I was watching the latest Spurs-Suns clash on TNT and found myself actually feeling a little sorry for the Suns and especially their fans.  I don't mean to come across as a condescending Spurs supporter (okay, maybe a little) but it's easy to see why it would be so frustrating to be a Suns fan.  They have been the victims of unfortunate injuries, overreative NBA rules, and some bad luck.  But longtime San Antonio followers can certainly recall our own team that tormented us for so long: the Utah Jazz.

Like the Suns of the last half decade, the pre-Duncan Spurs seemed to be better than they actually were.  Whereas the Suns had the coaching style of D'Antoni to inflate the opinion of the team because of gaudy stats, the gaudy stats of David Robinson and some of his teammates belied the fact that they were a very soft team.  Gritty, tough basketball is what wins in the playoffs, so while the Nash Suns and Robinson Spurs were very talented and fairly well-coached, they couldn't get it done in the end.  Seemingly every year we were exposed as frauds by the Utah Jazz.  Jerry Sloan's mental toughness had permeated that team (with the exception of Karl Malone, which is why they couldn't seal the deal) and executed ruthlessly.  Like today's Spurs, you knew what they were going to do and you couldn't stop it anyway.  I prayed for injuries to befall John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek, who threw dagger after dagger into my heart.  I raged when Karl Malone would get away with superstar calls (he kneed Robinson in the chest and Robinson got called for blocking).  I developed a distate for people I knew at school and church who were from Utah. 

In retrospect, I realize I hated the Jazz so much for not just beating up my team in a way that sometimes bordered on the shady, but for exposing my heroes and soft and not being clutch.  An honest Suns fan will take a hard look at the last few years and realize that they weren't quite as close to winning it all as it might seem - they didn't have the grit, toughness, and winning mentality to be a champion.  With that said, it doesn't mean you can't appreciate a team for what it is: your team, the team you love, with its warts and all.