Lon Babby

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PHOENIX – The Phoenix Suns have announced today that President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby will be transitioning to the position of Senior Advisor as of August 1, 2015.  At that time Ryan McDonough will lead the Basketball Operations Department from his position as General Manager with continued support from Assistant General Managers Pat Connelly and Trevor Bukstein.  All three individuals will take on increasing responsibilities within the organization and are signed to multiyear contracts.

As Senior Advisor, Babby will provide strategic counsel and input to the Basketball Operations Department as well as to the entire Suns organization.  He will continue to play an active role in contract negotiations and salary cap management.  Babby will continue to be based in Phoenix and as part of his new role will spend at least 50 percent of his time working on Suns matters.

“I am grateful that Robert has accommodated my wish to reduce my work load, while remaining a vital part of the Suns organization.  At this stage of my career, I welcome the flexibility that comes with this new role, a flexibility that will enable me to do other things that are important to me both personally and in the community.  I feel particularly confident in making this transition because of the quality of leadership in place within the organization,” said Babby.

Managing Partner Robert Sarver on the transition: “Lon has served the Suns well for the last five years.  I am pleased that he will remain with the Suns and continue to bring his expertise and value to the organization.”

Babby joined the Suns organization in August of 2010 after a storied 35-year career as a practicing attorney with DC-based Williams &amp; Connolly, LLP.  Named one of  “Washington’s Top Lawyers” for sports and media law by Washingtonian magazine, one of the “20 Most Influential Agents” in the nation by Sports Business Journal and one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Sports by The Sporting News, the well-regarded player agent entered player representation in 1994.  At that time, he had long been involved in sports representation on the team side, first with the NFL’s Washington Redskins (1977-84) and then MLB’s Baltimore Orioles (1979-94.)

Babby hired McDonough in May 2013 and the two, along with Head Coach Jeff Hornacek, orchestrated the biggest turnaround in the NBA in 2013-14 (from 25 to 48 wins).  Following that season, McDonough was runner-up for the NBA Executive of the Year Award and Hornacek was runner-up for the NBA Coach of the Year Award.

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Lon Babby to Become Suns Senior Advisor

Ben York

After a rough showing against the Hawks in Atlanta on Tuesday, the Suns bounced back and played much better against the Mavericks in Dallas on Wednesday. Unfortunately, Dirk Nowitzki happened and the Suns were eliminated from the playoffs with a 107-104 loss.

“I thought we competed and played hard,” Lon Babby said Thursday on Bickley and Marotta. “The game ended like so many of our other games this year – we fell short in a close game. I thought the effort was better, particularly after the Atlanta game which was unacceptable.

“I felt good about how hard we played and competed, and put ourselves in a position to win a game on the road against a good playoff team.”

Although the Suns will miss the postseason, Babby still feels optimistic about the future and the leadership in place.

“The whole organization has to improve as we do every year,” added Babby. “We have to take a cold, hard look at what worked this year and, more importantly, what didn’t work. None of us are satisfied with not making the playoffs. We have to keep getting better and build a championship culture.”

Babby feels that as the offseason approaches, new decisions will certainly have to be made based on new facts. However, he cites the improvement the team has made over the past two years and expects that to continue.

“I’ve been preaching patience for too long,” he said. “Everybody’s in favor of patience unless it takes too long. I understand why there’s frustration. To me, the same people who were flying high last year, who were doing a terrific job, who were being lauded among the very best and certainly could’ve won those awards – Jeff [Hornacek] and Ryan [McDonough] – those are the same people we have in charge now. We have the right people in place and they are hard-working.

“All of us are going to look at what went wrong, what mistakes we made and correct them and move forward.”

Listen to the entire interview with Arizona Sports below

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Babby Talks Improvement, Future on Arizona Sports

After a much-needed win over the Timberwolves on Wednesday, the Suns continue their home-stand against the impressive Atlanta Hawks Friday night. Phoenix will no doubt look to build upon the several positive aspects of their win over Minnesota, namely ball movement and T.J. Warren.

“What’s gratifying to me is to watch practice, they’ve been working on ball movement and player movement and I thought [Wednesday] we did a lot better at that – more cutting, more ball movement,” Babby said on Arizona Sports.

T.J. Warren, on the other hand, created various opportunities for he and his teammates through his instinctive ability to cut to the basket at the absolute right time. It sounds trivial, but in Jeff Hornacek’s system, cutting to the basket is invaluable and yields ample scoring chances.

“He’s clearly a bright spot,” Babby said about Warren. “I think he’s going to get an opportunity the rest of the season and I think he is going to prove to be a very, very important part of our team. The timing of his cuts and willingness to do it rubs off on the other guys and has a tremendous impact on the defense.”

Warren tallied a career-high 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting in just 19 minutes on Wednesday. Indeed, Warren’s surging play will be relied upon as the Suns continue their playoff push.

“Regardless of the circumstances I think they ought to be out there,” Babby said regarding the Suns’ young players. “Obviously that will be Jeff [Hornacek’s] decision but T.J.’s played extremely well. We are still fighting to win every game but I think he gives us a chance at winning.

“I don’t think this is an aberration; I think this is who he is and he’ll only get better.”

Listen to the Babby’s entire interview with Arizona Sports below:

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Babby Talks Impressive Play of Suns’ Youth on Arizona Sports

Matt Petersen

Friday morning’s press conference – which addressed the three trades Phoenix pulled off in a 90-minute window on Thursday – went longer than 30 minutes. Statements were made, questions were asked, answers were given.

You didn’t have to listen too closely to discover the motive behind the Suns’ trade deadline upheaval.

“This is a team sport,” affirmed Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough. “We’re looking for team-first guys. This isn’t singles tennis. The guys who will be here are the guys who will buy in and play the right way. Those that don’t will be gone.”

The Suns’ front office is as analytically aware as it gets, but it didn’t need graphs, shot charts or statistical formulas to see that something was off with this year’s team. A feel-good 2013-14 campaign was followed by a tense encore. The drop-off wasn’t in the standings. The Suns are only three games off of last year’s pace and were in eighth place entering the All-Star break.

But the team never exhibited the all-for-one, one-for-all feel that defined last season…even with 10 players returning from that squad.

“The thing that’s been just nagging at us all season long and even before the season began was trying to recapture that feeling, trying to recapture that chemistry that we had last year that made last year so special,” said President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby. “It’s hard to do. We knew going into the season it was going to be hard to do. We never quite captured it.”

This is not an NBA aberration. It has happened with almost any team you can think of, including Suns teams past. After a historic 55-win season in 1988-89, Phoenix began the following season 7-10 despite sporting essentially the same roster. They responded by trading away the young-and-talented Armen Gilliam for a veteran role player (Kurt Rambis), and went 37-9 as a result.

The 2008-09 season featured a full helping of Steve Nash, Shaquille O’Neal and Amar’e Stoudemire. The Suns missed the playoffs, and shipped O’Neal off for essentially nothing before replacing him with Channing Frye. The following year, Phoenix earned eight more wins, a top-four seed and a trip to the conference finals.

In short, fit matters. A lot. So does selflessness. Those two factors, far more than individual numbers or perceived talent, add up a lot more quickly toward the Suns’ ultimate goal.

“Every move we make is with the goal of getting the Phoenix Suns to a championship level,” McDonough said. “Sometimes players view that as a good thing. I think they usually do. The good ones do. Sometimes get a little selfish and are more worried about ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘my’ than ‘us’, ‘our’ and ‘we’.”

Suns players who have contended for a title can attest to this. Dick Van Arsdale, a three-time All-Star, had to make way for Alvan Adams and Paul Westphal in 1975-76. Jeff Hornacek made room in the backcourt for Kevin Johnson’s budding talent. Johnson had to do the same for Charles Barkley. Shawn Marion learned to play at an All-Star level with Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire after doing so with far less talent around him. The trick, the Suns’ front office insisted, is to allow a team-first mindset in the midst of individual transition.

After completing Thursday’s myriad of moves, Babby and McDonough went down to the arena parking garage, where what remained of the team was still on the bus headed to the airport for a two-game road trip. Babby relayed a simple message.

“Let’s have fun again,” he said. “Let’s not be selfish. Let’s play as a team. Let’s recapture that chemistry.”

“We’re looking for team-first guys. This isn’t singles tennis. The guys who will be here are the guys who will buy in and play the right way.”

The trades Phoenix made should make all that a little easier. There is more breathing room on the roster. Roles should be easier to define and embrace. There are still question marks, but they are minor compared to the cloud that previously hovered overhead. The smaller concerns can be easily addressed immediately (buyout free agents, D-League, young prospects) and long-term thanks to a refreshed cache of draft picks and cap room.

As for what-if’s, well, what if anyone else had been at the wheel heading into those final 36-hour trading window?

“We won’t ever apologize for trying to get better and improve this team,” McDonough said.

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Team-First Identity Fueled Suns' Moves

Suns President of Basketball Operations, Lon Babby, joined Arizona Sports for his weekly chat and discussed the team’s recent surge (winners of 10 of their last 12 games).

One fact that Babby shared that makes their success even more remarkable is the number of games they’ve played on the road since the middle of November.

“Since November 15, by the end of this weekend we’ll have played 22 of 30 games on the road,” Babby said. “At this point, we’re 17-11 in those 28 games so far so that really bodes well.”

As for the reason for the Suns’ improved play, Babby cites the health of the Point Guardians of the Galaxy who have helped the team go 19-9 when each guard is healthy.

But Babby points to the man in the middle as the main catalyst.

“I think a big part of why we’re playing better is because of Alex Len starting,” Babby said. “He’s making a huge difference. For a 21-year-old player he’s making a tremendous impact on our team. I’m very proud of Ryan [McDonough] and his staff for seeing the kind of potential Alex has. He’s been terrific.”

After two games this weekend on the road in San Antonio and Memphis, the Suns will open up an eight-game home stand – the largest in franchise history. Indeed, Babby hopes the recent pattern of winning will continue as the team’s chemistry evolves.

“We’re hard to defend down the stretch,” Babby said. “We’ve got the three guards. Markieff [Morris] is developing into one of the best clutch players in the league.”

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On Arizona Sports: Babby on Len’s Impact, Team's Clutch Play

Jessica Taylor

If years of watching Hollywood-produced television and movies have taught us anything, it’s that there are two ways to look at things in life. Events can either be the end of something or just the first installment in what will become a larger collection. For the Suns, they’re more interested in franchises than one-off films.

In Phoenix, the last game of a season isn’t the end of the story. When the final buzzer sounds those 82 games become the foundation to build upon rather than something to simply look back at. With that in mind, each offseason is given a theme by the Suns’ brass to keep themselves and the players focused on the ultimate prize, the Larry O’Brien trophy.

Two summers ago the theme was the training staff. Efforts were made to bolster the equipment and knowledge base for a group that was already known as one of the finest in the world at their trade. The result was taking the awarding winning group and ensuring they were the most technologically and clinically advanced staff in the league.

The sequel the following offseason was dubbed “The Summer of Analytics” -- which could have also been the alternate title for that baseball movie starring Brad Pitt -- in which President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby and his staff made it a point to put an emphasis on strengthening the team’s gathering and processing of advanced data. It paid off in helping to identify players ready for breakout seasons -- SEE: Plumlee, Miles and Green, Gerald -- and aiding in the team’s 23 win improvement.

So what was the theme to complete the trilogy this summer? Hunger Games: Mockingjay … wait, wrong third installment. It was actually player development.

Each player was given an offseason plan for their workout and training. Much of the team spent their offseason in Phoenix working on their game on the court and in the weight room. Those who didn’t -- like Goran Dragic, who was playing for his home country of Slovenia in the World Cup -- worked on the plan with trainers and coaches where they were. The front office and coaching staff was so dedicated to the process that there were members of the staff always at US Airways Center to help out in the process. (OK, I'm pretty sure the hours of midnight to 4 a.m. weren’t covered.)

It’s had a halo effect as every player under contract, including the aforementioned Dragic who was back in the gym hours after his return from Slovenia, has been in the building and working out together as of the second week in September. It’s a feat that some teams can’t claim until the start of training camp.

The results? We’ll have to wait and see. Based on the dedication to improvement and the time and resources the players, coaching staff, front office and ownership have put in, the last season was just the first installment of a long string of success -- think Marvel movies --rather than a one-time event that came to an end.

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Suns Retorter: The Summer of Development

PHOENIX – After more than 13,000 fans packed US Airways Center today for the Phoenix Mercury’s victory in Game 1 of the 2014 WNBA Finals, Phoenix Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby has joined the city’s swell of support for the Mercury by purchasing upper level seats for Game 2 this Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 6 p.m. (Note the special start time).  Several thousand seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 3 p.m. on game day on the US Airways Center Plaza.

Thousands redeemed upper-level seats for Game 1 today after Suns Head Coach Jeff Hornacek bought tickets for Phoenix fans.

Hear the Suns’ leadership talk about the Mercury and the Finals:

Fans may claim up to 4 tickets per person beginning Tuesday afternoon at 3 p.m. until tip-off (6 p.m.) while supplies last.

Lower-level tickets for Game 2 are still available for purchase, starting at $35. Fans can purchase tickets by calling 602.252.WNBA or logging on to PhoenixMercury.com.

The Mercury—looking for their third WNBA Championship in franchise history and first since 2009—advanced to the WNBA Finals for the fourth time in franchise history and own a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series against the Chicago Sky. The Mercury clinched homecourt advantage throughout the WNBA Playoffs thanks to a WNBA-record 29 regular season wins.

That homecourt advantage is thanks in part to the X-Factor who helped the Mercury to a franchise-best 16-1 (.941) record at US Airways Center this regular season (20-1 including playoffs) and a current 19-game home winning streak.

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Babby Buys Tickets For Fans to Go to WNBA Finals Game 2

In sports, perception is often more powerful than reality.

The truth about those involved is sometimes lost in the debates over legacy or dominance, and the dissecting of even the most minute of details. What is too often forgotten, is the human element.

Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby is known to most fans as the man tasked with negotiating contracts and guiding the vision for the franchise’s future. To others in the sports business world, he’s known as a former agent and high-powered attorney. While those roles and responsibilities are all part of his impressive resume, there is another side of the 63-year-old that most never get a chance to see.

A year ago last May at the 2013 NBA Draft Lottery in New York’s Times Square, Babby offered a glimpse behind the perception, a private look into the reality of who he is at heart and what is most important to him. While standing in the Good Morning America studios waiting for the ESPN lights and cameras to turn on, he pulled something from the inner pocket of his gray suit jacket that said much more than any words could. It was a trading card.

It wasn’t a card of top NBA Draft picks Tim Duncan or Grant Hill, both of whom he represented during his years as an agent, nor was it of one of his beloved New York Giants he rooted for when he was kid growing up on Long Island. It was something much more personal. Much more simple.

It was a tee-ball card of his then 4-year-old grandson, Josh, complete with autograph.

See, what many people should  know is family, and in particular his grandson, are what keeps Babby anchored in an industry known for its long evenings and chaotic moments.

“He’s my best bud, my friend” Babby said of his grandson with a large smile on his face. “Virtually every day he calls before he goes to sleep. He talks to his grandmother, who sings him a little lullaby he likes. Then he talks to me and I ask him about his day and what he did. He always says something that makes me laugh. We laugh a lot. He helps me put things in perspective.”

That perspective is something more difficult to find in sports than a championship roster, especially in this technology-driven world, where everyone is accessible at every moment. Babby seems to have found the right family and work balance.

“We'll FaceTime while he’s having dinner and I’ll watch him eat. It’s like we’re having dinner together. I do the best I can to get back there [to the east coast] as often as I can. In a way it’s the greatest joy in your life.”

That dedication to family has deep roots for the Suns' president. He met his wife, Ellen, when he was 16-years old at a summer camp. The rest was history as the couple just recently celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary.

“The only event she missed in my life was my bar mitzvah,” Babby joked.

The couple have two children, son Ken (Josh’s father) and daughter Heather. Despite first being a defense lawyer who was involved in many high-profile cases and had to be away from home for weeks at a time, he always made sure family was at the top of the list.

“I always made it a top priority, as best I could, to find time for family,” he said as he reflected on his children’s youth.

The key? Never missing any of the important moments that they would remember years later. It’s a tradition he continues to this day with his grandson.

“If you build that kind of foundation with your kids, or your grandkids, the relationship can withstand the times you aren’t able to physically be there,” he said while gazing towards pictures of family on his desk. “It is the biggest challenge of my professional career, because I feel like I’m missing out being there for his games.”

When he does get the opportunity to be with Josh, he makes the most of it, ensuring he soaks up the little lessons the now 6-year-old has to offer.

“The things that bother him are, in his world, just as important as the things that I’m confronting every day in this job,” Babby said. “We just have a different frame of reference. To hear him talk about what’s going on in school, what his friends are up to and what he did that day are as important to him as whatever I’m working on that is going to effect the franchise or the community”

Babby takes realizations like that and uses them to make sure he stays in touch with what is truly important in a profession where every action you take can become part of a 24-hour news cycle.

“Whenever you have a professional responsibility, like we have in this job, it’s important to not lose your moorings,” he shared. “It’s important to have your guide posts that keep you grounded about what’s important and not important.”

Humor seems to be the language the elder Babby and the younger use to guide the way.

“I was sitting with him and said ‘Joshy, let me tell you a story,’” Babby reminisced. “And I start telling him this story about this man named Pop -- which is what he calls me -- and I said ‘there’s this man named Pop and he has this little boy he really, really loves named Josh.’ He interrupted me and said ‘ Pop, is this a fiction or non-fiction story.’ I’m still laughing about it three weeks later. That stuff is priceless.”

Those priceless moments will soon be double for Babby and his wife. Their daughter Heather and her husband Eric are adding another member to their roster and the family couldn’t be more thrilled. But until then, Josh will be the superstar tasked with making his grandfather smile on Grandparents Day this year.

“No matter how daunting the challenges are here some days," Babby smiled, "he can always bring me back to what’s really important."

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For Suns President Lon Babby, Family is Key

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