Every Suns fan has thought it, but never committed fully to the idea. They’ve all wondered about it, but never really wanted to accept it. Some even have accepted it but didn’t want to speak of it for fear of it latching onto the franchise and never letting go. That thought? The idea that the Phoenix Suns are cursed like many other pro sport franchises have been over the years.

ESPN’s John Hollinger not only thought about the concept but verbalized it yesterday in his NBA Franchise Rankings. Although he ranks the Suns the fifth best franchise of all-time, he also makes a comparison that Suns fans probably want to avoid.

“Best franchise never to win a championship” is something of a backhanded compliment, but in the case of Phoenix, it fits. For four decades, the Suns have done everything right, except one thing — win the title in the end. Despite four decades of visionary leadership from Jerry Colangelo, every opportunity has been ruined by some bizarre misfortune or other. One has to wonder whether this is the NBA’s version of the cursed Chicago Cubs.”

The Chicago Cubs? Thanks to Hollinger and his ESPN pulpit, the Suns are now the lovable losers of the NBA, but at least they’ve been to two NBA finals in the last 100 years compared to no World Series for the Cubs. If the Suns are the NBA’s Cubbies, what is their ‘billy goat‘?

Is it Al McCoy’s glasses, or Al himself? The glasses and his play-by-play work have both been around almost as long as the franchise. It likely can’t be him because the bad luck of not getting Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor) as the first pick in the 1969 draft was prior to the beginning of McCoy’s tenure. Is it Kareem Abdul-Jabbar himself? Maybe the Suns need to hire someone named Lew Alcindor to play center, or at least work in the front office. Maybe that would end the curse. Although the entire curse started prior to that with the coin flip, so blaming Jabbar himself would be unfair. Maybe the Milwaukee Bucks, winners of the coin toss, are the problem. Do fans need to sacrifice a Buck (the animal or Andrew Bogut, whichever one moves slower) in order to break the curse? No, too much blood and the Bucks didn’t have any effect on the situation other than being there. Which means that it comes down to one of two things that cursed the purple gang from Phoenix (other than that nickname). Jerry Colangelo, who called heads, or the coin itself, that landed on tails.

Determining between the two is easy. Colangelo is almost single-handedly responsible for sports and specifically basketball in this city and his impact on rejuvenation of downtown was immense. With that being said, the entire curse must be the coin’s fault.

But where does the coin reside now? Can it be found? And if it is found, what exactly can be done to reverse the curse?

Can it be hunted down and destroyed? Can you even legally destroy a coin, and if so what method could be used? Could light rail tracks be used to crush a coin like railroad tracks used to? Is the temperature at the core of Planet Orange known? Maybe a hole can be drilled to the center of the planet and the coin could be melted there? Can the fateful day in 1969 be re-enacted and this time either have the coin land on heads, or have Colangelo call tails (heck, having Jabbar play for the Suns now might even be an upgrade from Robin Lopez).

If something is done to destroy the coin, will it magically fix the Suns? Will it cure Richard Dumas of his demons and give him the brilliant career he deserved? Will it retroactively keep Charles Barkely from the bars during the ‘94 and ‘95 series against Houston or Danny Manning’s knee from exploding like a watermelon? Would it change Joe Johnson’s Olympic-style face-first dive into the court or keep Amar’e and Boris on the Suns bench against the Spurs? Obviously not. But dreaming is free, right?

Maybe the answer is to just find the coin, take it to the bank and make change for it. In the end that’s all Suns fans want. They want the luck of this team to change and if not they can just do what the Red Sox did to break their curse. I hear Curt Schilling can play the power forward spot, and what’s a little bloody sock on the court if it brings the Larry O’Brien trophy to Phoenix.