Phoenix Suns

The Phoenix Suns are a professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Their home arena is the US Airways Center in downtown Phoenix.

The Suns have been generally successful since they began play as an expansion team in 1968. In forty years of play they have posted seventeen fifty-win seasons, and made eight trips to the Western Conference Finals, advancing to the NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993. Despite their successes they have yet to win an NBA title.

For the 2000-01 season, the Phoenix Suns introduced three new logos. Two of these were merely updates to existing logos, modernizing the themes and adding the gray color. The logo pictured here incorporates the mythical phoenix bird into the existing Suns' theme. It illustrates the team's hometown by picturing the bird it was named after rising out a ball with an abbreviation for Phoenix. Of the team's three logos, this is the one that adorns the hardwood at center court. There is a media dispute over the usage of the logo, as many TV networks use the new one (right), but many video games and websites still use a secondary logo that had been the team's main logo of the 1990s.

Since the 2000-2001 season, the Suns have used the same white home and purple road uniforms. On October 20, 2003, an alternate uniform was introduced that was to be used at a minimum, five games a year. This orange uniform is used both at home and on the road and always used in selected consecutive games on the road and in the playoffs. It is the only uniform in the NBA that has an abbreviated version of the city name, PHX, across the front chest. For the 2006–2007 season the Suns removed the uniform number from the side of the shorts, replacing it with the same sun logo that is found on the other side.

For the first eleven seasons of their existence in the NBA, the Suns had no official mascot. An early attempt was made involving a sunflower costume, but it never caught on. In the winter of 1980, a singing telegram named Henry Rojas from Eastern Onion Telegram service was sent to the arena in a gorilla costume. Security saw him and suggested to him to stay for a while to entertain the fans during the breaks. He kept coming to games until officially invited to be the Suns' mascot.

Since then, the gorilla, named Go, has been known for his slapstick humor during the games such as his routine push-ups and stadium stairs all to the sound of the Rocky Theme, and the fantastic dunks that are performed before each 4th quarter. Also, one of his more beloved skits was at a Knicks home game where he came out to Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York,” wearing a hat, with several pieces of garbage stuck to his leg. Halfway through the song, a group of “muggers” attacked him, and he staggered off the court afterwards. The gorilla was honored in 2005 when he was selected to be one of three inaugural members of the Mascots Hall of Fame.


Official Website:
http://www.nba.com/suns