Suns news: Charles Barkley's big regret from 1993 NBA Finals loss to Bulls

Charles Barkley opened up about the Suns' 1993 NBA Finals loss against the Bulls, and he has one big regret about how that series played out.

The Phoenix Suns are in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1993, when Charles Barkley's Suns squad lost to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in six games. Phoenix actually had the best record in the NBA that season at 62-20, giving them home-court advantage in the series, and Barkley was MVP. But the Suns still weren't able to get past Jordan's dynasty Bulls.

Barkley talked to The Athletic's Sam Amick about that series ahead of the Suns' 2021 NBA Finals series against the Milwaukee Bucks. Chuck reflected on the loss and how he felt he should have done a better job having his team prepared. The Bulls went into Phoenix and won the first two games of the series, putting the Suns in a hole they were never able to escape. Game 1 was especially rough, with Chicago jumping on Phoenix from the get-go.

Barkley wishes he could have changed that:

I think the main thing is that we got off to a really bad start. We were not ready for the scrutiny — no, ‘scrutiny’ is not the right word. We didn’t react really, really good in Game 1. The lights were too bright for us in Game 1. That’s the only bad game we had.

The other games (after Game 1) were really good games, but I thought the one bad game we had was Game One. I thought we were nervous, and I think that was my fault for not having us ready to play. I had been in big moments before, but nobody else on our team had been in big moments.

I just felt that I should’ve had us better prepared, or I should’ve been more aggressive, to be honest with you.

Chuck even noted how Michael Jordan has said that the Bulls weren't ready for Game 1 against the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1991 NBA Finals because of the intensity. The difference is Chicago was able to bounce back and win the next four games. The Suns did win two out of three games in Chicago to make things interesting, only to lose Game 6 thanks to John Paxson's game-winner.

Barkley is hoping this version of the Suns is ready for Game 1 on Tuesday night. With Giannis Antetokounmpo's status in question, Phoenix has a big opportunity to start this series on a high note, unlike the 1993 team.