Perspective

I’ve been struggling with this post for a while now.  Not necessarily because of the topic or nostalgia, per se, but more so out of guilt.

It’s easy to lose perspective with the current state of affairs in the world (and Planet Orange) today.  Many of us are losing our jobs, our retirement, and our hope.  It’s also easy to miscalculate or compare our woes with others.  After all, someone will always have it better and someone will always have it worse.  Now, I think the term “rock bottom” is a fair description of what many Suns fans are feeling today after 6 straight losses and our playoff hopes dwindling by the minute.  While I don’t want to minimize anyone’s feelings or thoughts, this post deals more with the human and psychological aspect of basketball, perhaps more so than any I’ve ever written. 

Any Suns fan can attest to the myriad of emotions we’ve experienced this season, and I don’t care to delve into them at this point as we have undoubtedly been saturated with descriptions of them.  On the contrary, this post deals with far more important things than the cliche of winning or losing…and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about when I mention his name - Rodney Rodgers.

Rodney

Strictly from a numerical standpoint, Rodney Rodgers had a short tenure with the Suns.  Though he only played for Phoenix around 3 years (1999 to 2002) he quickly became a fan-favorite due to his toughness, reliability, and blue-collar attitude winning “Sixth Man of the Year” in 2000.   Suns fans certainly always had a soft spot for Rodney and respected the way he played.

After basketball, Rodney returned to North Carolina (he went to college at Wake Forest) and worked for the city of Durham’s Public Works Department.  Amazingly (or if you knew Rodney, not amazingly), no one knew he had played in the NBA for 12 years.  Says his City boss, Michael Balzarano, “I didn’t even know he had lots of money. He is very friendly, very concerned, very conscientious. We chose him because of his ethics and his attitude. He was highly motivated. He was promoted to supervisor six months ago.”  How refreshing is that to hear?  In a time where we have players campaigning to be an all-star, making commercial after commercial, and even creating their own brand Rodney didn’t feel his time in the NBA had any relevance to the job he was doing.

To me, that is the definition of integrity.

The Accident

As we all know, around December 2008 Rodney was injured in an ATV accident that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down.  Think about that for a moment.

This is a player that had reached the pinnacle of sports - playing professionally.  And for 12 years!  Perhaps more amazing, he had enough money to live a comfortable life without ever working again but instead chose to work for a city and never talked about his time in the NBA; amazing, humble, and extremely rare with the ego’s floating around professional sports today.

Now after the accident, breathing with the help of a ventilator, Rodgers still has a positive attitude much like fellow Sun Wayman Tisdale.  “I don’t want people to treat me any different,” he says. “I don’t want anybody to feel sorry for me. I’m in a wheelchair. But I’m Rodney. I’m still Rodney,” he recently told The News & Observer in North Carolina.  Keep in mind, this is coming from a former top athlete who can no longer move anything below his neck. 

What I didn’t mention is that Rodney has three children (ages 5, 11, and 15)  living with his former fiancee in Paradise Valley.  Rodney says, “you hate to have them see you like this.” 

My Confession

I had put this post off for a while, as I mentioned above.  Sometimes I get lost in the Suns, too emotionally involved, and forget what it could be.  Last night, as I lay on the floor motionless after another loss thinking how sad I was, I immediately got a picture of Rodney in my head.  My goodness, how could I be so ignorant?  How could I lay there in my house feeling so sad when one of our former players may not walk again? 

Yes, I understand that everything is relative.  However, this is a time where we need to put things in perspective.  Cliche, I know, but it couldn’t be more true than now.  One of our players recently became paralyzed.  Before that, one had lost his leg to cancer.  Later, our very first coach passed away.  Things could be a lot worse for all of us.  It’s no secret that my mood is generally reflective of how the Suns are doing.  I’m sure I haven’t been that fun to be around lately, and I apologize.

Getting back to my struggle with this post - it consisted of an internal battle of guilt and acceptance I faced with myself.  After being close to going through what Tisdale went through, how could I so easily and quickly forget that?  How could I forget that only 2 months ago, a beloved Sun can no longer walk again?  How could I sit and wallow in my Suns-pity and forget about those players? 

Truthfully, we can moan and groan about a lot of things that have happened to the Suns over 41 years.  But at the same time, don’t forget about what makes you reallylove this team.  It’s players like Rodney.  It’s players like Wayman.  And it’s players like Nash.  All great people that have left an indelible mark in our life. 

More importantly, it’s not the player.  It’s the people like Rodney.

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