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).
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.....
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......
After following the Suns during their six-game road trip, the "Destination Phoenix" crew finally made its way to the Valley to watch their team take on the Spurs on Jan. 29, 2009.
Hi everyone, sorry for taking so long on the update, it's been a wild week. After a solid 23 hours of flying, in addition to the endless airport transfers, security checks and cavity searches, we arrived in Berlin via Sydney, Singapore and Frankfurt.
Monday 12.01.09 - In transit
Sydney is hopeless, I don't know how anyone can live there. It's a complete mess - for the 30 second transit between domestic and international terminals, the ticket was $14.60. Unbelievable! It's the only airport so far that doesn't have a designated shuttle between terminals (besides Brisbane).
The flight to Singapore, on the other hand, was a complete treat. We got to ride the A380 airbus, which was incredible! The latest movies, movies, music, and linked screens for multiplayer games; we spent the bulk of the trip stretched out and playing versus poker and scramble (we think Mace was cheating though, as he was sitting in a different section we reckon he was getting help from the people sitting around him ;) ). If you ever get the chance to choose your international flight provider, try to choose Singapore Airlines. The service is far superior to any other leg so far, the food is better and the service is unparallelled. We spent our brief time in Singapore Airport taking photos, acting up and pigging out on Burger King. (Note the comedy of travelling to an entirely different country and culture, only to indulge in something that we can just as easily have back home!). Still trying to determine why bacon in Singapore is 'turkey bacon' and not the usual 'oink oink' kind found in western countries? Anyway, as far as the city itself, it's very beautiful in its own right.
The flight to Frankfurt was the complete opposite of the Singapore airlines flight - the seats were cramped, the cabin temperature must have been around 30*C and the service was lousy - but I guess you can't expect much cheer from the staff on a 16 hour red eye flight.Plus, the old man next to me didn’t seem to understand the concept of personal space; he would literally put his arm on top of mine, on the armrest. As much as I appreciated the intimacy I thought it was a bit much.
We experienced some delays during the Frankfurt leg, which resulted in a mad dash from arrival right up to departure. It also resulted in poor Simmo losing his bag in the transfer, which he didn’t get back until Berlin!
So after 32 consecutive hours of airports, planes, ad sleep deprivation, we arrived in Berlin at 8am local time on Tuesday morning.
13.01.09 Berlin
From above, Berlin looked absolutely magical – every building was blanketed by a layer of snow; it looked like something out of a Disney Christmas special.After clearing customs, we left the airport for our hotel in Charlottenburg, about 20 minutes from the airport. It was a nice, albeit quiet area, nestled to the southwest of the main city district.Fortunately, we managed to conquer the S-Bahns and the U-Bahns, which took us to the inner city area of “Unter Den Linden”. This is the main historical strip of Berlin, which stretches from St Mary’s Cathedral on the eastern end, to the Brandenburg Gate on the Western end. 14.01.09 Berlin
Our first day in Berlin was cold but Bearable, I’d say around 0*C.The second, however, was brutal – it would have been considerably under zero, made worse by the inherent wind chill factor.We spent the majority of our day on a bus tour, which basically guided us by all the sights we had missed previously – notably the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the Jewish Memorial, houses of Parliament, the Tiergarten and the Kaiser Wilhelm Church.
Later that day we left Berlin. All in all, I really enjoyed our time there; the city in itself is absolutely gorgeous and we managed to get by on the modest amount of German that we knew.One thing I didn’t expect was the number of Gypsy beggars that inhabited the major tourist attractions – you couldn’t go 2 minutes without being hounded by one, some as young as 6 or 7 years old.It’s a little sad really, but I’m told that this is the case for most major cities in Europe.Another point of interest is that I didn’t see one bottle shop during our entire time in Berlin – so much for the stereotype of Germans being heavy drinkers! We’re on our way to London now, so hopefully I’ll have another blog for you in a few days. Make sure to keep checking planet orange for photos, we’ll try to get them up ASAP.
The Australian Football League's newest expansion franchise announced its name during a banquet last night, and it may sound familiar. The Gold Coast Football Club will be known as the Gold Coast SUNS. In addition to the name, the team unveiled its logo, jersey (or "Guernsey," as they call it) and even a fight song, the "Suns of the Gold Coast Sky."
Having recently spent a week down under myself, and quite a bit of time with the fine folks at the AFL, I think it's pretty cool to have the name Suns represented by another sports franchise in another part of the world.
I love the idea of a team fight song, too. What do you think, fans? I've got an autographed basketball in my office that I will give away for the best Suns fight song uploaded to PlanetOrange.net by the end of August, 2010. That gives you a little more than five weeks to write your lyrics and record your tune. Let's here it! Go Suns! Both of them!
Since our last update via TASTIC, not all that much has happened in terms of confirmed activities. The last two members of the group, KPCB34 & nevetsov have now fully paid up on their flights. Further concreting our itinerary, leaving only accommodation, car hire and most importantly (as far as 5 Suns fans are concerned) game tickets to be purchased.
Once the above has been completed the wait will seem like forever and an eternity, as well as excruciating, with nothing left to do other than such. Having said that, for me, the wait will seem miniscule in comparison to what I have personally endured as a Grant Hill fan.
With that in mind I thought it’d be time to give you an insight into The Man, The Myth, The Mav-e-rick (Mighty Boosh fans will relate) that is Never Fear 33 Is Here (NF33IH).
Rewind to a time where everything in the world seemed to be so much larger than to what it actually was in reality (with perhaps the exception of Shaq). You see, growing up in a less than middle class family in Australia, my chances of seeing the rest, or for that matter any other part of the world and to a larger extent (for me) the NBA was extremely low.
Fast forward to the year 2000. Grant Hill was to wear #15 for the team formerly known as the Dream Team. A group of friends, myself included, were set to travel the 800 plus km’s to witness an exhibition match, prior to the Sydney Olympics, between Team USA and Australia. Whilst the trip went ahead and it was an unbelievable experience for everyone, I was left with a bit of an empty feeling as the ankle injuries that were to take away Grant Hill’s prime had just begun to surface.
Once again fast forwarding, this time through the six seasons of the “Ankle” and various other injuries/infections. My support never waning in the hope that Grant Hill would one day run the floor pain free as he once did. A couple of failed attempts to make the journey to the U.S. with my wife followed. Then came “THE BLESSING”, my wife (the beautiful person that she is), never one for the travel bug said to me, “If you can find someone to go with, then go for it”.
That was all I needed. Almost immediately I was on the blower (phone) to SDU (sunsdownunder) to put the feelers out. Nope, no go there (He had just enjoyed the birth of his first born, so it was completely understandable). Back to the drawing board I went. With no other Suns fan in my immediate circle of friends that could afford to go I dropped an e-mail to nevetsov.
Keep in mind that to this day the only members of this entourage that have actually met in person are sunsdownunder, KPCB34, rodrizzle and myself (KPCB34 & rodrizzle have never met, if you can follow that, you get an A ;-) ). With that being declared, nevetsov and I (having never met, in case you missed that point) began serious talks to make the trip over for last seasons’ playoffs. At the end of the day, we were lucky we pulled the pin due to the fact that our beloved Suns were bundled out in the first round and we had in actual fact planned to get over for the second round.
Well that brings us to now, the dream is now getting closer and there are only 119 days until “The Journey” begins. But who is counting……….right? Tee Hee.
Stay tuned for the next instalment and don’t forget to check out our profiles should you want to know more about us as crazy individuals.
Preparing to go around the world in search
of the Valley of the Sun.
A sextet of international basketball fans
with intent to bask in the collective glory that is the Phoenix Suns, and
follow them like an ice cream truck follows a fat fighter’s convention.
Have to admit I thought this day would
come, but not so soon, or with random internet buddies who go by the names SDU,
Never Fear 33 is Here, KPCB34, rodrizzle and nevetsov. At least there’s no
‘funboy12’, ‘Kobe#1’
or ‘han_solo_is_my_dad’ type nutjobs in for the ride (Lakers, Mavericks and
Spurs fans need not apply). We might even meet up with a German on the way, Moe
– JustMoe - just for schneetz and geegles.
Apologies in advance to all those who have
to read the spiel that will undoubtedly spew out every orifice of the lone Heat
supporter on the trip, rodrizzle. And all things considered, 83% ain’t bad!
Many an arm and a leg are tied up in
Destination Phoenix, some would say an excessive amount. I wouldn’t, and as the
old proverb goes, ‘the poor man’s budget is full of schemes’. This isn’t a
scheme per se, moreso a dream that is finally being realised, and something
that can’t have a price tag put on it. None of us are millionaires, and to
spend so much money and time away from family, friends and the comforts of
home, I think, shows how much the team means to us.
Our Motley Crue will be assembled on
January 12 th 2009 in Sydney, Australia,
ready to board a plane and partake in a beverage or four to take the edge off
the early start to the morning.
As sunsdownunder mentioned in the previous
blog entry, there are a couple of stopovers on the way, in Germany and the UK, so any people wanting to meet
up for a chat can get hold of us through this website.
Rodrizzle will meet us in Toronto, as we follow the Suns on their
season long six game road trip starting against the Raptors.
We’ll be covering the many miles in a
people mover, equipped with slide door, cup holders, and perhaps some poker and
sing-a-longs, as well as the countless recollections of Suns moments both past
and present. Leg space will be at a premium, as will support for myself as the
only non-Australian on the trip!
Thankfully, the great people at Planet
Orange and suns.com answered when we came calling asking for any suggestions
and/or assistance, even having the courage to splat sunsdownunder’s mug onto
their frontpage. Hopefully you, the readers, are not turned away from the pasty
spectre greeting you (I know, a pale Australian, I’m as perplexed as you are).
Bookmark the page, tell your friends, your
gardener and your hairdresser, and come have a look-in from our viewpoint as
international Suns fans, and most of all enjoy the ride ‘cos we sure will!
Literally clockwatching down to the second, every day at work, in the car, at home, on the John, waiting in line at the bank, heck even while I type this my mind has little cogs in it trying to work out how long till the home stretch. Tom Petty had it right, the waiting is most certainly the hardest part.
There’s been a couple of emails that have been forwarded out and around…well more than a couple, no joke – closer to 1000 than it is to 100! They’ve done the rounds in the past three months, getting forwarded around more than those “Fat Emo” or “FAIL” emails, and probably providing each of us more laughs than those now cliché pictures.
There has been countless varying opinions, sledging, name calling, grasps of the English language, and acceptable emails for work email accounts, but to be fair we’ve been eating them up like Homer when he went to Hell in that classic Halloween Special…season 5 I think? Needless to say cartoon quotes, Suns statistical anomalies, movie scenes and random sing-a-longs will make the time pass in the truck we’re driving around in…but that all seems oh so far away!!
Apologies to all the peeps at my work at the NZ Transport Agency, if I’ve bored you with rants about the voyage to the Valley of the Sun, it’s only because I care….about the Suns…haha. Month end won’t be the same without my moaning I’m sure…or the two pregnant lasses leaving around the same time, Chrystal and Julie (I only tease you two cos I care).
We’ve purchased a mascot, a Monkey, aptly named ‘Sunny’ by sunsdownunder, along with the odd group trinket to take along for the ride. If you see a small pack of Suns supporters carrying a purple monkey, odds are it will be us, so make sure you yell out and say g’day, we won’t bite and would love to meet some local Phoenicians. On that point, we’ll be in a sort of uniform, armed to the teeth in Suns gear and baying for opposition blood and/or rebounds. We’ll be the devilishly good looking foreign gentleman yelling louder than an old woman at a Tom Jones gig, minus throwing the underwear – though we do have a couple of Suns garters that will be used as punishment and/or when a good photo op raises itself.
The seating process has been fun…and hectic! Spreadsheets aplenty, prices from all over the economic spectrum floating around, and plans to get as close to the action as possible.
I think Never Fear will be bringing a bottle to the game to get some sweat from Mr Hill, while the rest of us will be screaming our butts off and trying to get as much out of every game as we can.
A highlight for all of us all will be against the Knicks in Madison Square Garden, arguably the most famous sports venue in the world. We’re all hoping it turns out better than last year’s visit to the Garden, and with Coach D’Antoni in charge it’ll be an eye opener for sure! Will be weird seeing DA, Q and Marbury on the Knicks…but who knows who’ll be there in a week’s time let alone three months!
The Hawks game in particular will be special, as we have (drum roll please) COURTSIDE SEATS! I’m not sure who nevetsov kidnapped/took incriminating photos of/blackmailed to get them, but I’ll take the same approach I take to eating burgers – I don’t care how it got on my plate, I’m going to eat that bad boy if I’m hungry. In this case, my eyes will be feasting on the Suns and their smorgasbord of offense and entertaining plays.
After the big six game road trip we have the three game homestand, which will be epic and just being in the Suns stomping ground will be an experience I know I’ll never forget. A Mecca-like trip for us all, it promises to be one of the most memorable moments of our collective lives.
The pickup game between the International Suns Fans and the locals will be a doozy, and we’ll hopefully get some photos/video to see the C grade movie impressions of our Suns boys!
Calling all for the finale of Destination Phoenix ’09.
As you are all aware by now, a group of 5 of us from Down Under are making a trip of gigantic proportions half way around the world to follow the Suns on their season long, 6 game East Coast road trip, culminating in a 3 game home stand. During our trip down the East Coast we have and are still arranging to meet and greet as many of you fans on here as humanly possible, this of course leaves the “local” fans in Arizona out of the loop.
But wait…….there is great news on the horizon. The 3 game home stand are games between the Spurs, Bulls and Kings, which will take place on January 29th, January 31st and February 2nd respectively. With this being said, we are planning one big last hurrah.
As the title states on Feb 2nd 2009, the Suns and Kings will face off @ 7:00pm and we WILL be there, cheering louder than ever before. We have been in talks with the Suns.com sales team and they are offering a group booking for anyone that is interested in joining in the festivities that will be the end of this magical mystery tour. This will not be an expensive venture as by this time of the trip we will be just about entirely out of cash. Tickets should only be roughly $40.00 and we are calling for as many die hard, crazy, Suns fans as possible to join us and get together one of the biggest, LOUDEST and most passionate groups that the US Airways Center has ever seen. This would be the perfect ending for our journey to Phoenix and we would love to share it with other Suns fans who share our support for the best team in the NBA.
If you have any interest or know someone that may be interested in joining this group for the game please send me an e-mail at drmeyer@adam.com.au. In this e-mail we can discuss the venture more at length and also give you an e-mail address to contact Jay from the Suns.com sales teamto register and pay for your tickets.
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
After speaking to Jeramie McPeek (Suns_Webmaster) we arranged to meet him down at the arena at 1 pm. We got there quite early and as a hoop was set up outside the arena we decided to buy a ball from the suns store and shoot some hoops outside the US Airways centre.During this time, a number of people actually stopped and asked if we were the crazy suns fans from down under and gave us their thoughts on our trip, that was pretty cool, and at 1pm Jeramie came down and whilst chatting out the front we were lucky enough to be introduced to Dave Griffin, Josh Hall, Steven Koek (SKJOEK) and Brad Faye, who was the camera man for the day, and we chatted about our trip for a while. It was great the way everyone was so interested in our trip and took the time to talk to us etc.Dave Griffin asked if we liked Pizza, which was like asking if we liked the Suns!!He suggested we try Pizzeria Bianco just east of the building, which usually has a 3-4 hour wait for anyone, celebrities included. But as the owner was a HUGE suns fan, Dave called him and arranged for us to get the VIP treatment and skip the queues and we had a booking arranged for 6:30 before the game!!Something about having the VP of the best franchise in the NBA booking tea for us seemed so surreal, but then again, surreal seems to be the key theme of this trip.After this we were introduced to the voice of the suns Al McCoy, that’s a voice that I’ve heard maybe more than my wife’s over the last 10 years , and then headed on into the arena for a tour.Along the way we were introduced to Mark West who is now the VP of Player Progams with the team. We walked past suns great Alvan Adams but didn’t want to interrupt him as he seemed busy, and Jeramie took us through the stadium and gave us some great insight on various sections of the arena.We headed over to Stoudemire’s for lunch, on the way we bumped into and had a quick chat withRick Welts, the team president, and we even saw the Princess of Planet Orange (Amy is the name she uses to hide from the crowds – she was tiara-less at this time). Once again it was becoming such a common theme of the day for everyone we met to just be so approachable and genuinely showing an interest in our trip, it really just added to our already glowing opinions of the suns and their staff. Stoudemire’s was great, we don’t have sports bars like that in Australia. Three of us had the Stat Burger and the other ordered a Diesel Dog – both came highly recommended.It was great to just sit with Jeramie and talk suns, for two reasons – one he knows more than us, and two: finally, after almost a month, we had a new suns fan to talk to other than each other!!Woo hoo!
We headed back to the stadium to finish the tour, we were taken down to centre court for some photos, it was amazing to see how many people were in the stadium hard at work, over 6 hours before the game was due to start.From there we went to the practice court and were able to shoot some hoops (more like airballs and bricks!), take some photos, once again the only word I can find to describe it is surreal (amazing would be a close second though), and then we went up to the offices section where we met the suns.com hardworking team, I didn’t see any putters, or twitter or anything I swear!
We then headed to Jeramie’s office to upload some photos onto his computer to be used for Planet Orange and whilst waiting for the photos to be uploaded, Alvan Adams stopped by and took the time to have a good chat about his career, current work with the suns, our trip etc. He was a fantastic guy and we even took a trip up to level 4 where his massive commemorative wall with all his achievements are listed and took some once in a lifetime photos with the suns great.
At this point we finished the tour after spending hours behind the scenes of our favourite team, it was almost time to check out Pizzeria Bianco. As we headed there, people were outside waiting, in fact for those who haven’t been there, they actually have a bar next door which is used as a waiting room! As we walked in, decked out in our suns gear, the waitress said there was a 3 hour wait minimum, but as the chef saw us he told her we were “Griff’s Boys” and we were taken care of.Dave Griffin did say the owner was a huge suns fan and would take care of us, but to just walk in and be served straight away whilst others waited for hours gave us almost a celebrity feel The meal itself was fantastic! We have eaten probably way too many pizza’s on this trip, but this one was far too good to pass up!In the space of 15 minutes, 3 whole pizzas were gone (cough steve cough and we were heading back to the arena to meet Jeramie again and get ready for the big game…
Yet again we were given treatment that we really didn’t feel worthy of as we went down onto the suns court and met / took photos with Steve Kerr, Dave Griffin, Craig Sager etc, etc. This time was also used to answer some questions on camera about our trip which was a fun experience and I’m sure the fans who were watching us on court being interviewed were scratching their heads as to who we were lol. As the suns players came out to begin their pregame warm-ups we were allowed to sit on the suns bench to watch, just standing on the same court metres from all our favourite players was such a fantastic experience – the size, speed and skill of these guys becomes more and more obvious the closer you get. We even had the pleasure of meeting our trips cult hero Lou Amundson as he came over for a photo with our group. As the pregame introductions were about to start and some more important people required the seats on the bench we headed back to our actual seats, meeting Tom Chambers along the way and got ready for the big game against the team I hate more than any other in the NBA (lakers a very close second) The crowd was by far the loudest crowd we have been a part of on this trip, and the start of the game was played at a frenetic pace with the first 10 field goals all being successful, as the half drew to an end, Steve Nash nailed a 3 pointer that tied the game, the crowd rose as one and the noise was unlike anything I’ve ever heard at a basketball game before….
If I told you that we gave up our second row seats and missed the entire 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. 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!!
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.
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 10
Stadium – 9 out of 10
Ingame entertainment – 9 out of 10
Localfans – 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!!
When it comes to fan appreciation and the warmest of welcomes to ''The Valley of The Suns'', no one could have done it better than the Phoenix Suns Organization, and Suns Vice President of Interactive Services: Mr. Jeramie McPeek. You are a true ambassador to our city and state. You have represented our Suns and the Suns fans, second to none --- Thank you!
The Destination Phoenix gang, traveled the globe to follow our beloved home team as well as their favorite home team: OUR Phoenix Suns. As a lifelong Suns fan, I'm extremely proud of how Phoenix and the Phoenix Suns Organization represented our city, our state, and how
fantastically the Aussie gang was received and well-treated. Not only did the Suns Organization represent our Suns with first-class treatment and enthusiasm, but the Destination Phoenix gang, represented OUR Phoenix Suns with GREAT dignity and with utmost sportsmanship, as well.
While the Suns are struggling to find themselves, and the message boards are abuzz
with chants of "FIRE PORTER!!!, TRADE AMARÈ!", as is Phoenix itself, the Aussie gang NEVER
wavered for a moment. Many might argue that the International fans don't really know or understand Suns Basketball, or that they don't care whether the Suns win or lose. Well, Suns fans, it's more than apparent that the Aussie Gang, cares GREATLY about our home team and they exemplify the true meaning of, HOPE. If traveling around the world to see their favorite team play in every major city isn't a display of devotion and passion for the Suns, nothing is! These young men have showed more class, appreciation, and enthusiasm than many home fans, who merely take our Phoenix Suns for granted. It's quite humbling to see firsthand, how these guys
have plodded across this country of ours, only to witness the Suns playing scattered, lethargic, and careless basketball. Whether it's a coaching dilemma or a total team funk,
the Aussie Gang, plus one Kiwi, rose above it all, with more faith, excitement, and awe, to not only realize their own dreams,
but to get behind OUR SUNS, and cheer them with all their might, regardless of the overwhelming negativity surrounding this team.
I applaud you, Destination Phoenix Gang, with a loud and long standing ovation!
I applaud each and every one who have welcomed you with open arms and with utmost
hospitality all the way from your home to ours!
If I had the power to hand you the key to OUR beloved city of Phoenix, I would graciously do so.
My only regret is that I was unable to meet you personally in Phoenix ---"CRIKEY!" I'm sorry that NF33IH, had to cut his trip short, but thrilled that he returned home to welcome his newborn twins.
I smile just thinking of the stories they will soon enough hear.
May your experience of a lifetime never end. I hope to see you ALL back in Phoenix in two years. Thank you for sharing your dream of a lifetime with all of us. Thank you for
making our world a little smaller and much friendlier. Thank you for humbling NBA fans EVERYWHERE.
Thank you for daring us all to realize OUR dreams.
As we say in the Southwest: "Mi casa es su casa." -- My house is your house.
So the countdown has begun – 32 days until Destination: Phoenix 09.
As a 27 year old Aussie male who has never been out of his native waters, this trip promises to be something I will remember the rest of my life.
I’m privileged to have the opportunity to be travelling with a bunch of guys who share both my enthusiasm for life and my love for the Phoenix Suns, and it’s a testament to the suns franchise that they have such great fans spanning all parts of the globe.
Without wanting to get into specifics, let me just say that the amount of preparation and organisation required for a trip of this magnitude has been astronomical, but to the guys credit we’ve managed to get it all together and finally, after much deliberation, come up with a pretty sweet itinerary that allows us to not only see a total of nine consecutive Phoenix Suns games, but also enjoy time taking in the diverse cultural and social attractions along the way.
So in order of conquest, here’s a list of some of the things I’m looking forward to the most:
1) Germany, not just for the sights, not even for the beer, but to see how much “Dirk chokes” smack talk I can get away with before I get into a pub brawl with the locals ;)
2) London; John Lennon and the Beatles have been a talking point in the household of late, prompted by my housemates’ recent trip to the Kanye West concert. About halfway through the concert, Kanye proclaimed, “you’re witnessing the next Michael Jackson, the next Madonna, the next Prince, the next John Lennon.” This didn’t go down too well at all it seems. Hey Kanye, I’m pretty sure Liam Gallagher once proclaimed something similar, and they’re.. well.. what ever happened to Oasis?
3) Toronto, home of fellow Aussie Nathan Jawai. Sure, he may not have seen any court time yet this season but I’ll be damned if we won’t be hollering his name. Should be a packed house as Nash heads back over the border, eh?
4) Boston, a city rich in both historical heritage and NBA championships. I plan on swiping a few of those banners on my way out the door, that way no one can say Phoenix doesn’t own a championship banner ;) I might even try to fit that Rondo guy in my luggage as well, if I have room..
5) New York City, a city with so much to see I don’t know where to begin. I guess I am most looking forward to seeing D’Antoni’s run and gun Knicks team get out to a 20 point lead.. only to blow it in the 4th quarter and lose by 30.It’s funny ‘cos you know it's going to happen.
6) Durham/ Charlotte, where we get to invade DUKE for a day and pay homage to the illustrious career of the great Grant Hill.This will be a lot less painful than paying for Duke-Maryland tickets, which I may have to sell my first born to acquire. Help us out, Grant?
7) PHOENIX! The Mecca of all things good and pure.Circle January 29 Ginobili, that’s the day i’m going to knock you square on your ass ;) I’d break that doorstop nose of yours but that would be doing you a favour.On a lighter note, i’d love to meet Ced Ceballos while in town, he’s one of my heroes. Can’t wait to walk into US Airways for the first time, I’m going to have goosebumps!Feel the cheese!
8) LA, and the perfect end to the perfect trip. Headlines all over the country read “Kobe mauled in a freak accident involving a kangaroo and a ‘Barbie”.. haha. Just kidding, the suns are going to win it all anyway!
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… 1. Our Passports
2. All of our money
3. 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 )
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 haha
The 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 bench
Steve 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
To all our beloved Planet Orange readers... (All 7 of you who continue to read the updates - cheers!)
The time is almost here. We have but 6 days until the Destination Phoenix Crew hit the road for the Suns adventure of a lifetime. Much has changed since we first planned this epic trip back in August, including roster changes - for the Suns and NF33IH - as well as exchange rates fluctuating more than the Warriors' rotation. It's made it a pinch for all of us, though some of us purchased currency way back when the rates were a healthy green, and not like the oozing, dull brown that they are now!
The Suns have clicked as of late, winning 4 of 5..the only L being against that retirement home known as the Spurs. The less we say about that the better, as far as I know we haven't faired too successful against them since before Adam.
As I sit here with the laptop on my desk, I plead to you local Phoenicians to come and meet us, greet us, enjoy a drink or five, and help us experience PHOENIX! It's going to be an amazing adventure, and somewhat like a Suns Brady Brunch, we have matching tees to wear out and about, with our nicknames/usernames on the back so you can pick us out of a crowd. If you see us at the games, and hear us chanting with a downunder twang, join in! Or clap...depending on whether we're doing well or not!
Anyway, this is just a quick update to keep you all up to date with our progress. Remember to watch out for us in Toronto, Boston, New York, Charlotte, Atlanta and Washington, where we'll be doing all we can to cheer the Suns to victory and represent Planet Orange to the best of our ability.
So that's that. The last blog before we hit the skies and road.
The next lot will be shorter but more frequent, and should have the odd photo/video so you can put a picture to the scrawl...
On episode #68 of RNG, Dave gives his thoughts on Jason Richardson’s first game as a Phoenix Sun and is joined by special guest Stafford (aka “SunsDownUnder”) to discuss the upcoming Destination Phoenix ‘09 trip. Stafford and Dave also chat about how the Suns are traveling a quarter of the way through the regular season.
Hosted By: Dave Ang
Send any questions/comments to: runandgunsuns@gmail.com
i hope at the end of this season we look at this photo and realise it was the first introduction of the first game in our championship season!
me on the left, NF33IH on the right
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. 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!
Finally we have gathered all the information for the Finale of Destination Phoenix ’09. What we have is attached, and is easily the best way to go about it. We hope that this will encourage people to jump on board and help celebrate our final game and final night in Phoenix.
At only $32USD we figured we can’t go wrong. The idea: Get the biggest and loudest group possible to make the Finale of this trip be even more memorable than the rest of it. And to also have the U.S. Airways Center to not know what has hit them with the most vocal fans ever to grace its’ inner walls.
Are you up to the challenge?
Go ahead and check out the attached flier that Jay Stirling from Suns.com has thankfully made up for us to ease the load of this mission. Forward it onto your family and friends, heck, even your enemies. But most importantly purchase your tickets NOW as they can’t hold the seats for us due to the waiving of the deposit.
What else do you get? Well, other than the best experience you will have as a Suns fan amongst other Suns fans, you also get to be part of the special group welcome on the Jumbotron as well as a “Suns gift”.
Coupling this with our last night in Phoenix can only mean big things and I am sure the party will continue much after the final buzzer sounds and we all chant SUNS WIN.
So come one and come all, let’s band together and witness another chapter as the Sun rises in Phoenix.
Later much,
The Destination Phoenix '09 Team
P.S. Feel free to drop me an e-mail if you wish to be in on any discussions regarding the potential before and after parties, or if you need an e-mail-able version of the attached pic. Which you will need to do should you want to join up as the pic hasn't come out very clear. ;)
