Although they were never able to bring Phoenix that elusive NBA Title, the Seven Seconds or Less Suns will go down, as Bill Simmons once coined, as a “Critically Acclaimed” team in NBA lore. Coming along at the absolute perfect time — right in the thick of an ugly era of basketball when Playoff games were being decided by final scores like 78-56, 76-74, and 69-65 — the Suns took head coach Mike D'Antoni's fast-pace, three-point heavy, run-and-gun philosophy and helped launch the NBA into a new, more aesthetically pleasing direction.
Leading the charge was a trio of stars that all deserve to get their flowers. Steve Nash was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018 and was named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team in 2022. Amar'e Stoudemire was the leading scorer for the Suns during the SSOL era, and a worthy rival to bigs like Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki as long as he was healthy. The Suns have already announced that Amar'e Stoudemire will go into their Ring of Honor on March 2nd. And then there's Shawn Marion, the Suns Swiss Army Knife swingman who could play any position 2-5 and fill in all the gaps for a Suns team that had plenty of them.
Shawn Marion got his due in Phoenix last night, appropriately being inducted into the Suns Ring of Honor on a night where the final score of the game preceding the ceremony was 139-122, a result that would've seemed impossible in a regulation game prior to the formation of the Seven Seconds or Less Suns. Among the handful individuals there to take part in the ceremony was former Suns President Jerry Colangelo, who poked fun at Shawn Marion's unorthodox shooting form during his induction speech.
"[Shawn Marion] had a terrible-looking shot, but it went in.”
Former Suns owner Jerry Colangelo in Shawn's Ring of Honor night 😅
(via @TrevorMBooth) pic.twitter.com/WHnihu16cM
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 16, 2023
It certainly was an ugly-looking jumper, but Marion was an effective scorer who averaged 18 points per game on 48 percent shooting in his nine seasons with the Suns. Factor in Marion's defense, which was so important for a Suns team that was often trotting out multiple minus defenders during this era, and Marion's impact was long-underrated until now.
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