Luck is a lady. Apparently she is one that doesn’t look good in purple and orange, nor enjoys the weather or atmosphere of Phoenix.
Since the 1969 coin toss that lost the Suns the right to draft the man who would become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar -- a decision that fans actually made, so maybe it’s all our fault -- luck has been more elusive than finding a reprieve from the words Johnny and Manziel over the last month. Despite Al McCoy saying “somebody up there is on our side” during the 1976 NBA Finals, and Barkley claiming God told him the Suns would win the 1993 championship (only to find out the higher being involved was wearing No. 23), serendipity isn’t something that has stopped by the Valley for more than three rounds of the playoffs.
Maybe it’s time for her to finally take an unexpected early summer vacation in Phoenix.
It’s true that 1.8 percent of anything is fairly inconsequential. Those are the odds the Suns face to move up into the top three picks in Tuesday’s NBA Draft Lottery.
That means you are 25 times more likely to get in a car accident over the next 12 months than ping-pong balls bouncing your favorite NBA team’s way.
You are six percent more likely that if you’re a man, you are color blind.
It’s two times more likely that you’re reading this from jail than the Suns moving up in the draft.
Yep, the odds are against the Suns in a colossal way. But as the immortal Dionte Christmas (or was it Lloyd Christmas?) once said in a now overused quote, “So you’re saying there’s a chance.”
If there was ever a team who deserved to defy the draft lottery odds in a historical way, it is this year’s Suns. They finished with 48 wins and still missed the playoffs. They were only the second team in the last 40 years to miss the postseason with that many wins. Oh, and they did it in a season they were expected to be the worst in the West.
Instead of chasing ping-pong balls, they hustled for loose balls. Instead of “tanking,” they showed the NBA they played their hardest even when their tanks may have been on empty. They played basketball the right way. They played to win. They played for the love of the game and they played to uplift each other.
If luck is an actual thing, shouldn’t the Suns’ refreshing approach and the exciting thrill ride they took us all on have created some good mojo with the basketball gods?
On the off chance you run into Lady Luck before Tuesday, tell her that she looks great in purple and orange, and that laying by the pool at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale isn’t a bad way to spend a late May afternoon.
It’s about time she stopped by Phoenix. The 2013-14 Suns more than earned the privilege of her company.
Your Turn: Do you have a lucky Suns item for the draft lottery?