Honestly, You shouldn’t miss Boris Diaw

With the Charlotte Bobcats in town, fans’ thoughts have turned to former Sun Boris Diaw.

Thoughts such as “if Porter was never hired would Diaw still be here?” and “if only Diaw were still a Sun, we’d have a power forward to fill in for Amare.” permeate the collective conscious of Suns fans.

Some people, like my colleague Vince Marotta, go as far as to say that the Suns never should have ever traded Boris Diaw.

I know there’s a lot of you who were practically praying that the Suns would find some “sucker” to take on Boris’ contract. You know the old saying, be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

While those thoughts may carry some weight, they may not be exactly what they seem.

Ask yourself this, have you ever had an ex-girlfriend or boyfriend who you left not long ago and that you weren’t quite over?

The problem is right now Boris Diaw is that ex.

Remember how you knew why you broke up with your ex and you even agreed with it? Remember how when things got rocky in the relationship you were currently in and you saw your ex with another person you thought you wanted them back?

You thought about the past and how “great” it was. Sure, when you first got together things were magical. Even as things moved along there were some times when the two of you fit together perfectly. You clicked when all of your attention was focused on them. The problem was the second anything else came into the picture that caused them not to be in the spotlight things seemed to fall apart. They would become almost childish and wouldn’t put forth the effort needed to sustain a serious committed relationship.

It just wasn’t worth it to get your hopes up about the relationships potential just to have that potential never really reached and always knowing you would never make it to marriage.

In the end, what you were really longing for was security. You really didn’t want them back– you just wanted to remember the feeling of the good times. You wanted someone to fill the void you were feeling. You were holding on to a distant memory of something you had for a brief time but wasn’t really there. You knew if you got back with them, the problems would be the same, the second your attention was torn again they would revert back to their old selves.

That is what Boris Diaw’s time in Phoenix was like. When he and the Suns first got together, nothing could have been better. They clicked and he was the focus of Mike D’Antoni’s offensive attention. He didn’t have anyone to compete with for time or the love of the coaching staff. The second Amare Stoudemire came back, though, and Coach D had to split his attention, the relationship fell apart. Diaw became passive and seemingly unmotivated to give the effort needed to sustain the relationship between he and the Suns.

Right now the Suns’ fans are lonely and looking to fill the void they feel at power forward. They are longing for the “good old times” they once had with Diaw, but those times were fleeting.

No matter what though, Boris is still the same guy who struggled since his first year in Phoenix. Even if he were here, the problems would be the same. He would never quite reach the potential he showed, and in the end you could never really see winning a championship with him.

So enjoy tonight and treat it as a brief encounter with your ex. Use it to remember the good times but accept why he’s no longer a part of the Suns life. Use it to appreciate your new relationship with Jason Richardson, even though it has it’s flaws.

Because in the end, you’re better off without him even if he looks good right now.

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Tags: Boris Diaw