We are the Valley of the Suns

Remember when Connie Hawkins, Gail Goodrich, and Dick Van Arsdale led the second-year Suns to the brink of the Western Conference Finals and the near-defeat of Wilt Chamberlain and the Los Angeles Lakers?

When Alvan Adams and Paul Westphal led a 42-40 upstart team to game six against Boston in the 1976 NBA Finals?

That time when the Cotton Express plowed through the Valley and launched the Suns into the upper atmosphere of a globally growing league?

Or when Charles Barkley became the toast of the town and the darling of the league when in his first season he propelled the Suns to their greatest season and second NBA Finals in the franchise’s twenty-five-year history?

Backcourt 2000 placed two…