The Phoenix Suns are a hard franchise to define. On the one hand, they’ve never won a championship and they’ve only made it to the NBA Finals twice. The greatest player in the team’s history (Steve Nash) never got his chance at a Larry O’Brien trophy and the second greatest player (Charles Barkley) was only in Phoenix for four seasons.
And yet, the Suns are the fourth winningest franchise in NBA history, a fact that is almost always overlooked by everyone who lives outside the Valley. This team may never have won it all, but they’ve been a frequent presence in the playoffs and they’ve seen plenty of all-time greats walk through the doors of the “Madhouse on McDowell,” the “Purple Palace” and “Planet Orange.