Happy New Year! Best wishes for a Spurs-free 2009

As sport fans we tend to divide our lives into seasons so, unless it’s baseball or Sports Illustrated, solar years don’t mean that much. Of course there are a few other marginal things in life for which it makes much more sense to consider years as a time unit.

The amazing relationship between years and sports season is perfectly described in one of the great sports books ever written, the wonderful Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby.  

In the solar year 2008, while we were simply trying to get on with our lives, the Suns went 42-34 including the playoffs which is really nothing special. Hope you had better years.

That same Suns 2008 solar year gave us:

• A new Big Cactus in the Valley
• The Matrix reloaded, in Miami
• Another heart breaking playoff series with the Spurs
• The departure of Coach D’Antoni and the end of SSOL (see this wonderful column by Bill Simmons)
• Another useless Draft
• The beginning of the Porter Age
• The signing of Matt Barnes
• The “let’s try to play defense”
• The J-Rich for Raja and Diaw trade
• Let’s stop that defense thing and start running again

So we’re basically where we were a year ago ready, once again, to push the panic button and asking ourselves whether that 2-year window of opportunity (the Nash&Shaq window) is still open or how quickly it’s actually closing.

Do you remember prior to the 2007/08 season Coach D’Antoni talking about the fact the Suns needed to enjoy the journey? Why can’t we just relax, enjoy the game and have fun?

To overcame the Ghost of Christmas Past I had to spend a few days in London, searching for answers in the greatest institution ever created in the Western World, the pub. In the meantime I even missed a couple of back-to-back wins against lesser teams.

That’s why all I want to wish to the Suns Nation is a Spurs-free 2009. Let’s just say Suns make the playoffs, maybe win a first round series (beat the Blazers or the Nuggets) then maybe lose to the Lakers. I’ll be just fine with that.

All I’m asking for 2009 is a Spurs-free year. I’ve had enough.

Fellow Suns blogger Ben had this at no. 7 on his very funny New Year’s Resolutions.

Happy New Year to you and your dear ones. And a special Happy New Year to Steve Nash. Steve, you’re still the best.

Yours truly, Steve Fan

PS The next Spurs-Suns game is on Jan. 29th.

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