Phoenix Suns

The Phoenix Suns joined the NBA in 1968 as an expansion franchise, becoming the league’s first major team based in the desert Southwest. A public contest to name the team drew thousands of entries, and “Suns” was chosen as the perfect symbol of Arizona’s blazing desert climate. Phoenix is one of the sunniest cities on earth, with more than 300 days of sunshine a year. The fiery logo — a basketball at the centre of a radiant sunburst — tied the team’s identity to the land itself: bold, hot, and relentless.

The city of Phoenix also has a name that tells its own story. In 1867, settlers began farming the Salt River Valley using ancient canals first dug by the Hohokam people centuries earlier. An English adventurer named Darrell Duppa suggested the settlement be called Phoenix, saying it rose from the ashes of a lost civilisation like the mythical bird. From that vision, Phoenix grew from farmland to one of the largest cities in the United States, fuelled by railroads, air conditioning, and a boom in industries like aerospace, tech, and tourism.

The Hohokam were remarkable engineers, leaving behind archaeological evidence that still shapes Phoenix today. They built more than 500 miles of canals, some up to 85 feet wide, dug by hand through the desert to irrigate fields of maize, beans, squash, and cotton. Remnants of these canals have been uncovered beneath modern streets, and some routes are still followed by today’s Salt River Project canals. Archaeologists have also found pithouses, platform mounds, and ballcourts at sites like Pueblo Grande, right in downtown Phoenix, showing that the Hohokam developed complex communities with vibrant cultural life and far-reaching trade networks.

Those ballcourts are especially striking. Oval-shaped, sunken courts with sloping sides, some over 150 feet long, were used for games that echoed the great Mesoamerican ball traditions. More than 200 of them have been found across Arizona, proof that the Valley of the Sun has been a place for sport and spectacle for over a thousand years. Long before Devin Booker pulled up for a jumper, crowds were gathering here to watch games played under the desert sky.

Today, visitors can still see this heritage at the Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park, located near downtown Phoenix. There, preserved Hohokam canals, houses, and the remnants of a ballcourt connect the modern city to its ancient roots. For Suns fans, it’s a reminder that basketball in Phoenix is only the latest chapter in a much older story of games, competition, and community.

Arizona’s Native American heritage ties the Suns’ identity to something older than the city itself. The sun and desert sky were sacred symbols for the Hohokam, Navajo, Hopi, Apache, and Pima peoples — givers of life but also forces of hardship. For the Suns, the blazing ball in their badge echoes those same themes: survival, resilience, and power in the desert.

On the court, the Suns have a proud history of near-misses and legends. In the 1970s, led by Paul Westphal and Alvan Adams, they reached the 1976 NBA Finals, remembered for the “triple-overtime classic” against the Celtics. In the 1990s, with Charles Barkley, Kevin Johnson, and Dan Majerle, the Suns were a powerhouse, reaching the 1993 Finals before falling to Michael Jordan’s Bulls. The 2000s brought the fast-paced “Seven Seconds or Less” era under coach Mike D’Antoni, with Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire, and Shawn Marion redefining modern basketball with speed, spacing, and three-point shooting.

Most recently, the Suns returned to the spotlight behind Devin Booker and Chris Paul, reaching the 2021 NBA Finals, where they fell to the Milwaukee Bucks. With Kevin Durant now joining Booker, the Suns remain one of the NBA’s most ambitious teams, forever chasing the title that has just eluded them.

The Phoenix Suns are more than a basketball team. They are the canals of the Hohokam, Darrell Duppa’s vision of a city rising from ashes, the ancient ballcourts that echo today’s hardwood, the desert sun that sustains and scorches, and the resilience of people who thrive in the Valley of the Sun. Their badge is fire and light, a reminder that Phoenix is a city — and a franchise — born to rise again.