seemed busy, and Jeramie took us through the stadium and gave us some great insight on various sections of the arena.  We headed over to Stoudemire’s for lunch, on the way we bumped into and had a quick chat with  Rick Welts, the team president, and we even saw the Princess of Planet Orange (Amy is the name she uses to hide from the crowds – she was tiara-less at this time). Once again it was becoming such a common theme of the day for everyone we met to just be so approachable and genuinely showing an interest in our trip, it really just added to our already glowing opinions of the suns and their staff.
Stoudemire’s was great, we don’t have sports bars like that in Australia. Three of us had the Stat Burger and the other ordered a Diesel Dog – both came highly recommended.  It was great to just sit with Jeramie and talk suns, for two reasons – one he knows more than us, and two: finally, after almost a month, we had a new suns fan to talk to other than each other!!  Woo hoo!

We headed back to the stadium to finish the tour, we were taken down to centre court for some photos, it was amazing to see how many people were in the stadium hard at work, over 6 hours before the game was due to start.  From there we went to the practice court and were able to shoot some hoops (more like airballs and bricks!), take some photos, once again the only word I can find to describe it is surreal (amazing would be a close second though), and then we went up to the offices section where we met the suns.com hardworking team, I didn’t see any putters, or twitter or anything I swear!

We then headed to Jeramie’s office to upload some photos onto his computer to be used for Planet Orange and whilst waiting for the photos to be uploaded, Alvan Adams stopped by and took the time to have a good chat about his career, current work with the suns, our trip etc. He was a fantastic guy and we even took a trip up to level 4 where his massive commemorative wall with all his achievements are listed and took some once in a lifetime photos with the suns great.

At this point we finished the tour after spending hours behind the scenes of our favourite team, it was almost time to check out Pizzeria Bianco. As we headed there, people were outside waiting, in fact for those who haven’t been there, they actually have a bar next door which is used as a waiting room! As we walked in, decked out in our suns gear, the waitress said there was a 3 hour wait minimum, but as the chef saw us he told her we were “Griff’s Boys” and we were taken care of.  Dave Griffin did say the owner was a huge suns fan and would take care of us, but to just walk in and be served straight away whilst others waited for hours gave us almost a celebrity feel  The meal itself was fantastic! We have eaten probably way too many pizza’s on this trip, but this one was far too good to pass up!  In the space of 15 minutes, 3 whole pizzas were gone (cough steve cough and we were heading back to the arena to meet Jeramie again and get ready for the big game…

Yet again we were given treatment that we really didn’t feel worthy of as we went down onto the suns court and met / took photos with Steve Kerr, Dave Griffin, Craig Sager etc, etc. This time was also used to answer some questions on camera about our trip which was a fun experience and I’m sure the fans who were watching us on court being interviewed were scratching their heads as to who we were lol.

As the suns players came out to begin their pregame warm-ups we were allowed to sit on the suns bench to watch, just standing on the same court metres from all our favourite players was such a fantastic experience – the size, speed and skill of these guys becomes more and more obvious the closer you get. We even had the pleasure of meeting our trips cult hero Lou Amundson as he came over for a photo with our group. As the pregame introductions were about to start and some more important people required the seats on the bench we headed back to our actual seats, meeting Tom Chambers along the way and got ready for the big game against the team I hate more than any other in the NBA (lakers a very close second)

The crowd was by far the loudest crowd we have been a part of on this trip, and the start of the game was played at a frenetic pace with the first 10 field goals all being successful, as the half drew to an end, Steve Nash nailed a 3 pointer that tied the game, the crowd rose as one and the noise was unlike anything I’ve ever heard at a basketball game before….

If I told you that we gave up our second row seats and missed the entire 3^rd quarter you would probably think we were crazy, but just as the 3^rd quarter started Jeramie arranged for us to go into the suns locker room, weight room etc.  Having visited sunslockerroom.com many many times I felt like I had already been there, just seeing all the lockers and players gear in them, all the notes on the whiteboard about the night’s game plan, it was interesting to note that nash, shaq, and amare all have empty lockers next to theirs, this was explained as being for them to have extra room for their items but also due to the amount of media that surrounds their lockers after games.  Having watched all of the suns.com behind the scenes videos where this happens, I can now picture it better and can see how all that media in this room would make it very cramped after a game.  We headed towards the weight room and took a look inside the video room where the game was playing on a big screen, we took a quick look and a voice said to us “come on in guys”… the voice belonged to Steve Kerr (who had his knee iced after recent surgery) who was sitting with Dave Griffin watching the game…. For the next few minutes we just took in the game with the suns General Manager and Sr VP of basketball operations which was completely unbelievable. I even offered my services for a 10 day contract if they were looking for someone to dish some flagrant fouls out.  My offer was declined but who knows, they might call next week?  From there we headed to the weight room and the biggest machine in there was one shaq actually had brought with him and back to the practice court where we did some more quick interviews about the trip and then headed back to our seats for the 4^th quarter.  As per usual with these two teams, the game was great and came down to the wire, unfortunately - also as usual - the spurs executed better down the stretch and the suns fell again to become 3-4 on our trip so far.

We went back behind the scenes after the game and had the pleasure of meeting up with Robin Lopez, Jared Dudley, we got an autograph from Amare Stoudemire who was with his mother. Alvan Adams chatted to us about the game and Dave Griffin stopped by and continued to give us more of his time than we felt worthy of, even offering to help Steve (nevetsov) arrange a ride with the suns car service to an exam in Mesa the next day. (As it turned out Dave Griffin ended up picking Steve up himself the next day and personally took him to his exam – what a surreal experience??)

We did have passes to check out the post game media events, but as the players would have been bitterly disappointed to lose to the Spurs it was suggested that we save this part of the trip until after a suns win, hopefully against the Bulls on Saturday night.

All that was left was to head out to the foyer at the front of the arena and film a few more quick interview questions and then our day was complete.

To be a die hard fan and watch this team day in day out from thousands of miles away and then to finally be in phoenix and get to all this behind the scenes access, meet players both past and present, suns staff members and see a great game of basketball (with a disappointing ending) and basically fulfil a combined lifelong dream made this simply one of the most amazing days we have ever experienced!

This blog would not be complete without just reiterating how fantastic every single suns employee we met was today.  Every single person without fail took the time and interest to talk to us and show an interest in the trip.  Right from the team president, GM and VP through to the players, and support staff throughout the arena. Jeramie has our eternal gratitude for all of his hardwork today to help make this day a true once in a lifetime experience.  Thanks SUNS!!