What a start to the 2017-2018 season for the Phoenix Suns. Over the weekend, point guard Eric Bledsoe tweeted out a cryptic message that may or may not but probably absolutely did hint at him wanting a trade, then tried to play it off with the old “I was at the hair salon” excuse, but the organization wasn’t buying it, so they sent him home indefinitely while they explore the many options on the table to try and make his wish come true.
Then, of course, there was all the losing, and if you’re going to lose, so goes the Suns’ apparent rationale, you may as well do it in historic fashion, which is precisely what they did on opening night – at home, mind you – in a recording-setting 48 point beat-down at the hands of the Blazers. They followed that up on Saturday with a 42-point drubbing from the Clippers.
Obviously not content with losing by embarrassing margins, they compounded the misery when rookie Josh Jackson made what has become euphemistically referred to these days as a “menacing gesture” toward a hostile fan, complete with some choice expletives. Since the NBA doesn’t take kindly to that sort of thing, they handed down a hefty fine on Tuesday.
“Phoenix Suns forward Josh Jackson has been fined $35,000 for making a menacing gesture on the playing court and directing inappropriate language toward a fan, it was announced today by Kiki VanDeWeghe, Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.”
Jackson claimed on Monday that he wasn’t making a shooting gesture but rather some sort of variation on flipping the bird. You’ll have to take his word on that, but in any case the NBA’s not having it when it comes to making any gesture, of shooting a gun or flipping them off, towards a fan.
In fairness to the Suns, it hasn’t all been bad this week. They were the progenitors of arguably the best meme of opening week, this strangely satisfying clip of all five players running in perfect sync, which is probably the only clip Suns fans can bear to watch so far.
