The Bulls are red. The Rockets are too. Unless you wear purple or orange though, I don’t care for you.
I’m pretty sure that was the gist of the very first Valentine’s Day poem I ever wrote back in the third grade. See, I’ve always been in enthralled with the Phoenix Suns long before they ever gave me a paycheck (and unfortunately it’s not the seven-figure one third grade me thought I’d be getting as the starting power forward).
For the past 23 Valentine’s Days I’ve had a love affair with the team. Not in a creepy Single White Female type of way, but in the way you love a person that has been there for you through thick and thin (and let’ just say I’ve gained and lost a lot of weight over the years with the Suns there to witness it). It’s been the longest standing relationship in my life.
Like most relationships it has had its ups and downs. There have even been some mornings where I woke up, rolled over and thought to myself “well, that’s just not very pretty.” Regardless of my feelings in the moment, I stayed true.
It’s so bad when someone asks me if I’m going to be picking up Roses or Strawberries I ask, “Why, does Jalen or D.J. need a ride?”
While we’ve yet to make it official by, as Beyonce would say, ‘putting a ring on it’, it’s a committed relationship. You won’t see me running around wearing any purple and gold or black and silver anytime soon (and it’s has nothing to do with how it looks on me either). That’s because, when you love something — as every romantic comedy starring John Cusack has taught us — you stick around because something magical is bound to happen.
Although I don’t have anymore poems — I have to save those for the wife — I do have this. Happy Valentine’s Day Suns. I forgive you for never letting me play and giving me this writing job instead.
What made you fall i love with the Suns?
About Greg Esposito