Courtesy of Suns.com

Few things in life compare with getting the chance to meet your idols or heroes.  Though I’ve yet to meet John Wooden, I can now cross one more person off the list – Joe Gilmartin.

For Suns fans, he’s probably best known for his 1976 book, “The Little Team That Could… And Darn Near Did!” – a recap of the club’s historic run to the 1976 NBA Finals.  He’s been a writer for Suns.com for many years and was the team’s TV analyst in the ’80’s.  However, to me personally, he’s been the single greatest influence on my writing more so than anyone in the world.  As I’m typing this, I’m ashamed to think of what he’d say about my outlandish and bizarre lawnmower posts?!

Joe’s coverage of the Suns has always been to ‘tell it like it is’.   Though, as he told me over lunch, “that term is usually only used when someone criticizes a player or team. You never hear someone say something positive about a player, then be known as telling it like it is!”  I’ve come to respect that from Joe; when something amazing happens, he shares it with fans.  Something not so amazing? He does the same.  Yet, his tone is always positive and looks for the good in every situation – and every post is interesting and fresh.  Needless to say, that combination of writing ability is something I aspire to.

With the Suns ‘08-’09 season slowly being digested and forgotten, the goal of the conversation was to get Joe’s thoughts on this extremely challenging year for everyone and how he feels it compares to other years and/or eras.  For someone that has been following and writing about the Suns for decades, Joe was the perfect choice for this reflection.

My first question to Joe was simply to get his thoughts on the year.  The reasons why it worked/didn’t work have been discussed and written about endlessly, however, Joe managed to sum it up eloquently in just a couple sentences.  “Well,” Joe said, “they weren’t as far off as you might think.  Compared to the high expectations, they really were pretty close; a couple games cost ‘em.  The loss of Amare mid-season was somewhat shrugged off initially, but they really missed him down the stretch.  When Amare was out in ‘05-’06 they had a Nash who was 3 years younger and Boris Diaw who had a phenomenal year.”

On the subject of Diaw, I asked Joe what he thought of trading Diaw. “That’s tough,” said Joe after taking a drink of his Diet Pepsi, “I really thought he was going to be a superstar, and he still could.  He is a lot better than people think, even to this day.”  He acknowledged that he too could become frustrated with Diaw’s inconsistency.  “He had a knack for passing up shots he absolutely should’ve taken.”  You could tell he thought very highly of Diaw as a player and person.

Of course, having Nash around certainly helped Diaw’s development.  Joe also had high praise for our two-time MVP, “Steve is a lot like John Stockton in that he knows when to be selfish, when to be unselfish, when to shoot, when not to shoot.  If you look back at when Stockton played, if the offense needed a boost he’d come down and drill a three pointer.  Steve is the same way.”  I had to ask, since this was a major topic this season, what he thought about Nash’s defense.  “Well, first of all, there aren’t many good defenders in the league.  For instance, people said he had problems guarding Tony Parker but who doesn’t! That guy is as quick a player as I’ve seen.”

In terms of the ‘08-’09 season, Joe felt a lot like any of us did; you just have to shake your head and move on.  Instead of beating an all too familiar topic into the ground of why the Suns had the season they did, I wanted to ask him if there was a player on this year’s squad that he really enjoyed watching.  “Grant Hill, oh, he’s just amazing.  I love watching him.  He is a lot better than people think and for him to do the things he’s done is remarkable.”  I think many of us know exactly what he’s talking about.

In reflection of the Nash era (2004-present) and the myriad of questions surrounding the team next year, I asked him if the ‘05-’06 team reminded him of the 1976 team that inspired his book.  The ‘76 team was largely underrated, as the ‘05′-’06 Suns team, and both had that underdog aura surrounding them.  Speaking of the underdog, Joe said, “the Suns have always played better when they aren’t expected to win.”  How true.  I thought back to that ‘06-’07 Eyes on the Prize year where many experts picked them to win the title and never was a big fan of them being favored. Back to my question about the comparisons of the ‘76 team and the ‘06 squad, he thought about it for a moment.  “Not really.  That ['05-'06] team won 55 games so you pretty much knew they were good. Besides, they had the MVP that year.”  I asked him what was different about the ‘76 team.  “That was an amazing year.  People forget that overtime game in the playoffs wasn’t that great a game until the overtime periods.  The Celtics played bad for a while and the Suns went on a run, then the Suns played bad and Celtics caught up.  It wasn’t until the overtimes when that became a classic.”

I was curious to see if there was a team he followed, any year, that was special to him and would surprise some people.  As it turns out, his answer was surprising and reminded me of a team that we have all forgot about.  “It was the year they played the Sonics in the Western Conference Finals ['78-'79].  Joel Cramer was their center and I remember that Paul Westphal’s mother sang the National Anthem in that series.  The Sonics rallied in game 7 and won that series.  That was a pretty special year.”  I started thinking about how many years the Suns have had where it’s been so special, they just have come up a bit short.  To be honest, even though we don’t have a title, I feel fortunate that we have such a rich and winning history.  Sometimes I forget that and just need a little reminder. Thanks, Joe.

My last basketball related question was a simple one; are there a few Suns players over the years that you have particularly enjoyed watching?  “Well I’ve always loved Paul Silas; he was great on the court and in the locker room. KJ was another favorite. Paul Westphal. Nash is great.  Grant Hill is another.” All fantastic picks of many players to choose from.

We talked about a few other topics besides the Suns for a bit once the interview was over.  Personally, it was very humbling to see how genuinely good a person Joe is.  We shared a couple laughs about the transition of media to online, baseball stories (they were all hilarious), and a few others.  In the end, Joe got up and thanked me for the interview and wished me luck.

In reality, it’s I who should be thanking him.