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!
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...
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!!
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. ;)
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.
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
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!!
i did post a big speil in my second post asking for advice on the trip, but it got lost
BUT, to cut it short, i was wondering if any phoenix locals would be willing to give us some advice for our trip? just let me know and ill start posting what sort of things were looking to know
also, as were heading through berlin, london, toronto, new york, charlotte, atlanta and washington before coming to phoenix (and then LA for 1 day after) is anyone here from those cities or have a
Well prices around this time of the year are a little higher because alot of people like to come here to Phoenix during winter months. I wouild go to priceline.com i would say you could get one on there on the name your own price section for around 65-75 dollars some where in that range and then just pick DOwntown Phoenix and it will get you a hotel room within 0-10 miles from arena probably even closer
Thats pretty cool seeing you guys on the Pregame show on the Bud Light Paseo. Well hope you guys and a safe trip back home and we hope you enjoyed your stay in Phoenix i am sure Phoenix was the best city on your guys trip wasnt it??
where abouts in the uK are you based Matt? i lived there for a year in manchester, loved it!
The CN tower is awesome, i did actually get to see toronto myself before when i came in 05, but none of the others on the trip have, so i would assume the CN tower, ACC etc are definately the go, also will have to head out through niagra on the way to NYC i think
last time i went it was december and it was freezing in toronto but warm in phoenix.... what is winter like in phoenix and LA? will ja
boston tickets arrived last week - front row, sideline where it meets the baseline (corner) just to the left right of the suns bench, were the first people they have to run past to get to the court - imma block them off and take a charge!
hawks tickets arrived yesterday - front row right behind the suns bench!
and the bobcats tickets arrived today, second row baseline! woo hoo
I ordered the suns spurs tickets for phoenix, were section 123 row 2, close enough to make sure the spurs playe
@mattgoodey - yup, earls court - if you want to come have some beers on one night then Late on wednesday or then thursday night looks like it will be the go
(we arrive wednesday at 6:35pm, will have to get to our hotel and unpack before heading out, so thats why late, but otherwise thursday night will probably have some brews in the earls court area. - please feel free to come say gday!
@lilmissnashty - which game do you want us to lose :-) hehe - thanks for the well
destination phoenix update - weve all woke up with a hangover :-) but another days sightseeing is ahead of us before we have to get up early and head to heathrow airport to head to toronto!!
will be uploading more photos today and preparing a blog on the flight to toronto - getting close to our first game, cant wait!
I was right next to SDU for that atlanta game and those seats were amazing, to see what goes on when the players are on the bench was awesome to get some inside info.
The Washington game we were right up the back in the nose bleed section but we cheered like demons and made sure everyone knew who we were cheering for.
I am cheering you guys on ALL the way! It's like following the Beatles across America ...HA!
You guys absolutely rock! I am soooooooooooooo excited for you guys!
My son, Neil, is going to meet you in Phoenix for the Sacramento game. I won't be able to make it due to unforeseen "stuff" .....ugh. He'll meet you at the game and at Maj
were in LA now preparing for our 3 day trip home, i dont have much time here, but will post heaps more photos and a few more blogs within a few days of getting home
till then ill be offline for a few days while we travel - that last game was so awesome to go out on a high!
thanks phoenix, as a city and a team you exceeded anything i hoped for for this trip!
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!
.....ugh. He'll meet you at the game and at Maj