City: Phoenix, AZ

Category: Spectator Sports

Telephone: (602) 379-7867 (box office)

Address: 201 E. Jefferson St.

Description: The Phoenix Suns opened up shop in 1968 as an NBA expansion franchise, the first pro club in Phoenix. To this day, they are the most widely beloved of the Valley’s four major pro sports teams, though they have never won a title. Befitting an expansion franchise, their first few seasons were terrible. Their bad luck didn’t end with a 16–66 mark in their first season. Thanks to the last-place finish, the Suns had the opportunity to flip a coin with expansion mates the Milwaukee Bucks to decide who would get the No. 1 pick in the 1969 draft. The Bucks won the toss and got Lew Alcindor (soon to be much better known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). In 1971 he led the Bucks to the NBA Championship. The Suns are still waiting for their turn.The team made a run to the finals in the 1975–76 season, parlaying a 42–40 season record. When they met the Boston Celtics in the finals, the series was tied after four games. The Suns took game 5 to triple overtime at the Boston Garden before losing to the Celtics. They lost the series in the next game. The NBA finals didn’t see another triple overtime game for 17 years, until (guess who?) the Phoenix Suns met the Chicago Bulls in 1993. Although the Suns, led by the irrepressible Charles Barkley, won the triple overtime this time, the Bulls still prevailed in six games thanks to Michael Jordan. The list of impressive Suns players goes on to include Shaquille O’Neal, Amare Stoudemire, and Steve Nash, the 2004–05 and 2005–06 NBA Most Valuable Player.The Suns have sold out US Airways Center’s 19,023 basketball seats ever since the arena opened in the fall of 1992. Tickets range from $10 in the uppermost seats to $1,550 on the floor. Season tickets are sold on a per-game basis. In a 44-game season, season tickets range from $10 to $1,000 per game per ticket, but there is a long waiting list.