Phoenix Suns

The Phoenix Suns entered the NBA as an expansion team in 1968, and their early history is defined by one of the most famous coin flips in sports history - the Suns lost the 1969 coin flip for the first overall pick to the Milwaukee Bucks, who selected Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). Had the coin landed differently, the entire trajectory of multiple franchises would have changed.

Despite missing out on Alcindor, the Suns built competitive teams quickly. The 1976 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics produced one of the greatest games in basketball history - Game 5, a triple-overtime classic that the Celtics won 128-126 in what is still regarded as the greatest Finals game ever played. The Suns lost the series in six games but established themselves as a franchise capable of competing at the highest level.

The early 1980s featured Walter Davis's scoring and Alvan Adams's versatility, and the Suns remained a consistent playoff team throughout the era.

In 1992, the Suns acquired Charles Barkley in a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers, and the outspoken, undersized power forward immediately transformed the franchise. Barkley won the 1993 MVP award and led the Suns to a 62-20 record - the best in the NBA - and to the NBA Finals against Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls.

The 1993 Finals were spectacular but heartbreaking. Barkley and Jordan traded iconic performances, and the series went six games before John Paxson's three-pointer in Game 6 sealed the championship for Chicago. The Suns had pushed the greatest player in history to the limit but fell short.

Barkley continued to be one of the most dominant and entertaining players in the league through the mid-1990s, but the Suns couldn't return to the Finals during his tenure. His departure marked the end of an era that had brought Phoenix closer to a championship than the franchise had ever been.

Steve Nash returned to Phoenix (after an earlier stint from 1996-98) as a free agent in 2004, and coach Mike D'Antoni's "Seven Seconds or Less" offense changed basketball forever. The system prioritized pace, three-point shooting, and space in a way that anticipated the modern NBA by a decade. Nash, the Canadian point guard whose passing and shooting made him one of the most beloved players of his generation, won back-to-back MVP awards in 2005 and 2006.

The Nash-era Suns, featuring Amar'e Stoudemire's explosive finishing and a cast of shooters, were consistently among the league's best teams but could never break through in the Western Conference playoffs. Controversial moments - including the suspension of Stoudemire and Boris Diaw during the 2007 playoffs after Robert Horry's flagrant foul on Nash - left Suns fans feeling that the basketball gods were conspiring against them.

The "what if" nature of the Nash era remains one of the great debates in NBA history. The Suns revolutionized basketball but never won a championship, a paradox that defines the franchise.