http://suns.planetorange.net/service/getFeed.kickAction?quantity=25 New blogs from sunsdownunder on Planet Orange Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:34:45 GMT Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:34:45 GMT planetorange@suns.com (phoenix_bball) planetorange@suns.com (phoenix_bball) KickApps Feed Builder 2009-02-03T06:34:45Z 10 http://suns.planetorange.net/service/searchEverything.kickAction?as=9952&sortType=recent 0 http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-Were-Here/BLOG/175181/9952.html  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 29th – day of Suns vs Spurs[image]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 [image],  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![image]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 [image] 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 [image] 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….[image]If I told you that we gave up our second row seats and missed the entire 3rd quarter you would probably think we were crazy, but just as the 3rd 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 4th 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.[image]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!!   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 29th – day of Suns vs Spurs[image]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 [image],  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![image]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 [image] 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 [image] 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….[image]If I told you that we gave up our second row seats and missed the entire 3rd quarter you would probably think we were crazy, but just as the 3rd 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 4th 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.[image]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!!  Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:34:45 GMT http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-Were-Here/BLOG/175181/9952.html sunsdownunder 2009-02-03T06:34:45Z Planet Orange  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 29th – day of Suns vs Spurs[image]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 [image],  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![image]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 [image] 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 [image] 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….[image]If I told you that we gave up our second row seats and missed the entire 3rd quarter you would probably think we were crazy, but just as the 3rd 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 4th 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.[image]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!!  destination phoenix, destinationphoenix, us airways center nonadult false Destination Phoenix - We're Here! text blog destination phoenix,destinationphoenix,us airways center 917 6 5.0 http://suns.planetorange.net/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=1597727&as=9952 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/9952/photos/PHOTO_2584194_9952_1597727_ap_160X120.jpg false 10 3 175181 1597727 Veteran 22640 http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-Washington-DC-Leg/BLOG/175174/9952.html  The 12 hour drive to Washington DC after getting up at 6 am that day proved to be too much and about 5 hours out of Atlanta we made the safe decision not to push it on the road and pull into a hotel for the night.  We recharged the batteries, got a good rest and destroyed the complimentary buffet breakfast the next morning (Every buffet breakfast we had on this trip got completely obliterated by us hungry aussies, the kiwi did his bit too J.  To add insult to our ever expading waistlines on this trip we then found an all you can eat Pizza Hut for lunch too!  (we don’t have them in Australia anymore) so we promptly treated that like shaq treats Erika Dumpier and continued on to Washington with full stomachs but ready for more suns action!We arrived at our Hostel – the first time we stayed at a hostel on this trip and I was pleasantly surprised.  Sure it was small, but the people were nice, the place was nice and it was well located, that was all we could ask for at this point.  We headed on out to the Verizon Wireless centre, located right in the city centre and were first at the door waiting to get in.  As this was Australia day (a National holiday in Australia) we felt the need to celebrate accordingly and what happened next was a drinking display the likes of which should not be tried at home kids…..  Nevetsov (Steve) and TASTIC (Sam) were down on the baseline, but the other 4 of us were in the nosebleeds and like naughty kids at the back of the bus we were acting up at the back of the stadium… Throughout the entertaining game we were singing, dancing trying to get on dance cam, and generally just having a party time.[image]We sung such tunes as the good old “That’s amare” in full every time amare did something good.The good old “Ole Ole Ole Ole, L BBBBB LBBBBBBB every time barbosa did something good.Rap fans might even recognise the inspiration for our new one “MOVE BLATCHE GET OUT THE WAY, GET OUT THE WAY BLATCHE GET OUT THE WAY” everytime he got scored on.  This was also changed to “LOU BLATCHE” when amundson scored on him too.  The Washington locals around us seemed to actually enjoy the atmosphere we were creating and wanted to join in apart from the fact it was suns related songs.  In honor of Australia day we brought out the good old “Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi” (very inventive I know), we did that in full and a large number of people around us, suns, wizards fans together, all joined in to make more and more noise every time.  Heaps of people asked about our trip and were amazed at what we were doing there was a lot of mutual respect going around between us and the wizards fans, despite the fact we were intoxicated, celebrating a suns win, and yelling loudly,  their fans were great and I think its safe to say that they were the nicest opponents fans we met on the trip.The game itself was fantastic -  Shaq and Amare both turned in great performances, Nash once again turned on a fantastic display of playmaking, he has really spoilt us on this trip, and the suns cruised to what seemed to be a hard fought 16 point victory.After the game we had some fun in the stadium, singing to Lou when he came out for an interview, he waved which was good, and then screaming out to Tom Leander and Scott Williams to celebrate the win, I cant imagine what their perception of us was after that haha, we were celebrating Australia day the only way us aussies know how and mixing that in with a suns win made this the best one ever!We hit the bars after the game for some post game drinks, wearing all of our suns gear and the locals were extremely friendly and we were able to talk about our favourite topic – the suns – to virtually everyone.The next day in Washington was spent sightseeing, things like Capitol Hill, the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and many other Washington sights.  All in all Washington was a fantastic city with great friendly people and was definitely one of our favourite stops on the trip.  After one more sleep in Washington we were due to fly out at 5 pm the next day, our destination? ..... PHOENIX!   The 12 hour drive to Washington DC after getting up at 6 am that day proved to be too much and about 5 hours out of Atlanta we made the safe decision not to push it on the road and pull into a hotel for the night.  We recharged the batteries, got a good rest and destroyed the complimentary buffet breakfast the next morning (Every buffet breakfast we had on this trip got completely obliterated by us hungry aussies, the kiwi did his bit too J.  To add insult to our ever expading waistlines on this trip we then found an all you can eat Pizza Hut for lunch too!  (we don’t have them in Australia anymore) so we promptly treated that like shaq treats Erika Dumpier and continued on to Washington with full stomachs but ready for more suns action!We arrived at our Hostel – the first time we stayed at a hostel on this trip and I was pleasantly surprised.  Sure it was small, but the people were nice, the place was nice and it was well located, that was all we could ask for at this point.  We headed on out to the Verizon Wireless centre, located right in the city centre and were first at the door waiting to get in.  As this was Australia day (a National holiday in Australia) we felt the need to celebrate accordingly and what happened next was a drinking display the likes of which should not be tried at home kids…..  Nevetsov (Steve) and TASTIC (Sam) were down on the baseline, but the other 4 of us were in the nosebleeds and like naughty kids at the back of the bus we were acting up at the back of the stadium… Throughout the entertaining game we were singing, dancing trying to get on dance cam, and generally just having a party time.[image]We sung such tunes as the good old “That’s amare” in full every time amare did something good.The good old “Ole Ole Ole Ole, L BBBBB LBBBBBBB every time barbosa did something good.Rap fans might even recognise the inspiration for our new one “MOVE BLATCHE GET OUT THE WAY, GET OUT THE WAY BLATCHE GET OUT THE WAY” everytime he got scored on.  This was also changed to “LOU BLATCHE” when amundson scored on him too.  The Washington locals around us seemed to actually enjoy the atmosphere we were creating and wanted to join in apart from the fact it was suns related songs.  In honor of Australia day we brought out the good old “Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi” (very inventive I know), we did that in full and a large number of people around us, suns, wizards fans together, all joined in to make more and more noise every time.  Heaps of people asked about our trip and were amazed at what we were doing there was a lot of mutual respect going around between us and the wizards fans, despite the fact we were intoxicated, celebrating a suns win, and yelling loudly,  their fans were great and I think its safe to say that they were the nicest opponents fans we met on the trip.The game itself was fantastic -  Shaq and Amare both turned in great performances, Nash once again turned on a fantastic display of playmaking, he has really spoilt us on this trip, and the suns cruised to what seemed to be a hard fought 16 point victory.After the game we had some fun in the stadium, singing to Lou when he came out for an interview, he waved which was good, and then screaming out to Tom Leander and Scott Williams to celebrate the win, I cant imagine what their perception of us was after that haha, we were celebrating Australia day the only way us aussies know how and mixing that in with a suns win made this the best one ever!We hit the bars after the game for some post game drinks, wearing all of our suns gear and the locals were extremely friendly and we were able to talk about our favourite topic – the suns – to virtually everyone.The next day in Washington was spent sightseeing, things like Capitol Hill, the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and many other Washington sights.  All in all Washington was a fantastic city with great friendly people and was definitely one of our favourite stops on the trip.  After one more sleep in Washington we were due to fly out at 5 pm the next day, our destination? ..... PHOENIX!  Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:21:14 GMT http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-Washington-DC-Leg/BLOG/175174/9952.html sunsdownunder 2009-02-03T06:21:14Z Planet Orange  The 12 hour drive to Washington DC after getting up at 6 am that day proved to be too much and about 5 hours out of Atlanta we made the safe decision not to push it on the road and pull into a hotel for the night.  We recharged the batteries, got a good rest and destroyed the complimentary buffet breakfast the next morning (Every buffet breakfast we had on this trip got completely obliterated by us hungry aussies, the kiwi did his bit too J.  To add insult to our ever expading waistlines on this trip we then found an all you can eat Pizza Hut for lunch too!  (we don’t have them in Australia anymore) so we promptly treated that like shaq treats Erika Dumpier and continued on to Washington with full stomachs but ready for more suns action!We arrived at our Hostel – the first time we stayed at a hostel on this trip and I was pleasantly surprised.  Sure it was small, but the people were nice, the place was nice and it was well located, that was all we could ask for at this point.  We headed on out to the Verizon Wireless centre, located right in the city centre and were first at the door waiting to get in.  As this was Australia day (a National holiday in Australia) we felt the need to celebrate accordingly and what happened next was a drinking display the likes of which should not be tried at home kids…..  Nevetsov (Steve) and TASTIC (Sam) were down on the baseline, but the other 4 of us were in the nosebleeds and like naughty kids at the back of the bus we were acting up at the back of the stadium… Throughout the entertaining game we were singing, dancing trying to get on dance cam, and generally just having a party time.[image]We sung such tunes as the good old “That’s amare” in full every time amare did something good.The good old “Ole Ole Ole Ole, L BBBBB LBBBBBBB every time barbosa did something good.Rap fans might even recognise the inspiration for our new one “MOVE BLATCHE GET OUT THE WAY, GET OUT THE WAY BLATCHE GET OUT THE WAY” everytime he got scored on.  This was also changed to “LOU BLATCHE” when amundson scored on him too.  The Washington locals around us seemed to actually enjoy the atmosphere we were creating and wanted to join in apart from the fact it was suns related songs.  In honor of Australia day we brought out the good old “Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi” (very inventive I know), we did that in full and a large number of people around us, suns, wizards fans together, all joined in to make more and more noise every time.  Heaps of people asked about our trip and were amazed at what we were doing there was a lot of mutual respect going around between us and the wizards fans, despite the fact we were intoxicated, celebrating a suns win, and yelling loudly,  their fans were great and I think its safe to say that they were the nicest opponents fans we met on the trip.The game itself was fantastic -  Shaq and Amare both turned in great performances, Nash once again turned on a fantastic display of playmaking, he has really spoilt us on this trip, and the suns cruised to what seemed to be a hard fought 16 point victory.After the game we had some fun in the stadium, singing to Lou when he came out for an interview, he waved which was good, and then screaming out to Tom Leander and Scott Williams to celebrate the win, I cant imagine what their perception of us was after that haha, we were celebrating Australia day the only way us aussies know how and mixing that in with a suns win made this the best one ever!We hit the bars after the game for some post game drinks, wearing all of our suns gear and the locals were extremely friendly and we were able to talk about our favourite topic – the suns – to virtually everyone.The next day in Washington was spent sightseeing, things like Capitol Hill, the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and many other Washington sights.  All in all Washington was a fantastic city with great friendly people and was definitely one of our favourite stops on the trip.  After one more sleep in Washington we were due to fly out at 5 pm the next day, our destination? ..... PHOENIX!  destination phoenix, destinationphoenix, wizards nonadult false Destination Phoenix - Washington DC Leg text blog destination phoenix,destinationphoenix,wizards 540 3 5.0 http://suns.planetorange.net/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=1597727&as=9952 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/9952/photos/PHOTO_2584194_9952_1597727_ap_160X120.jpg false 0 2 175174 1597727 Veteran 22640 http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-Atlanta-Leg/BLOG/175171/9952.html  We awoke at 6 am sharp to begin the long drive from Durham to Atlanta (heading back through Charlotte), after a quick stop at yet another take away restaurant for breakfast we were on the road.  After our loss in Charlotte and knowing the Hawks just thumped Milwaukee by 30, we were only able to be optimistic about the next game because of how one eyed we are in our love for the suns.  With that in mind spirits were positive and the 6 hour drive flew by in no time.When we arrived in Atlanta, we parked our van as close to the stadium as possible.  The area seemed quite unsafe. Usually everywhere we went we stayed in hotels and when we parked the car at the games it was empty. But as we had to leave Atlanta straight after the game in order to complete the 12 hour drive to Washington in time for the next nights game, the car was full of all our luggage and possessions on this trip.  This made us feel quite uneasy, especially given the numerous people who were standing around in the carpark paying close attention to us.  Deciding to take the things most valuable to us just in case we each grabbed the 3 most important things…[image]1. Our Passports2. All of our money3. All tickets to remaining suns games on this trip. I think that’s a worthy top 3 as far as importance goes.There was nothing we could do about the safety at this point, but it was with uneasiness that we headed around to see what Atlanta had to offer.  Some of the team went to the aquarium, others walked around Olympic park and took a look at the other sports stadiums which were conveniently located near the hawks arena.  After we finished all this, we made the decision that our carpark wasn’t safe enough to leave our car throughout the game so we packed it up and left our already paid for park in search of a safer looking one.  The next half hour was spent quickly learning that the whole city has this unsafe vibe to it and we basically just took what felt like a gamble and parked it again and headed off ready for the hawks game.The arena had a great feel to it as soon as we walked in, I really liked the stadium, in contrast to the city it was welcoming, the people were nice, there were A LOT of suns jerseys around (a very common theme for this trip) and we were excited as myself and KPCB were front row behind the suns bench and the other guys were only one row further back and one section towards the baseline!  We raced down for the pregame autographs again and some of the guys who missed out in Charlotte were able to get nash, majerle, barnes amongst others which was awesome, they also had a brief chat with steve about our trip,  its always so appreciated when the players take that 5 seconds out of their extremely busy schedule to show an interest, I know its hard for them because if they stop it means they might get mobbed and be there forever, but it does mean a lot to this group of travellers I can assure you.We took our seats and my head was ready to explode, there we were, within 1 metre of the suns bench! I was like a kid at Christmas as players like hill, amare, diesel all came up and fetched Gatorade from the cooler which was infront of me.  Tom Leander saw us there and came up and said hello again, and once again, all too soon, it was time for the game to begin!The pregame introductions were awesome, the team chaired shaq out there, and as the hawks were being introduced, there were tribal drums playing in the background, this prompted the ever entertaining shaq to break out into an awesome dance routine to which Alando Tucker and Leandro quickly joined in, I got it all on camera and it was easy to see that even with a 3 game losing streak, this team was in good spirits and shaqs enthusiasm was clearly infectious.There were numerous little tidbits that I was able to notice from our seats that you wouldn’t normally pick up on in regular ones, ill just list some below (good and not so good) to give a feel for it.Goran Dragic always sits next to Dan Majerle and Thunder Dan was constantly giving him advise and talking to him throughout the game, Goran seemed to be taking it all in.Matt barnes talks ALL game long.  I personally love this in a player, he was just constantly saying things at the opponents like “he don’t want it, he aint got it, we got these guys” etc etc etc, perhaps this is why he is at the end of the bench Lopez and Amundson always sit together and they were also the target of the infamous “Kiss Cam” during a time out – (the second time on this trip it has happened) Louis lent in for the kiss but Robin shut him down and louis was left feeling unloved for the nex 2.7 seconds Ive never really noticed before just how interactive Porter was with plyers during the game – he constantly was talking to players on the bench about plays, what to change on it etc, his time outs were far more concise than some people on Planet Orange seem to suggest when criticising him, and whilst I don’t agree with every thing the suns are doing right now, I do think Porter is an extremely capable NBA coach.  My impression of him as a coach increased with what I saw during this game. (sorry zodogg [image])There was a point in the first where Porter called to the bench and shaq got up and asked for his mouthguard back so he could go in.  he went ot the scorers table and when the sub was called porter called him back and sent JRich in.  Shaq seemed unhappy with this and there were some expletives thrown in amongst the words “that’s (Rubbish) get this (exp deleted) right” and sat back down and seemed angry for a few minutes.There was also a similar incident where porter called for grant to come up and barnes misheard it and went to check in – porter sent him back and called for hill again and barnes did not seem to like this at all.  I did read earlier in the day that he would like more minutes so my perception that this didn’t go down to well with Matt would probably be accurate.Late in the 3rd shaq got a rebound and not able to find someone to outlet it too (barbosa was on as PG) we almost turned it over.  In the next break, Terry Porter chewed Barbosa out massively, Barbosa to his credit though defended himself quite strongly, in a way I haven’t seen barbosa act before as he pointed out that he was in a good position and that it wasn’t his fault.I don’t know if the refs are always this grumpy or if it just seemed that way because I could hear them but the way they talked to the suns coaches made me want to yell at them myself, they were treating the coaches like kids and to be honest this was one of the more intriguing / disappointing eye openers into the NBA that I got from these seats.Jrich mustn’t like us as 3 times he got a cup of Gatorade from infront of us, drank one sip then dropped it into the bin next to the cooler which caused it to splash all over me and KPCB34.  I didn’t mind because it was Jrich, and if he does that normally to other teams fans then its very funny, but we were all wearing orange and I thought he could have been a little nicer to us hahaThe coaches and players leave a HUGE mess under their bench after the game, they are continuosly getting stat sheets and all sorts of other information which all ends up under the benchSteve Kerr was sitting with former sun Tom Gugliotta about 10 rows behind us.  Googs looked to be in pretty good shape.All in all, those seats were worth every cent and then some of the $350.00 US that they cost us.  We actually had a number of suns fans around us and we cheered like crazy.  Now I KNOW the suns players had no choice to hear us because of how close we were, I hope they felt the support because I virtually had no voice after the game – we just applauded everything the guys did and constantly shouted encouragement to them.  Just being able to hear every word of every time out, all the bench players conversations, just to be within one metre of all my favourite players and within 2 metres of what turned out to be an awesome game of basketball, all made this game, the BEST NBA experience I have ever had – im not sure it could ever be topped unless it was a playoff game or something.The game itself was fantastic, There were soooo many highlights, I still think the Josh Smith dunk was a charge J Bibby was throwing up bricks but the game stayed close and the crowd went crazy.  The suns pulled it off in the end, broke the losing streak and we let the suns know how proud we were of their efforts as they left the court to celebrate the win.After the game, we actually had a number of suns fans around the stadium come and celebrate with our completely orange jersey wearing group, we even took some celebratory photos and the hawks fans were generally really good about the loss too.  We headed back to our car which was still where we left it and began the 12 hour drive to Washington, already tired from leaving at 6am that morning, with laughter, good spirits and celebration in the air after the fantastic win.  I believe the 3 losses prior to this win made it all the more sweeter!Hopefully we could repeat this form against the wizards and finish this road trip at 3 and 3, that would be great considering 2 members of our 6 strong group would be leaving after the next game L   We awoke at 6 am sharp to begin the long drive from Durham to Atlanta (heading back through Charlotte), after a quick stop at yet another take away restaurant for breakfast we were on the road.  After our loss in Charlotte and knowing the Hawks just thumped Milwaukee by 30, we were only able to be optimistic about the next game because of how one eyed we are in our love for the suns.  With that in mind spirits were positive and the 6 hour drive flew by in no time.When we arrived in Atlanta, we parked our van as close to the stadium as possible.  The area seemed quite unsafe. Usually everywhere we went we stayed in hotels and when we parked the car at the games it was empty. But as we had to leave Atlanta straight after the game in order to complete the 12 hour drive to Washington in time for the next nights game, the car was full of all our luggage and possessions on this trip.  This made us feel quite uneasy, especially given the numerous people who were standing around in the carpark paying close attention to us.  Deciding to take the things most valuable to us just in case we each grabbed the 3 most important things…[image]1. Our Passports2. All of our money3. All tickets to remaining suns games on this trip. I think that’s a worthy top 3 as far as importance goes.There was nothing we could do about the safety at this point, but it was with uneasiness that we headed around to see what Atlanta had to offer.  Some of the team went to the aquarium, others walked around Olympic park and took a look at the other sports stadiums which were conveniently located near the hawks arena.  After we finished all this, we made the decision that our carpark wasn’t safe enough to leave our car throughout the game so we packed it up and left our already paid for park in search of a safer looking one.  The next half hour was spent quickly learning that the whole city has this unsafe vibe to it and we basically just took what felt like a gamble and parked it again and headed off ready for the hawks game.The arena had a great feel to it as soon as we walked in, I really liked the stadium, in contrast to the city it was welcoming, the people were nice, there were A LOT of suns jerseys around (a very common theme for this trip) and we were excited as myself and KPCB were front row behind the suns bench and the other guys were only one row further back and one section towards the baseline!  We raced down for the pregame autographs again and some of the guys who missed out in Charlotte were able to get nash, majerle, barnes amongst others which was awesome, they also had a brief chat with steve about our trip,  its always so appreciated when the players take that 5 seconds out of their extremely busy schedule to show an interest, I know its hard for them because if they stop it means they might get mobbed and be there forever, but it does mean a lot to this group of travellers I can assure you.We took our seats and my head was ready to explode, there we were, within 1 metre of the suns bench! I was like a kid at Christmas as players like hill, amare, diesel all came up and fetched Gatorade from the cooler which was infront of me.  Tom Leander saw us there and came up and said hello again, and once again, all too soon, it was time for the game to begin!The pregame introductions were awesome, the team chaired shaq out there, and as the hawks were being introduced, there were tribal drums playing in the background, this prompted the ever entertaining shaq to break out into an awesome dance routine to which Alando Tucker and Leandro quickly joined in, I got it all on camera and it was easy to see that even with a 3 game losing streak, this team was in good spirits and shaqs enthusiasm was clearly infectious.There were numerous little tidbits that I was able to notice from our seats that you wouldn’t normally pick up on in regular ones, ill just list some below (good and not so good) to give a feel for it.Goran Dragic always sits next to Dan Majerle and Thunder Dan was constantly giving him advise and talking to him throughout the game, Goran seemed to be taking it all in.Matt barnes talks ALL game long.  I personally love this in a player, he was just constantly saying things at the opponents like “he don’t want it, he aint got it, we got these guys” etc etc etc, perhaps this is why he is at the end of the bench Lopez and Amundson always sit together and they were also the target of the infamous “Kiss Cam” during a time out – (the second time on this trip it has happened) Louis lent in for the kiss but Robin shut him down and louis was left feeling unloved for the nex 2.7 seconds Ive never really noticed before just how interactive Porter was with plyers during the game – he constantly was talking to players on the bench about plays, what to change on it etc, his time outs were far more concise than some people on Planet Orange seem to suggest when criticising him, and whilst I don’t agree with every thing the suns are doing right now, I do think Porter is an extremely capable NBA coach.  My impression of him as a coach increased with what I saw during this game. (sorry zodogg [image])There was a point in the first where Porter called to the bench and shaq got up and asked for his mouthguard back so he could go in.  he went ot the scorers table and when the sub was called porter called him back and sent JRich in.  Shaq seemed unhappy with this and there were some expletives thrown in amongst the words “that’s (Rubbish) get this (exp deleted) right” and sat back down and seemed angry for a few minutes.There was also a similar incident where porter called for grant to come up and barnes misheard it and went to check in – porter sent him back and called for hill again and barnes did not seem to like this at all.  I did read earlier in the day that he would like more minutes so my perception that this didn’t go down to well with Matt would probably be accurate.Late in the 3rd shaq got a rebound and not able to find someone to outlet it too (barbosa was on as PG) we almost turned it over.  In the next break, Terry Porter chewed Barbosa out massively, Barbosa to his credit though defended himself quite strongly, in a way I haven’t seen barbosa act before as he pointed out that he was in a good position and that it wasn’t his fault.I don’t know if the refs are always this grumpy or if it just seemed that way because I could hear them but the way they talked to the suns coaches made me want to yell at them myself, they were treating the coaches like kids and to be honest this was one of the more intriguing / disappointing eye openers into the NBA that I got from these seats.Jrich mustn’t like us as 3 times he got a cup of Gatorade from infront of us, drank one sip then dropped it into the bin next to the cooler which caused it to splash all over me and KPCB34.  I didn’t mind because it was Jrich, and if he does that normally to other teams fans then its very funny, but we were all wearing orange and I thought he could have been a little nicer to us hahaThe coaches and players leave a HUGE mess under their bench after the game, they are continuosly getting stat sheets and all sorts of other information which all ends up under the benchSteve Kerr was sitting with former sun Tom Gugliotta about 10 rows behind us.  Googs looked to be in pretty good shape.All in all, those seats were worth every cent and then some of the $350.00 US that they cost us.  We actually had a number of suns fans around us and we cheered like crazy.  Now I KNOW the suns players had no choice to hear us because of how close we were, I hope they felt the support because I virtually had no voice after the game – we just applauded everything the guys did and constantly shouted encouragement to them.  Just being able to hear every word of every time out, all the bench players conversations, just to be within one metre of all my favourite players and within 2 metres of what turned out to be an awesome game of basketball, all made this game, the BEST NBA experience I have ever had – im not sure it could ever be topped unless it was a playoff game or something.The game itself was fantastic, There were soooo many highlights, I still think the Josh Smith dunk was a charge J Bibby was throwing up bricks but the game stayed close and the crowd went crazy.  The suns pulled it off in the end, broke the losing streak and we let the suns know how proud we were of their efforts as they left the court to celebrate the win.After the game, we actually had a number of suns fans around the stadium come and celebrate with our completely orange jersey wearing group, we even took some celebratory photos and the hawks fans were generally really good about the loss too.  We headed back to our car which was still where we left it and began the 12 hour drive to Washington, already tired from leaving at 6am that morning, with laughter, good spirits and celebration in the air after the fantastic win.  I believe the 3 losses prior to this win made it all the more sweeter!Hopefully we could repeat this form against the wizards and finish this road trip at 3 and 3, that would be great considering 2 members of our 6 strong group would be leaving after the next game L  Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:18:25 GMT http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-Atlanta-Leg/BLOG/175171/9952.html sunsdownunder 2009-02-03T06:18:25Z Planet Orange  We awoke at 6 am sharp to begin the long drive from Durham to Atlanta (heading back through Charlotte), after a quick stop at yet another take away restaurant for breakfast we were on the road.  After our loss in Charlotte and knowing the Hawks just thumped Milwaukee by 30, we were only able to be optimistic about the next game because of how one eyed we are in our love for the suns.  With that in mind spirits were positive and the 6 hour drive flew by in no time.When we arrived in Atlanta, we parked our van as close to the stadium as possible.  The area seemed quite unsafe. Usually everywhere we went we stayed in hotels and when we parked the car at the games it was empty. But as we had to leave Atlanta straight after the game in order to complete the 12 hour drive to Washington in time for the next nights game, the car was full of all our luggage and possessions on this trip.  This made us feel quite uneasy, especially given the numerous people who were standing around in the carpark paying close attention to us.  Deciding to take the things most valuable to us just in case we each grabbed the 3 most important things…[image]1. Our Passports2. All of our money3. All tickets to remaining suns games on this trip. I think that’s a worthy top 3 as far as importance goes.There was nothing we could do about the safety at this point, but it was with uneasiness that we headed around to see what Atlanta had to offer.  Some of the team went to the aquarium, others walked around Olympic park and took a look at the other sports stadiums which were conveniently located near the hawks arena.  After we finished all this, we made the decision that our carpark wasn’t safe enough to leave our car throughout the game so we packed it up and left our already paid for park in search of a safer looking one.  The next half hour was spent quickly learning that the whole city has this unsafe vibe to it and we basically just took what felt like a gamble and parked it again and headed off ready for the hawks game.The arena had a great feel to it as soon as we walked in, I really liked the stadium, in contrast to the city it was welcoming, the people were nice, there were A LOT of suns jerseys around (a very common theme for this trip) and we were excited as myself and KPCB were front row behind the suns bench and the other guys were only one row further back and one section towards the baseline!  We raced down for the pregame autographs again and some of the guys who missed out in Charlotte were able to get nash, majerle, barnes amongst others which was awesome, they also had a brief chat with steve about our trip,  its always so appreciated when the players take that 5 seconds out of their extremely busy schedule to show an interest, I know its hard for them because if they stop it means they might get mobbed and be there forever, but it does mean a lot to this group of travellers I can assure you.We took our seats and my head was ready to explode, there we were, within 1 metre of the suns bench! I was like a kid at Christmas as players like hill, amare, diesel all came up and fetched Gatorade from the cooler which was infront of me.  Tom Leander saw us there and came up and said hello again, and once again, all too soon, it was time for the game to begin!The pregame introductions were awesome, the team chaired shaq out there, and as the hawks were being introduced, there were tribal drums playing in the background, this prompted the ever entertaining shaq to break out into an awesome dance routine to which Alando Tucker and Leandro quickly joined in, I got it all on camera and it was easy to see that even with a 3 game losing streak, this team was in good spirits and shaqs enthusiasm was clearly infectious.There were numerous little tidbits that I was able to notice from our seats that you wouldn’t normally pick up on in regular ones, ill just list some below (good and not so good) to give a feel for it.Goran Dragic always sits next to Dan Majerle and Thunder Dan was constantly giving him advise and talking to him throughout the game, Goran seemed to be taking it all in.Matt barnes talks ALL game long.  I personally love this in a player, he was just constantly saying things at the opponents like “he don’t want it, he aint got it, we got these guys” etc etc etc, perhaps this is why he is at the end of the bench Lopez and Amundson always sit together and they were also the target of the infamous “Kiss Cam” during a time out – (the second time on this trip it has happened) Louis lent in for the kiss but Robin shut him down and louis was left feeling unloved for the nex 2.7 seconds Ive never really noticed before just how interactive Porter was with plyers during the game – he constantly was talking to players on the bench about plays, what to change on it etc, his time outs were far more concise than some people on Planet Orange seem to suggest when criticising him, and whilst I don’t agree with every thing the suns are doing right now, I do think Porter is an extremely capable NBA coach.  My impression of him as a coach increased with what I saw during this game. (sorry zodogg [image])There was a point in the first where Porter called to the bench and shaq got up and asked for his mouthguard back so he could go in.  he went ot the scorers table and when the sub was called porter called him back and sent JRich in.  Shaq seemed unhappy with this and there were some expletives thrown in amongst the words “that’s (Rubbish) get this (exp deleted) right” and sat back down and seemed angry for a few minutes.There was also a similar incident where porter called for grant to come up and barnes misheard it and went to check in – porter sent him back and called for hill again and barnes did not seem to like this at all.  I did read earlier in the day that he would like more minutes so my perception that this didn’t go down to well with Matt would probably be accurate.Late in the 3rd shaq got a rebound and not able to find someone to outlet it too (barbosa was on as PG) we almost turned it over.  In the next break, Terry Porter chewed Barbosa out massively, Barbosa to his credit though defended himself quite strongly, in a way I haven’t seen barbosa act before as he pointed out that he was in a good position and that it wasn’t his fault.I don’t know if the refs are always this grumpy or if it just seemed that way because I could hear them but the way they talked to the suns coaches made me want to yell at them myself, they were treating the coaches like kids and to be honest this was one of the more intriguing / disappointing eye openers into the NBA that I got from these seats.Jrich mustn’t like us as 3 times he got a cup of Gatorade from infront of us, drank one sip then dropped it into the bin next to the cooler which caused it to splash all over me and KPCB34.  I didn’t mind because it was Jrich, and if he does that normally to other teams fans then its very funny, but we were all wearing orange and I thought he could have been a little nicer to us hahaThe coaches and players leave a HUGE mess under their bench after the game, they are continuosly getting stat sheets and all sorts of other information which all ends up under the benchSteve Kerr was sitting with former sun Tom Gugliotta about 10 rows behind us.  Googs looked to be in pretty good shape.All in all, those seats were worth every cent and then some of the $350.00 US that they cost us.  We actually had a number of suns fans around us and we cheered like crazy.  Now I KNOW the suns players had no choice to hear us because of how close we were, I hope they felt the support because I virtually had no voice after the game – we just applauded everything the guys did and constantly shouted encouragement to them.  Just being able to hear every word of every time out, all the bench players conversations, just to be within one metre of all my favourite players and within 2 metres of what turned out to be an awesome game of basketball, all made this game, the BEST NBA experience I have ever had – im not sure it could ever be topped unless it was a playoff game or something.The game itself was fantastic, There were soooo many highlights, I still think the Josh Smith dunk was a charge J Bibby was throwing up bricks but the game stayed close and the crowd went crazy.  The suns pulled it off in the end, broke the losing streak and we let the suns know how proud we were of their efforts as they left the court to celebrate the win.After the game, we actually had a number of suns fans around the stadium come and celebrate with our completely orange jersey wearing group, we even took some celebratory photos and the hawks fans were generally really good about the loss too.  We headed back to our car which was still where we left it and began the 12 hour drive to Washington, already tired from leaving at 6am that morning, with laughter, good spirits and celebration in the air after the fantastic win.  I believe the 3 losses prior to this win made it all the more sweeter!Hopefully we could repeat this form against the wizards and finish this road trip at 3 and 3, that would be great considering 2 members of our 6 strong group would be leaving after the next game L  atlanta hawks, destination phoenix, destinationphoenix nonadult false Destination Phoenix - Atlanta Leg text blog atlanta hawks,destination phoenix,destinationphoenix 574 4 5.0 http://suns.planetorange.net/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=1597727&as=9952 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/9952/photos/PHOTO_2584194_9952_1597727_ap_160X120.jpg false 3 2 175171 1597727 Veteran 22640 http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-Charlotte-Leg/BLOG/170386/9952.html We left New York very unhappy with the loss to the knicks as im sure the team was too, after an extremely tiring drive through manhattan, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Baltimore we eventually landed in our next stop - Durham. We were staying there with our fantastic hosts, Tabby and Justin who were friends of Steves (Nevetsov).  We got there at about 4am and had a powersleep before getting up at about 10 and beginning the 2.5 hour drive into Charlotte.[image]Charlotte was very quiet, but we did have the pleasure of meeting up with Rick (Frank Lee) from the realgm.com message boards and sank some local brews before heading into the stadium, which we were allowed to do half an hour before the main public as we used the season ticket holders entrance.      Once in, most of the suns were shooting around, so we raced down to the tunnell to try and get some autographs.  I was lucky enough to get my jersey signed by (in order) Amundson, Dudley, Tucker, Sims, Barnes, Amare, Nash, Scott Williams (who i told needs to bring back majerles meatloaf into the commetary!) and also Majerle himself.[image]After that we took our seats only to be approached by Kathleen Hessert who is the president of "Sports Media Challenge" which is a company that looks after sports players and teams brands etc - the marketing, promotion and the like.  Id been liasing with her via twitter, and It just so happens that Shaq is one of her clients, and she asked if we could record some video for a new Shaq widget coming out (possibly called Interactive Shaq?) - we were just asked some questions on camera about the trip, the suns etc, and it was a great experience, something new for all of us, so im looking forward to seeing the finished product which im told might be around the allstar break.  (Photo  with Dan, Bradford, Kathleen, Brad and myself) On our way back to our seats I stopped and had a chat with Scott Williams and Tom Leander, both were a pleasure to meet and said they knew about our trip and had even commented on it during the knicks game, not wanting to bother them too much when they had work to do we headed back to our second row seats on the baseline and got ready for the game.[image]Our seats were fantastic, watching the players from so close was great, the bobcats mascot kept playing jokes on us, one was on the bigscreen too, i think we might have been cheering too loudly and thats why we were getting picked on (all in good fun).  Unfortunately our cheering didnt help the suns as we suffered our 3rd loss in a row, this time to the bobcats who we had never lost to before, so to say our spirits were down was an understatement.     It wasnt all negative though as Kathleen and her friends Brad and Bradford came came through and said if we waited we might get to see shaq if he came out.  There was about 100 people waiting in that same spot, but when the big man came out in his jeans, waistcoat and shirt everyone rushed the front - we were lucky enough to tag along behind kathleen and actually get onto floor level with him when the others were in the stands and she introduced us as the suns fans from down under and Shaq shook everyones hands and thanked us for the support - we said we would see him in atlanta and that was that, our night was capped of beautifully after a bad loss - nothing like a bit of diesel to pick you up :-) (photo below of us waiting to meet him)We made the 2.5 hour drive back to Durham where the next day the guys attended the Duke vs Maryland game, and that night we all watched the miami vs orlando match with a few beers each before getting up at 7am the next day to begin the drive to Atlanta in readyness for the hawks game, who had just stomped the bucks by 30 and we were coming off of losses to the celtics knicks and bobcats - so the mood was anxious to say the least......... [image]  We left New York very unhappy with the loss to the knicks as im sure the team was too, after an extremely tiring drive through manhattan, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Baltimore we eventually landed in our next stop - Durham. We were staying there with our fantastic hosts, Tabby and Justin who were friends of Steves (Nevetsov).  We got there at about 4am and had a powersleep before getting up at about 10 and beginning the 2.5 hour drive into Charlotte.[image]Charlotte was very quiet, but we did have the pleasure of meeting up with Rick (Frank Lee) from the realgm.com message boards and sank some local brews before heading into the stadium, which we were allowed to do half an hour before the main public as we used the season ticket holders entrance.      Once in, most of the suns were shooting around, so we raced down to the tunnell to try and get some autographs.  I was lucky enough to get my jersey signed by (in order) Amundson, Dudley, Tucker, Sims, Barnes, Amare, Nash, Scott Williams (who i told needs to bring back majerles meatloaf into the commetary!) and also Majerle himself.[image]After that we took our seats only to be approached by Kathleen Hessert who is the president of "Sports Media Challenge" which is a company that looks after sports players and teams brands etc - the marketing, promotion and the like.  Id been liasing with her via twitter, and It just so happens that Shaq is one of her clients, and she asked if we could record some video for a new Shaq widget coming out (possibly called Interactive Shaq?) - we were just asked some questions on camera about the trip, the suns etc, and it was a great experience, something new for all of us, so im looking forward to seeing the finished product which im told might be around the allstar break.  (Photo  with Dan, Bradford, Kathleen, Brad and myself) On our way back to our seats I stopped and had a chat with Scott Williams and Tom Leander, both were a pleasure to meet and said they knew about our trip and had even commented on it during the knicks game, not wanting to bother them too much when they had work to do we headed back to our second row seats on the baseline and got ready for the game.[image]Our seats were fantastic, watching the players from so close was great, the bobcats mascot kept playing jokes on us, one was on the bigscreen too, i think we might have been cheering too loudly and thats why we were getting picked on (all in good fun).  Unfortunately our cheering didnt help the suns as we suffered our 3rd loss in a row, this time to the bobcats who we had never lost to before, so to say our spirits were down was an understatement.     It wasnt all negative though as Kathleen and her friends Brad and Bradford came came through and said if we waited we might get to see shaq if he came out.  There was about 100 people waiting in that same spot, but when the big man came out in his jeans, waistcoat and shirt everyone rushed the front - we were lucky enough to tag along behind kathleen and actually get onto floor level with him when the others were in the stands and she introduced us as the suns fans from down under and Shaq shook everyones hands and thanked us for the support - we said we would see him in atlanta and that was that, our night was capped of beautifully after a bad loss - nothing like a bit of diesel to pick you up :-) (photo below of us waiting to meet him)We made the 2.5 hour drive back to Durham where the next day the guys attended the Duke vs Maryland game, and that night we all watched the miami vs orlando match with a few beers each before getting up at 7am the next day to begin the drive to Atlanta in readyness for the hawks game, who had just stomped the bucks by 30 and we were coming off of losses to the celtics knicks and bobcats - so the mood was anxious to say the least......... [image]  Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:18:53 GMT http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-Charlotte-Leg/BLOG/170386/9952.html sunsdownunder 2009-01-27T19:18:53Z Planet Orange We left New York very unhappy with the loss to the knicks as im sure the team was too, after an extremely tiring drive through manhattan, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Baltimore we eventually landed in our next stop - Durham. We were staying there with our fantastic hosts, Tabby and Justin who were friends of Steves (Nevetsov).  We got there at about 4am and had a powersleep before getting up at about 10 and beginning the 2.5 hour drive into Charlotte.[image]Charlotte was very quiet, but we did have the pleasure of meeting up with Rick (Frank Lee) from the realgm.com message boards and sank some local brews before heading into the stadium, which we were allowed to do half an hour before the main public as we used the season ticket holders entrance.      Once in, most of the suns were shooting around, so we raced down to the tunnell to try and get some autographs.  I was lucky enough to get my jersey signed by (in order) Amundson, Dudley, Tucker, Sims, Barnes, Amare, Nash, Scott Williams (who i told needs to bring back majerles meatloaf into the commetary!) and also Majerle himself.[image]After that we took our seats only to be approached by Kathleen Hessert who is the president of "Sports Media Challenge" which is a company that looks after sports players and teams brands etc - the marketing, promotion and the like.  Id been liasing with her via twitter, and It just so happens that Shaq is one of her clients, and she asked if we could record some video for a new Shaq widget coming out (possibly called Interactive Shaq?) - we were just asked some questions on camera about the trip, the suns etc, and it was a great experience, something new for all of us, so im looking forward to seeing the finished product which im told might be around the allstar break.  (Photo  with Dan, Bradford, Kathleen, Brad and myself) On our way back to our seats I stopped and had a chat with Scott Williams and Tom Leander, both were a pleasure to meet and said they knew about our trip and had even commented on it during the knicks game, not wanting to bother them too much when they had work to do we headed back to our second row seats on the baseline and got ready for the game.[image]Our seats were fantastic, watching the players from so close was great, the bobcats mascot kept playing jokes on us, one was on the bigscreen too, i think we might have been cheering too loudly and thats why we were getting picked on (all in good fun).  Unfortunately our cheering didnt help the suns as we suffered our 3rd loss in a row, this time to the bobcats who we had never lost to before, so to say our spirits were down was an understatement.     It wasnt all negative though as Kathleen and her friends Brad and Bradford came came through and said if we waited we might get to see shaq if he came out.  There was about 100 people waiting in that same spot, but when the big man came out in his jeans, waistcoat and shirt everyone rushed the front - we were lucky enough to tag along behind kathleen and actually get onto floor level with him when the others were in the stands and she introduced us as the suns fans from down under and Shaq shook everyones hands and thanked us for the support - we said we would see him in atlanta and that was that, our night was capped of beautifully after a bad loss - nothing like a bit of diesel to pick you up :-) (photo below of us waiting to meet him)We made the 2.5 hour drive back to Durham where the next day the guys attended the Duke vs Maryland game, and that night we all watched the miami vs orlando match with a few beers each before getting up at 7am the next day to begin the drive to Atlanta in readyness for the hawks game, who had just stomped the bucks by 30 and we were coming off of losses to the celtics knicks and bobcats - so the mood was anxious to say the least......... [image]  destinationphoenix nonadult false Destination Phoenix - Charlotte Leg text blog destinationphoenix 677 2 5.0 http://suns.planetorange.net/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=1597727&as=9952 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/9952/photos/PHOTO_2584194_9952_1597727_ap_160X120.jpg false 5 2 170386 1597727 Veteran 22640 http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-New-York-Leg/BLOG/168715/9952.html We woke up in conneticuit and drove to NYC - we were reluctant to drive in manhattan due to traffic and the size of our van so we arranged to park at JFK airport and catch the subway in - this was fine apart from the fact that the GPS system we had took us straight through manhattan anyways! so we had some fun driving in. lets just say that. On our first night in new york, myself and russell went to Carnegie hall for the Gday Australia festival.  We had heard that our favourite australian rocker Jimmy Barnes would be there so we dressed up in our yellow and greet gear complete with headbands and polished off many beverages before leaving.   when we got there, we found it was a black tie affair with opera, classical music etc and Jimmy Barnes was only performing at the end - needless to say we were in no state to listen to classical music and by the time Jimmy came on we were singing and dancing everywhere whilst everyone else looked on in disbelief at the fact someone would dare stand up and sing at a concert - they gave their little golf clap whilst we performed an admirable 2 man mexican wave before being escorted from the premises. Im sure the australian embassy will be proud of our accurate representation of australians. The other guys went off to the NY Rangers vs Ducks game which NY won 4-2 and upon their return we kept partying until about 5am which was our biggest night of the trip so far. The first stop the next morning (game day) was the NBA store - between the 6 of us we easily parted ways with over 2k to purchase NBA jerseys ranging from a 95 shaq allstar throwback to steve nash home jerseys and even some other items we wont mention here (cough simmo cough).  We got talking to the guys in the NBA store and even set suns.com with our pictures as the front page on all the computers in the store, the people working there were very supportive of our trip and amazed we were doing it.  They said Dan Majerle was in just before us buying some stuff,so sucks we missed him!after that we just spend the afternoon sightseeing, had some great conversations about the suns and our trip with our tour bus driver and the guys at the pizza shop next to our hotel, they were both really friendly which bucked the trend of what we were told to expect, all in all, we had generated alot of interest in the game that night, and most wanted the suns to lose :-)We headed to Madison Square Garden, the atmosphere outside was exciting, soooo many locals / knicks fans etc came up and talked to us about the trip etc, and as we headed into the stadium we had sat down for no more than 5 minutes before a big fat knicks fan turned around and yelled at us "SUNS SUCK!!".  A knicks fan next to us told him to shut up and what followed can only be described as a "manhood contest" as they both exchanged verbal barbs and challenges to fight before the fat fool was moved to another seat. (he would return at half time to call us "P&%$#S" but that was the last we saw of him).[image] The game itself was entertaining but frustrating, the suns couldnt seem to get over that hump and take a lead.  in the stadium the knicks fans proved to be ignorant and abusive, i swear the people around me knew nothing about the game of basketball and all in all, it was probably more frustrating than the celtics loss.  We tried to start songs, chants etc, but it was to no avail as every time we got close the knicks hit a big shot and we were left to cry in our beers and walk on out of the stadium to the waves of the fans around us.Once outside, we proceeded to show MSG what we thought of them as per the below photo and then headed to times square for some beers  to drown our sorrows.....[image]        Our last day in new york was filled with sightseeing such as the USS Intrepid, a MSG tour, the Rockafeller Centre, Statue of Liberty , etc etc to get that new york experience before we headed on another trip to the NBA store where the people working there recognised some of our group from being on tv the night before and were excited to talk about it which was cool, - after that it was off to the airport to pick up our car and begin the next leg of our trip - charlotte......   We woke up in conneticuit and drove to NYC - we were reluctant to drive in manhattan due to traffic and the size of our van so we arranged to park at JFK airport and catch the subway in - this was fine apart from the fact that the GPS system we had took us straight through manhattan anyways! so we had some fun driving in. lets just say that. On our first night in new york, myself and russell went to Carnegie hall for the Gday Australia festival.  We had heard that our favourite australian rocker Jimmy Barnes would be there so we dressed up in our yellow and greet gear complete with headbands and polished off many beverages before leaving.   when we got there, we found it was a black tie affair with opera, classical music etc and Jimmy Barnes was only performing at the end - needless to say we were in no state to listen to classical music and by the time Jimmy came on we were singing and dancing everywhere whilst everyone else looked on in disbelief at the fact someone would dare stand up and sing at a concert - they gave their little golf clap whilst we performed an admirable 2 man mexican wave before being escorted from the premises. Im sure the australian embassy will be proud of our accurate representation of australians. The other guys went off to the NY Rangers vs Ducks game which NY won 4-2 and upon their return we kept partying until about 5am which was our biggest night of the trip so far. The first stop the next morning (game day) was the NBA store - between the 6 of us we easily parted ways with over 2k to purchase NBA jerseys ranging from a 95 shaq allstar throwback to steve nash home jerseys and even some other items we wont mention here (cough simmo cough).  We got talking to the guys in the NBA store and even set suns.com with our pictures as the front page on all the computers in the store, the people working there were very supportive of our trip and amazed we were doing it.  They said Dan Majerle was in just before us buying some stuff,so sucks we missed him!after that we just spend the afternoon sightseeing, had some great conversations about the suns and our trip with our tour bus driver and the guys at the pizza shop next to our hotel, they were both really friendly which bucked the trend of what we were told to expect, all in all, we had generated alot of interest in the game that night, and most wanted the suns to lose :-)We headed to Madison Square Garden, the atmosphere outside was exciting, soooo many locals / knicks fans etc came up and talked to us about the trip etc, and as we headed into the stadium we had sat down for no more than 5 minutes before a big fat knicks fan turned around and yelled at us "SUNS SUCK!!".  A knicks fan next to us told him to shut up and what followed can only be described as a "manhood contest" as they both exchanged verbal barbs and challenges to fight before the fat fool was moved to another seat. (he would return at half time to call us "P&%$#S" but that was the last we saw of him).[image] The game itself was entertaining but frustrating, the suns couldnt seem to get over that hump and take a lead.  in the stadium the knicks fans proved to be ignorant and abusive, i swear the people around me knew nothing about the game of basketball and all in all, it was probably more frustrating than the celtics loss.  We tried to start songs, chants etc, but it was to no avail as every time we got close the knicks hit a big shot and we were left to cry in our beers and walk on out of the stadium to the waves of the fans around us.Once outside, we proceeded to show MSG what we thought of them as per the below photo and then headed to times square for some beers  to drown our sorrows.....[image]        Our last day in new york was filled with sightseeing such as the USS Intrepid, a MSG tour, the Rockafeller Centre, Statue of Liberty , etc etc to get that new york experience before we headed on another trip to the NBA store where the people working there recognised some of our group from being on tv the night before and were excited to talk about it which was cool, - after that it was off to the airport to pick up our car and begin the next leg of our trip - charlotte......   Sun, 25 Jan 2009 03:07:41 GMT http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-New-York-Leg/BLOG/168715/9952.html sunsdownunder 2009-01-25T03:07:41Z Planet Orange We woke up in conneticuit and drove to NYC - we were reluctant to drive in manhattan due to traffic and the size of our van so we arranged to park at JFK airport and catch the subway in - this was fine apart from the fact that the GPS system we had took us straight through manhattan anyways! so we had some fun driving in. lets just say that. On our first night in new york, myself and russell went to Carnegie hall for the Gday Australia festival.  We had heard that our favourite australian rocker Jimmy Barnes would be there so we dressed up in our yellow and greet gear complete with headbands and polished off many beverages before leaving.   when we got there, we found it was a black tie affair with opera, classical music etc and Jimmy Barnes was only performing at the end - needless to say we were in no state to listen to classical music and by the time Jimmy came on we were singing and dancing everywhere whilst everyone else looked on in disbelief at the fact someone would dare stand up and sing at a concert - they gave their little golf clap whilst we performed an admirable 2 man mexican wave before being escorted from the premises. Im sure the australian embassy will be proud of our accurate representation of australians. The other guys went off to the NY Rangers vs Ducks game which NY won 4-2 and upon their return we kept partying until about 5am which was our biggest night of the trip so far. The first stop the next morning (game day) was the NBA store - between the 6 of us we easily parted ways with over 2k to purchase NBA jerseys ranging from a 95 shaq allstar throwback to steve nash home jerseys and even some other items we wont mention here (cough simmo cough).  We got talking to the guys in the NBA store and even set suns.com with our pictures as the front page on all the computers in the store, the people working there were very supportive of our trip and amazed we were doing it.  They said Dan Majerle was in just before us buying some stuff,so sucks we missed him!after that we just spend the afternoon sightseeing, had some great conversations about the suns and our trip with our tour bus driver and the guys at the pizza shop next to our hotel, they were both really friendly which bucked the trend of what we were told to expect, all in all, we had generated alot of interest in the game that night, and most wanted the suns to lose :-)We headed to Madison Square Garden, the atmosphere outside was exciting, soooo many locals / knicks fans etc came up and talked to us about the trip etc, and as we headed into the stadium we had sat down for no more than 5 minutes before a big fat knicks fan turned around and yelled at us "SUNS SUCK!!".  A knicks fan next to us told him to shut up and what followed can only be described as a "manhood contest" as they both exchanged verbal barbs and challenges to fight before the fat fool was moved to another seat. (he would return at half time to call us "P&%$#S" but that was the last we saw of him).[image] The game itself was entertaining but frustrating, the suns couldnt seem to get over that hump and take a lead.  in the stadium the knicks fans proved to be ignorant and abusive, i swear the people around me knew nothing about the game of basketball and all in all, it was probably more frustrating than the celtics loss.  We tried to start songs, chants etc, but it was to no avail as every time we got close the knicks hit a big shot and we were left to cry in our beers and walk on out of the stadium to the waves of the fans around us.Once outside, we proceeded to show MSG what we thought of them as per the below photo and then headed to times square for some beers  to drown our sorrows.....[image]        Our last day in new york was filled with sightseeing such as the USS Intrepid, a MSG tour, the Rockafeller Centre, Statue of Liberty , etc etc to get that new york experience before we headed on another trip to the NBA store where the people working there recognised some of our group from being on tv the night before and were excited to talk about it which was cool, - after that it was off to the airport to pick up our car and begin the next leg of our trip - charlotte......   destinationphoenix nonadult false Destination Phoenix - New York Leg text blog destinationphoenix 825 23 5.0 http://suns.planetorange.net/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=1597727&as=9952 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/9952/photos/PHOTO_2584194_9952_1597727_ap_160X120.jpg false 2 2 168715 1597727 Veteran 22640 http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-Boston-Leg/BLOG/168530/9952.html With spirits high, we left Toronto after the Raptors game and headed to a town called Amsterdam where we spent the night.  The next morning we continued on to Boston where we arrived at around 2pm and parked near the arena.   As the Boston Bruins ice hockey team was playing in the afternoon, traffic was busy and scalpers were eveywhere yelling at us as we walked past.  We went and had some pizza, and then walked around the city.As it was MLK day, everything was closed, and the people of Boston were, what i would say, very unfriendly.  We decided to head to the "Sports Grille Boston" and met the 2 nicest bostonians we would meet on the trip, the owner Scott and our waitress Flo - they put all the tv's near us onto NBA, and with everything else closed in Boston we decided to drink the day away and watch the philly mavs game and the knicks bulls game at the same time - coming from australia where we get 1 game per week, this was heaven!!So we turned up to the game slightly tipsy and NF33IH and myself took our seats front row in the corner, right neat the players tunnel and the other guys were 5th row baseline.  As the players came out, we gave them all high 5's and shouted words of encouragement - Steve Kerr commented that it was nice to see some friendly jerseys, bill cartwright told us to cheer loudly and NF33IH got to fulfill one of his dreams by touching grant hill hahaive sat second row, third row, etc before, but never front row and actually standing on the same ground as the players, it really hit me just how big these guys were.  At 6'6 im no midget, but even guys like matty barnes were clearly looking down at me, and thats something im not used to.The boston home team introductions where as good as any ive ever seen and the crowd was pumped, unfortunately the suns came out flat and after the first quarter really never threatened the result and in the end we had our heads handed to us.  As we were all slightly inebriated, we didnt stop cheering all game, the boys on the baseline were drawing the ire of fans around them because they wouldnt sit down (see picture below)[image]In the third quarter the whole suns bench stood up which annoyed the heck out of the celtics fans who couldnt see and were screaming at them to sit down and "its 30 points chumps, sit down idiots!".  I was laughing my head off at the unity the suns showed (at least on the bench) by staying standing for the next 4 minutes until a timeout was called and even after that, Matty Barnes kept standing for a few more minutes and scratched the back of his head with his middle finger pointed towards the crowd.  (picture of bench standing below)[image]Towards the end, there was this fat boston fan near us who wanted to get shaqs attention, he stormed to the font and kept yelling "diesel, diesel, diesel" and chanting "shaq is wak, shaq is wak", i think the fan was mad because when he looked in the mirror all he saw was a deformed version of jack black and chris farleys lovechild, but none the less he was extremely annoying and i gained a respect for NBA players having to put up with this sort of heckling without going ron artest like into the crowd.After the game we had some brews at a local sports bar and even won some celtics gear in a trivia question time they were having (we will use it as toilet paper dont worry), but with our spirits down due to the loss, we didnt take long to get back in the car and begin the drive to our next stop in conneticuit where we would spend the night before continuing onto new york the next day......  With spirits high, we left Toronto after the Raptors game and headed to a town called Amsterdam where we spent the night.  The next morning we continued on to Boston where we arrived at around 2pm and parked near the arena.   As the Boston Bruins ice hockey team was playing in the afternoon, traffic was busy and scalpers were eveywhere yelling at us as we walked past.  We went and had some pizza, and then walked around the city.As it was MLK day, everything was closed, and the people of Boston were, what i would say, very unfriendly.  We decided to head to the "Sports Grille Boston" and met the 2 nicest bostonians we would meet on the trip, the owner Scott and our waitress Flo - they put all the tv's near us onto NBA, and with everything else closed in Boston we decided to drink the day away and watch the philly mavs game and the knicks bulls game at the same time - coming from australia where we get 1 game per week, this was heaven!!So we turned up to the game slightly tipsy and NF33IH and myself took our seats front row in the corner, right neat the players tunnel and the other guys were 5th row baseline.  As the players came out, we gave them all high 5's and shouted words of encouragement - Steve Kerr commented that it was nice to see some friendly jerseys, bill cartwright told us to cheer loudly and NF33IH got to fulfill one of his dreams by touching grant hill hahaive sat second row, third row, etc before, but never front row and actually standing on the same ground as the players, it really hit me just how big these guys were.  At 6'6 im no midget, but even guys like matty barnes were clearly looking down at me, and thats something im not used to.The boston home team introductions where as good as any ive ever seen and the crowd was pumped, unfortunately the suns came out flat and after the first quarter really never threatened the result and in the end we had our heads handed to us.  As we were all slightly inebriated, we didnt stop cheering all game, the boys on the baseline were drawing the ire of fans around them because they wouldnt sit down (see picture below)[image]In the third quarter the whole suns bench stood up which annoyed the heck out of the celtics fans who couldnt see and were screaming at them to sit down and "its 30 points chumps, sit down idiots!".  I was laughing my head off at the unity the suns showed (at least on the bench) by staying standing for the next 4 minutes until a timeout was called and even after that, Matty Barnes kept standing for a few more minutes and scratched the back of his head with his middle finger pointed towards the crowd.  (picture of bench standing below)[image]Towards the end, there was this fat boston fan near us who wanted to get shaqs attention, he stormed to the font and kept yelling "diesel, diesel, diesel" and chanting "shaq is wak, shaq is wak", i think the fan was mad because when he looked in the mirror all he saw was a deformed version of jack black and chris farleys lovechild, but none the less he was extremely annoying and i gained a respect for NBA players having to put up with this sort of heckling without going ron artest like into the crowd.After the game we had some brews at a local sports bar and even won some celtics gear in a trivia question time they were having (we will use it as toilet paper dont worry), but with our spirits down due to the loss, we didnt take long to get back in the car and begin the drive to our next stop in conneticuit where we would spend the night before continuing onto new york the next day......  Sat, 24 Jan 2009 16:40:39 GMT http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-Boston-Leg/BLOG/168530/9952.html sunsdownunder 2009-01-24T16:40:39Z Planet Orange With spirits high, we left Toronto after the Raptors game and headed to a town called Amsterdam where we spent the night.  The next morning we continued on to Boston where we arrived at around 2pm and parked near the arena.   As the Boston Bruins ice hockey team was playing in the afternoon, traffic was busy and scalpers were eveywhere yelling at us as we walked past.  We went and had some pizza, and then walked around the city.As it was MLK day, everything was closed, and the people of Boston were, what i would say, very unfriendly.  We decided to head to the "Sports Grille Boston" and met the 2 nicest bostonians we would meet on the trip, the owner Scott and our waitress Flo - they put all the tv's near us onto NBA, and with everything else closed in Boston we decided to drink the day away and watch the philly mavs game and the knicks bulls game at the same time - coming from australia where we get 1 game per week, this was heaven!!So we turned up to the game slightly tipsy and NF33IH and myself took our seats front row in the corner, right neat the players tunnel and the other guys were 5th row baseline.  As the players came out, we gave them all high 5's and shouted words of encouragement - Steve Kerr commented that it was nice to see some friendly jerseys, bill cartwright told us to cheer loudly and NF33IH got to fulfill one of his dreams by touching grant hill hahaive sat second row, third row, etc before, but never front row and actually standing on the same ground as the players, it really hit me just how big these guys were.  At 6'6 im no midget, but even guys like matty barnes were clearly looking down at me, and thats something im not used to.The boston home team introductions where as good as any ive ever seen and the crowd was pumped, unfortunately the suns came out flat and after the first quarter really never threatened the result and in the end we had our heads handed to us.  As we were all slightly inebriated, we didnt stop cheering all game, the boys on the baseline were drawing the ire of fans around them because they wouldnt sit down (see picture below)[image]In the third quarter the whole suns bench stood up which annoyed the heck out of the celtics fans who couldnt see and were screaming at them to sit down and "its 30 points chumps, sit down idiots!".  I was laughing my head off at the unity the suns showed (at least on the bench) by staying standing for the next 4 minutes until a timeout was called and even after that, Matty Barnes kept standing for a few more minutes and scratched the back of his head with his middle finger pointed towards the crowd.  (picture of bench standing below)[image]Towards the end, there was this fat boston fan near us who wanted to get shaqs attention, he stormed to the font and kept yelling "diesel, diesel, diesel" and chanting "shaq is wak, shaq is wak", i think the fan was mad because when he looked in the mirror all he saw was a deformed version of jack black and chris farleys lovechild, but none the less he was extremely annoying and i gained a respect for NBA players having to put up with this sort of heckling without going ron artest like into the crowd.After the game we had some brews at a local sports bar and even won some celtics gear in a trivia question time they were having (we will use it as toilet paper dont worry), but with our spirits down due to the loss, we didnt take long to get back in the car and begin the drive to our next stop in conneticuit where we would spend the night before continuing onto new york the next day......  destinationphoenix nonadult false Destination Phoenix - Boston Leg text blog destinationphoenix 665 2 5.0 http://suns.planetorange.net/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=1597727&as=9952 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/9952/photos/PHOTO_2584194_9952_1597727_ap_160X120.jpg false 2 2 168530 1597727 Veteran 22640 http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-Toronto/BLOG/168052/9952.html  Destination Phoenix – Toronto   Finally! The day of our first game has arrived, and we wont have to wait long as it’s a 12:30 start!  All of the guys woke up before 7am despite having terrible sleeps for the preceding week, its like Christmas day and noone wants to sleep in. We all got dressed in our suns gear and packed into our van and took the 40 minute drive to Toronto city.  After a brief visit to the CN tower we ventured to the Air Canada Centre and took some group photos outside and then headed in.  The group was bouncing off the walls with excitement as we headed in – first up were the raptors cheerleaders who I asked for a photo and whilst they didn’t approve of our orange jerseys, they obliged.  we were also surprised at the large number of suns jerseys around the arena – steve nash certainly is well loved in Toronto and actually a number of suns fans around the arena asked to take photos with our group – gave it a bit of a celebrity feel to the already increasing excitement. [image]            NF33IH and KPCB headed to their 10th row baseline seats and TASTIC, Nevetsov, Rodrizzle, and myself headed to our nosebleeds.  The warmups were fun with shaq and tucker having a dance contest, amare nailing some sweet 3’s, and it was nice to see shaq go up to every member of the opposing coaching staff and shaking their hands – very respectful. As the national anthem was played – the camera panned past all the suns players and shaq made a goofy face with his eyes and the stadium that was once in silence was filled with laughter.  It was fun to watch the starting lineups being introduced, shaq floored lopez with a chest bump which had me in stitches, and then before we knew it the game was on! As far as NBA games go, this one was fantastic from a fans point of view. Amare and shaq had some amazing plays, barbosa and jrich had moments of dominance, nash put on the best playmaking display ive ever seen in person to finish with 18 assists, and as the game got close down the wire, tied at 102 with 4 minutes to go the Toronto crowd was as loud as any I have heard and we were the target of boos from fans around us who had grown tired of our celebrating throughout the game.  The 7-0 run the suns went on from there sealed it and we finished off the 117 – 113 victory.  Before the game I predicted suns 118 and raptors 113, had amare made that last free throw I would have been spot on, but im more than happy to be wrong as long as we won. The raptors stadium was fantastic, their ingame entertainment really added to the experience and you could definitely see that the fans their get their moneys worth every night.  Most of the fans around us were nice, infact we met a number of fans who asked about our journey, gave advice and wished us well I would rate the Toronto experience like this Game play – 10 out of 10Stadium – 9 out of 10Ingame entertainment – 9 out of 10Local  fans – 7 out of 10 Total rating 9-10 – the rest of the trip has big shoes to fill We left after the game to catch the end of the cardinals game, that was fantastic and now im looking forward to being in Phoenix when the superbowl is on, that should be amazing!!  We headed to niagra and crossed the border into the USA where we spent the night in amsterdam and im typing this about 3 hours from boston where we will be heading to see the suns vs celtics tonight…. If that game is half as entertaining as the raptors one, we should be in for something special!! [image][image]    Destination Phoenix – Toronto   Finally! The day of our first game has arrived, and we wont have to wait long as it’s a 12:30 start!  All of the guys woke up before 7am despite having terrible sleeps for the preceding week, its like Christmas day and noone wants to sleep in. We all got dressed in our suns gear and packed into our van and took the 40 minute drive to Toronto city.  After a brief visit to the CN tower we ventured to the Air Canada Centre and took some group photos outside and then headed in.  The group was bouncing off the walls with excitement as we headed in – first up were the raptors cheerleaders who I asked for a photo and whilst they didn’t approve of our orange jerseys, they obliged.  we were also surprised at the large number of suns jerseys around the arena – steve nash certainly is well loved in Toronto and actually a number of suns fans around the arena asked to take photos with our group – gave it a bit of a celebrity feel to the already increasing excitement. [image]            NF33IH and KPCB headed to their 10th row baseline seats and TASTIC, Nevetsov, Rodrizzle, and myself headed to our nosebleeds.  The warmups were fun with shaq and tucker having a dance contest, amare nailing some sweet 3’s, and it was nice to see shaq go up to every member of the opposing coaching staff and shaking their hands – very respectful. As the national anthem was played – the camera panned past all the suns players and shaq made a goofy face with his eyes and the stadium that was once in silence was filled with laughter.  It was fun to watch the starting lineups being introduced, shaq floored lopez with a chest bump which had me in stitches, and then before we knew it the game was on! As far as NBA games go, this one was fantastic from a fans point of view. Amare and shaq had some amazing plays, barbosa and jrich had moments of dominance, nash put on the best playmaking display ive ever seen in person to finish with 18 assists, and as the game got close down the wire, tied at 102 with 4 minutes to go the Toronto crowd was as loud as any I have heard and we were the target of boos from fans around us who had grown tired of our celebrating throughout the game.  The 7-0 run the suns went on from there sealed it and we finished off the 117 – 113 victory.  Before the game I predicted suns 118 and raptors 113, had amare made that last free throw I would have been spot on, but im more than happy to be wrong as long as we won. The raptors stadium was fantastic, their ingame entertainment really added to the experience and you could definitely see that the fans their get their moneys worth every night.  Most of the fans around us were nice, infact we met a number of fans who asked about our journey, gave advice and wished us well I would rate the Toronto experience like this Game play – 10 out of 10Stadium – 9 out of 10Ingame entertainment – 9 out of 10Local  fans – 7 out of 10 Total rating 9-10 – the rest of the trip has big shoes to fill We left after the game to catch the end of the cardinals game, that was fantastic and now im looking forward to being in Phoenix when the superbowl is on, that should be amazing!!  We headed to niagra and crossed the border into the USA where we spent the night in amsterdam and im typing this about 3 hours from boston where we will be heading to see the suns vs celtics tonight…. If that game is half as entertaining as the raptors one, we should be in for something special!! [image][image]   Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:30:09 GMT http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-Toronto/BLOG/168052/9952.html sunsdownunder 2009-01-23T16:30:09Z Planet Orange  Destination Phoenix – Toronto   Finally! The day of our first game has arrived, and we wont have to wait long as it’s a 12:30 start!  All of the guys woke up before 7am despite having terrible sleeps for the preceding week, its like Christmas day and noone wants to sleep in. We all got dressed in our suns gear and packed into our van and took the 40 minute drive to Toronto city.  After a brief visit to the CN tower we ventured to the Air Canada Centre and took some group photos outside and then headed in.  The group was bouncing off the walls with excitement as we headed in – first up were the raptors cheerleaders who I asked for a photo and whilst they didn’t approve of our orange jerseys, they obliged.  we were also surprised at the large number of suns jerseys around the arena – steve nash certainly is well loved in Toronto and actually a number of suns fans around the arena asked to take photos with our group – gave it a bit of a celebrity feel to the already increasing excitement. [image]            NF33IH and KPCB headed to their 10th row baseline seats and TASTIC, Nevetsov, Rodrizzle, and myself headed to our nosebleeds.  The warmups were fun with shaq and tucker having a dance contest, amare nailing some sweet 3’s, and it was nice to see shaq go up to every member of the opposing coaching staff and shaking their hands – very respectful. As the national anthem was played – the camera panned past all the suns players and shaq made a goofy face with his eyes and the stadium that was once in silence was filled with laughter.  It was fun to watch the starting lineups being introduced, shaq floored lopez with a chest bump which had me in stitches, and then before we knew it the game was on! As far as NBA games go, this one was fantastic from a fans point of view. Amare and shaq had some amazing plays, barbosa and jrich had moments of dominance, nash put on the best playmaking display ive ever seen in person to finish with 18 assists, and as the game got close down the wire, tied at 102 with 4 minutes to go the Toronto crowd was as loud as any I have heard and we were the target of boos from fans around us who had grown tired of our celebrating throughout the game.  The 7-0 run the suns went on from there sealed it and we finished off the 117 – 113 victory.  Before the game I predicted suns 118 and raptors 113, had amare made that last free throw I would have been spot on, but im more than happy to be wrong as long as we won. The raptors stadium was fantastic, their ingame entertainment really added to the experience and you could definitely see that the fans their get their moneys worth every night.  Most of the fans around us were nice, infact we met a number of fans who asked about our journey, gave advice and wished us well I would rate the Toronto experience like this Game play – 10 out of 10Stadium – 9 out of 10Ingame entertainment – 9 out of 10Local  fans – 7 out of 10 Total rating 9-10 – the rest of the trip has big shoes to fill We left after the game to catch the end of the cardinals game, that was fantastic and now im looking forward to being in Phoenix when the superbowl is on, that should be amazing!!  We headed to niagra and crossed the border into the USA where we spent the night in amsterdam and im typing this about 3 hours from boston where we will be heading to see the suns vs celtics tonight…. If that game is half as entertaining as the raptors one, we should be in for something special!! [image][image]   destinationphoenix nonadult false Destination Phoenix - Toronto text blog destinationphoenix 1755 4 5.0 http://suns.planetorange.net/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=1597727&as=9952 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/9952/photos/PHOTO_2584194_9952_1597727_ap_160X120.jpg false 3 2 168052 1597727 Veteran 22640 http://suns.planetorange.net/_Suns-vs-Blazers-Nov-22nd-Preview/BLOG/143286/9952.html Phoenix vs Portland [image][image]             Who: Phoenix 8-5 vs Portland 8-5When: November 22nd             Where: US Airways Centre What: The 8-5 suns who are looking to snap their first 2 game losing streak of the season are playing host to the similarly 8-5 Portland Trailblazers in a matchup which pits one of the NBA's oldest lineups against one of its youngest. The suns beat an Oden-less Portland earlier this month in a game in which the starting 5 had its best combined game of the season and the suns team also had a season low 11 turnovers.  No doubt both of these stats where crucial in the Phoenix win.Portland are coming off of an easy 117-96 win over the kings, and look solid.  They have a great established duo of Roy and Aldridge, who are surrounded by extremely capable versatile role players and none other than the heir apparant to shaq's "true big man" throne, Greg Oden. SDU's 3 Keys to the game1 - Rebounds - As strange as it may seem, the blazers are the worst rebounding team in the league.  The suns with only 2 more boards per game arent much higher up the list.  This stat is misleading in the sense that the Blazers are the 4th most efficient offensive team in the NBA.  If we give them too many second chance opportunities, they are bound to make us pay.  We might get a stop on one posession, but give them a second one and they will show why they make nearly 50% of all shots.2- Roy - Oden and aldridge are nice, but Brandon Roy is what makes this team tick. He has lead the Blazers in scoring in 9 of their 13 games whilst also dishing over 5 assists.  We have to contain him - if you cut Roy off, you cut the Blazers off. 3 - Bench production - Portland are a legitimate 10 deep, and arent afraid to use them.  The suns will need their bench players to be productive on both ends of the court when they are in and the starters rest.  We cannot rely solely on the starters to win this game and diaw, hill - and then lopez or amundson (i expect to see one of them get a good set of minutes) need to be at their best and  Dragic or Singletary, whomever plays - will need to be as mistake free as possible.  Efficiency is keyMatchup of the gameShaq vs Oden - sure the amare aldridge matchup is worth the price of admission - as is the bell roy duel and also the shaq vs his standard punching back pryzbilllldhfgudhgguihisghgaaaa. (joels only D against shaq is to play crudely).  But the Shaq vs Oden matchup for the first time promises to be one of those surreal moments where the present meets the future and im sure both players are looking forward to it with great respect for each other.With Oden starting on the bench im not too sure how many minutes we will see them going at each other, but im hoping to see alot!Overall prediction This one will be TOUGH, but i think the suns will be fired up to prove a point after being demoralised by the jazz and lakers.  This team is a proud group and will want to right the ship and should start now infront of their home crowdIm picking the suns 102-91 in this one with amare being the top scorer (im 9-4 so far this season in my predictions)LETS GO SUNS! Phoenix vs Portland [image][image]             Who: Phoenix 8-5 vs Portland 8-5When: November 22nd             Where: US Airways Centre What: The 8-5 suns who are looking to snap their first 2 game losing streak of the season are playing host to the similarly 8-5 Portland Trailblazers in a matchup which pits one of the NBA's oldest lineups against one of its youngest. The suns beat an Oden-less Portland earlier this month in a game in which the starting 5 had its best combined game of the season and the suns team also had a season low 11 turnovers.  No doubt both of these stats where crucial in the Phoenix win.Portland are coming off of an easy 117-96 win over the kings, and look solid.  They have a great established duo of Roy and Aldridge, who are surrounded by extremely capable versatile role players and none other than the heir apparant to shaq's "true big man" throne, Greg Oden. SDU's 3 Keys to the game1 - Rebounds - As strange as it may seem, the blazers are the worst rebounding team in the league.  The suns with only 2 more boards per game arent much higher up the list.  This stat is misleading in the sense that the Blazers are the 4th most efficient offensive team in the NBA.  If we give them too many second chance opportunities, they are bound to make us pay.  We might get a stop on one posession, but give them a second one and they will show why they make nearly 50% of all shots.2- Roy - Oden and aldridge are nice, but Brandon Roy is what makes this team tick. He has lead the Blazers in scoring in 9 of their 13 games whilst also dishing over 5 assists.  We have to contain him - if you cut Roy off, you cut the Blazers off. 3 - Bench production - Portland are a legitimate 10 deep, and arent afraid to use them.  The suns will need their bench players to be productive on both ends of the court when they are in and the starters rest.  We cannot rely solely on the starters to win this game and diaw, hill - and then lopez or amundson (i expect to see one of them get a good set of minutes) need to be at their best and  Dragic or Singletary, whomever plays - will need to be as mistake free as possible.  Efficiency is keyMatchup of the gameShaq vs Oden - sure the amare aldridge matchup is worth the price of admission - as is the bell roy duel and also the shaq vs his standard punching back pryzbilllldhfgudhgguihisghgaaaa. (joels only D against shaq is to play crudely).  But the Shaq vs Oden matchup for the first time promises to be one of those surreal moments where the present meets the future and im sure both players are looking forward to it with great respect for each other.With Oden starting on the bench im not too sure how many minutes we will see them going at each other, but im hoping to see alot!Overall prediction This one will be TOUGH, but i think the suns will be fired up to prove a point after being demoralised by the jazz and lakers.  This team is a proud group and will want to right the ship and should start now infront of their home crowdIm picking the suns 102-91 in this one with amare being the top scorer (im 9-4 so far this season in my predictions)LETS GO SUNS! Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:08:32 GMT http://suns.planetorange.net/_Suns-vs-Blazers-Nov-22nd-Preview/BLOG/143286/9952.html sunsdownunder 2008-11-22T11:08:32Z Planet Orange Phoenix vs Portland [image][image]             Who: Phoenix 8-5 vs Portland 8-5When: November 22nd             Where: US Airways Centre What: The 8-5 suns who are looking to snap their first 2 game losing streak of the season are playing host to the similarly 8-5 Portland Trailblazers in a matchup which pits one of the NBA's oldest lineups against one of its youngest. The suns beat an Oden-less Portland earlier this month in a game in which the starting 5 had its best combined game of the season and the suns team also had a season low 11 turnovers.  No doubt both of these stats where crucial in the Phoenix win.Portland are coming off of an easy 117-96 win over the kings, and look solid.  They have a great established duo of Roy and Aldridge, who are surrounded by extremely capable versatile role players and none other than the heir apparant to shaq's "true big man" throne, Greg Oden. SDU's 3 Keys to the game1 - Rebounds - As strange as it may seem, the blazers are the worst rebounding team in the league.  The suns with only 2 more boards per game arent much higher up the list.  This stat is misleading in the sense that the Blazers are the 4th most efficient offensive team in the NBA.  If we give them too many second chance opportunities, they are bound to make us pay.  We might get a stop on one posession, but give them a second one and they will show why they make nearly 50% of all shots.2- Roy - Oden and aldridge are nice, but Brandon Roy is what makes this team tick. He has lead the Blazers in scoring in 9 of their 13 games whilst also dishing over 5 assists.  We have to contain him - if you cut Roy off, you cut the Blazers off. 3 - Bench production - Portland are a legitimate 10 deep, and arent afraid to use them.  The suns will need their bench players to be productive on both ends of the court when they are in and the starters rest.  We cannot rely solely on the starters to win this game and diaw, hill - and then lopez or amundson (i expect to see one of them get a good set of minutes) need to be at their best and  Dragic or Singletary, whomever plays - will need to be as mistake free as possible.  Efficiency is keyMatchup of the gameShaq vs Oden - sure the amare aldridge matchup is worth the price of admission - as is the bell roy duel and also the shaq vs his standard punching back pryzbilllldhfgudhgguihisghgaaaa. (joels only D against shaq is to play crudely).  But the Shaq vs Oden matchup for the first time promises to be one of those surreal moments where the present meets the future and im sure both players are looking forward to it with great respect for each other.With Oden starting on the bench im not too sure how many minutes we will see them going at each other, but im hoping to see alot!Overall prediction This one will be TOUGH, but i think the suns will be fired up to prove a point after being demoralised by the jazz and lakers.  This team is a proud group and will want to right the ship and should start now infront of their home crowdIm picking the suns 102-91 in this one with amare being the top scorer (im 9-4 so far this season in my predictions)LETS GO SUNS! nonadult false Suns vs Blazers Nov 22nd Preview text blog 777 4 4.0 http://suns.planetorange.net/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=1597727&as=9952 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/9952/photos/PHOTO_2584194_9952_1597727_ap_160X120.jpg false 6 3 143286 1597727 Veteran 22640 http://suns.planetorange.net/_Suns-vs-Rockets-November-12th-2008/BLOG/138039/9952.html Phoenix vs Houston 10/11/2008[image][image]                          Phoenix vs Houston             November 12th 2008                                  US Airways Center - Phoenix Az What: The Phoenix Suns will be looking to beat only their second +.500 team for the season in what looms as a statement game for Phoenix.  The Rockets will be well rested having not played since the 9th in a game where most starters were rested late in the game due to the Lakers handing their heads to them early.  The suns on the other hand are coming off of a heart stopping win against the grizzlies that went down to the wire. SDU's 3 Keys of the game1 - Avoid frontcourt fouls. The Suns will be facing unquestionably their most formiddable frontcourt opponent of the season so far.  Phoenix, who lead the NBA in points in the paint will need to continue the trend of scoring inside, which will already be tough enough, but if Shaq and and Amare pick up early fouls against the Rockets attacking front court, then we could see our biggest strength sitting on the bench for stretches througout the game.* Remember, the rockets have an Argentinian on their team..... BEWARE OF THE FLOP!2- Score from outside - Basically an extension of the above point - the suns probably wont be able to rely on such a huge contribution from our big men as what we have had so far this season.  Their hands will be full on both ends, and as such to counter that we will to make up some extra points from the perimeter.  Bell Barbs Barnes Nash and Hill will need to hit their shots and perhaps be prepared to take a few more than usual as the inside shuts down.Ill go as far as to say that if the suns dont get at least 50 points from that group of players, then i dont believe we will win the game.3 -Defensive Rebounds- The Rockets have some  strong rebounding options on their team, from ming and scola to artest and landry.  They attack the offensive glass with a passion and if we dont box, then they will make us pay with offensive boards and second chance points.  If we are going to keep turning the ball over like we are currently, we need to keep efficient on offense and not give them 2 cracks at it every second time down the floor. Matchup of the gameShaq vs Ming - Old vs New, USA vs China, Power vs Finesse - the Shaq Yao matchup will be fun to watch because you just know that Shaq will feel like he has a point to prove and would dearly love to outplay Yao to show that he isnt past it yet.  And Yao on the other hand is ready to show the league and the world that he is indeed, the best C in the game and to be the best - you have to go through the best..... This one will be worth the price of admissionOther than that, the amare scola, bell tmac, artest and anyone matchups make a worthy sub card to the main event :-) Overall PredictionI think right now, the suns are still learning, adjusting and finding their identity and i think the rockets are a team that knows where they are and what they want to do.  I hate to say it but i think the Rockets will be too strong for the suns in this game and take the suns 103 to 97.Special prediction for this one - Scola will do something to make us all despise the way he plays :-)I HOPE MY PREDICTION IS WRONG, ILL BE CHEERING MY LUNGS OUT, LETS GO YOU MIGHTY SUNS! Phoenix vs Houston 10/11/2008[image][image]                          Phoenix vs Houston             November 12th 2008                                  US Airways Center - Phoenix Az What: The Phoenix Suns will be looking to beat only their second +.500 team for the season in what looms as a statement game for Phoenix.  The Rockets will be well rested having not played since the 9th in a game where most starters were rested late in the game due to the Lakers handing their heads to them early.  The suns on the other hand are coming off of a heart stopping win against the grizzlies that went down to the wire. SDU's 3 Keys of the game1 - Avoid frontcourt fouls. The Suns will be facing unquestionably their most formiddable frontcourt opponent of the season so far.  Phoenix, who lead the NBA in points in the paint will need to continue the trend of scoring inside, which will already be tough enough, but if Shaq and and Amare pick up early fouls against the Rockets attacking front court, then we could see our biggest strength sitting on the bench for stretches througout the game.* Remember, the rockets have an Argentinian on their team..... BEWARE OF THE FLOP!2- Score from outside - Basically an extension of the above point - the suns probably wont be able to rely on such a huge contribution from our big men as what we have had so far this season.  Their hands will be full on both ends, and as such to counter that we will to make up some extra points from the perimeter.  Bell Barbs Barnes Nash and Hill will need to hit their shots and perhaps be prepared to take a few more than usual as the inside shuts down.Ill go as far as to say that if the suns dont get at least 50 points from that group of players, then i dont believe we will win the game.3 -Defensive Rebounds- The Rockets have some  strong rebounding options on their team, from ming and scola to artest and landry.  They attack the offensive glass with a passion and if we dont box, then they will make us pay with offensive boards and second chance points.  If we are going to keep turning the ball over like we are currently, we need to keep efficient on offense and not give them 2 cracks at it every second time down the floor. Matchup of the gameShaq vs Ming - Old vs New, USA vs China, Power vs Finesse - the Shaq Yao matchup will be fun to watch because you just know that Shaq will feel like he has a point to prove and would dearly love to outplay Yao to show that he isnt past it yet.  And Yao on the other hand is ready to show the league and the world that he is indeed, the best C in the game and to be the best - you have to go through the best..... This one will be worth the price of admissionOther than that, the amare scola, bell tmac, artest and anyone matchups make a worthy sub card to the main event :-) Overall PredictionI think right now, the suns are still learning, adjusting and finding their identity and i think the rockets are a team that knows where they are and what they want to do.  I hate to say it but i think the Rockets will be too strong for the suns in this game and take the suns 103 to 97.Special prediction for this one - Scola will do something to make us all despise the way he plays :-)I HOPE MY PREDICTION IS WRONG, ILL BE CHEERING MY LUNGS OUT, LETS GO YOU MIGHTY SUNS! Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:19:13 GMT http://suns.planetorange.net/_Suns-vs-Rockets-November-12th-2008/BLOG/138039/9952.html sunsdownunder 2008-11-12T06:19:13Z Planet Orange Phoenix vs Houston 10/11/2008[image][image]                          Phoenix vs Houston             November 12th 2008                                  US Airways Center - Phoenix Az What: The Phoenix Suns will be looking to beat only their second +.500 team for the season in what looms as a statement game for Phoenix.  The Rockets will be well rested having not played since the 9th in a game where most starters were rested late in the game due to the Lakers handing their heads to them early.  The suns on the other hand are coming off of a heart stopping win against the grizzlies that went down to the wire. SDU's 3 Keys of the game1 - Avoid frontcourt fouls. The Suns will be facing unquestionably their most formiddable frontcourt opponent of the season so far.  Phoenix, who lead the NBA in points in the paint will need to continue the trend of scoring inside, which will already be tough enough, but if Shaq and and Amare pick up early fouls against the Rockets attacking front court, then we could see our biggest strength sitting on the bench for stretches througout the game.* Remember, the rockets have an Argentinian on their team..... BEWARE OF THE FLOP!2- Score from outside - Basically an extension of the above point - the suns probably wont be able to rely on such a huge contribution from our big men as what we have had so far this season.  Their hands will be full on both ends, and as such to counter that we will to make up some extra points from the perimeter.  Bell Barbs Barnes Nash and Hill will need to hit their shots and perhaps be prepared to take a few more than usual as the inside shuts down.Ill go as far as to say that if the suns dont get at least 50 points from that group of players, then i dont believe we will win the game.3 -Defensive Rebounds- The Rockets have some  strong rebounding options on their team, from ming and scola to artest and landry.  They attack the offensive glass with a passion and if we dont box, then they will make us pay with offensive boards and second chance points.  If we are going to keep turning the ball over like we are currently, we need to keep efficient on offense and not give them 2 cracks at it every second time down the floor. Matchup of the gameShaq vs Ming - Old vs New, USA vs China, Power vs Finesse - the Shaq Yao matchup will be fun to watch because you just know that Shaq will feel like he has a point to prove and would dearly love to outplay Yao to show that he isnt past it yet.  And Yao on the other hand is ready to show the league and the world that he is indeed, the best C in the game and to be the best - you have to go through the best..... This one will be worth the price of admissionOther than that, the amare scola, bell tmac, artest and anyone matchups make a worthy sub card to the main event :-) Overall PredictionI think right now, the suns are still learning, adjusting and finding their identity and i think the rockets are a team that knows where they are and what they want to do.  I hate to say it but i think the Rockets will be too strong for the suns in this game and take the suns 103 to 97.Special prediction for this one - Scola will do something to make us all despise the way he plays :-)I HOPE MY PREDICTION IS WRONG, ILL BE CHEERING MY LUNGS OUT, LETS GO YOU MIGHTY SUNS! nonadult false Suns vs Rockets November 12th 2008 text blog 732 1 5.0 http://suns.planetorange.net/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=1597727&as=9952 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/9952/photos/PHOTO_2584194_9952_1597727_ap_160X120.jpg false 6 0 138039 1597727 Veteran 22640 http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-Entry-1/BLOG/92017/9952.html Destination Phoenix - Die hard fans from down under unite! The suns are a classy organization from management right down to the players and support staff. So its no wonder that so many international fans with no ties to any NBA cities, choose to support the mighty Suns. In some cases these fans are even more die hard than some locals, having to take days off just to watch big games, getting up at 3 am for live playoff matches, watching grainy stop start low quality streams on 15 inch monitors just to see the suns somehow, and even travelling the 30 thousand plus km's just to catch a regular season game live. That last scenario is about to take place, with 4 die hard suns fans from Australia and New Zealand (only 2 of which have met each other before) getting together in January to make the trip to the USA with the sole purpose of cheering on the suns and seeing some games live! Myself from Adelaide, South Australia, as well as 3 other members of Planet Orange ("Tastic" from New Zealand, "Nevetsov" from Brisbane Australia, and "NF33IH" also from Adelaide South Australia) will be leaving from Sydney on January 12th, 2009 and after brief stops in Berlin and London will be landing in Toronto on the 18th of January ready to catch the suns first game of a season long 6 game road trip. We have hired a car, and will be following the suns through all 6 stops on the trip, Toronto, Boston, New York, Charlotte, Atlanta and Washington, before flying from Washington to Phoenix (WOO HOO!) to catch games against the spurs (BOO), bulls and kings, hoping to enjoy a superbowl party somewhere and then leaving the great state of Arizona on the 3rd of February heading back to australia via New Zealand (ending a complete trip around the globe just to watch the suns) Were going to be blogging all the way, right from the start to the finish, with details on planning, things that go wrong, things that go right, posting videos, reviews of each game, city, stadium, photos etc, we all hope that it gives the international suns fans (of which there are many) an insight on what its like for die hard suns fans to finally get to see them in person! Keep an eye out for part 2 of the Desitnation Phoenix Blog. All we have done now is booked flights and car hire, hopefully by part 2 we will have started finding accommodation, game tickets, and our itinery for travel and what to do on days off in all the cities. If you have any advice, comments, are we mad to try and drive that road trip (6 cities in 8 days?) or anything, we love to hear any input anyone might have..... until next time, go suns! >> Edited 2nd September 2008: R ead part 2 of this blog here       Read part III of this blog here Destination Phoenix - Die hard fans from down under unite! The suns are a classy organization from management right down to the players and support staff. So its no wonder that so many international fans with no ties to any NBA cities, choose to support the mighty Suns. In some cases these fans are even more die hard than some locals, having to take days off just to watch big games, getting up at 3 am for live playoff matches, watching grainy stop start low quality streams on 15 inch monitors just to see the suns somehow, and even travelling the 30 thousand plus km's just to catch a regular season game live. That last scenario is about to take place, with 4 die hard suns fans from Australia and New Zealand (only 2 of which have met each other before) getting together in January to make the trip to the USA with the sole purpose of cheering on the suns and seeing some games live! Myself from Adelaide, South Australia, as well as 3 other members of Planet Orange ("Tastic" from New Zealand, "Nevetsov" from Brisbane Australia, and "NF33IH" also from Adelaide South Australia) will be leaving from Sydney on January 12th, 2009 and after brief stops in Berlin and London will be landing in Toronto on the 18th of January ready to catch the suns first game of a season long 6 game road trip. We have hired a car, and will be following the suns through all 6 stops on the trip, Toronto, Boston, New York, Charlotte, Atlanta and Washington, before flying from Washington to Phoenix (WOO HOO!) to catch games against the spurs (BOO), bulls and kings, hoping to enjoy a superbowl party somewhere and then leaving the great state of Arizona on the 3rd of February heading back to australia via New Zealand (ending a complete trip around the globe just to watch the suns) Were going to be blogging all the way, right from the start to the finish, with details on planning, things that go wrong, things that go right, posting videos, reviews of each game, city, stadium, photos etc, we all hope that it gives the international suns fans (of which there are many) an insight on what its like for die hard suns fans to finally get to see them in person! Keep an eye out for part 2 of the Desitnation Phoenix Blog. All we have done now is booked flights and car hire, hopefully by part 2 we will have started finding accommodation, game tickets, and our itinery for travel and what to do on days off in all the cities. If you have any advice, comments, are we mad to try and drive that road trip (6 cities in 8 days?) or anything, we love to hear any input anyone might have..... until next time, go suns! >> Edited 2nd September 2008: R ead part 2 of this blog here       Read part III of this blog here Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:44:20 GMT http://suns.planetorange.net/_Destination-Phoenix-Entry-1/BLOG/92017/9952.html sunsdownunder 2008-08-21T09:44:20Z Planet Orange Destination Phoenix - Die hard fans from down under unite! The suns are a classy organization from management right down to the players and support staff. So its no wonder that so many international fans with no ties to any NBA cities, choose to support the mighty Suns. In some cases these fans are even more die hard than some locals, having to take days off just to watch big games, getting up at 3 am for live playoff matches, watching grainy stop start low quality streams on 15 inch monitors just to see the suns somehow, and even travelling the 30 thousand plus km's just to catch a regular season game live. That last scenario is about to take place, with 4 die hard suns fans from Australia and New Zealand (only 2 of which have met each other before) getting together in January to make the trip to the USA with the sole purpose of cheering on the suns and seeing some games live! Myself from Adelaide, South Australia, as well as 3 other members of Planet Orange ("Tastic" from New Zealand, "Nevetsov" from Brisbane Australia, and "NF33IH" also from Adelaide South Australia) will be leaving from Sydney on January 12th, 2009 and after brief stops in Berlin and London will be landing in Toronto on the 18th of January ready to catch the suns first game of a season long 6 game road trip. We have hired a car, and will be following the suns through all 6 stops on the trip, Toronto, Boston, New York, Charlotte, Atlanta and Washington, before flying from Washington to Phoenix (WOO HOO!) to catch games against the spurs (BOO), bulls and kings, hoping to enjoy a superbowl party somewhere and then leaving the great state of Arizona on the 3rd of February heading back to australia via New Zealand (ending a complete trip around the globe just to watch the suns) Were going to be blogging all the way, right from the start to the finish, with details on planning, things that go wrong, things that go right, posting videos, reviews of each game, city, stadium, photos etc, we all hope that it gives the international suns fans (of which there are many) an insight on what its like for die hard suns fans to finally get to see them in person! Keep an eye out for part 2 of the Desitnation Phoenix Blog. All we have done now is booked flights and car hire, hopefully by part 2 we will have started finding accommodation, game tickets, and our itinery for travel and what to do on days off in all the cities. If you have any advice, comments, are we mad to try and drive that road trip (6 cities in 8 days?) or anything, we love to hear any input anyone might have..... until next time, go suns! >> Edited 2nd September 2008: R ead part 2 of this blog here       Read part III of this blog here destination phoenix nonadult false Destination Phoenix!!! Entry 1 text blog destination phoenix 5780 30 4.86667 http://suns.planetorange.net/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=1597727&as=9952 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/9952/photos/PHOTO_2584194_9952_1597727_ap_160X120.jpg false Australia SA Adelaide 5108 27 8 92017 1597727 Veteran 22640