Memorial Day is a day to stop, reflect, and remember those who gave everything defending our freedoms, our liberty, and our way of life. As the country prepares for its 250th anniversary, the number of people who made the ultimate sacrifice to make that possible is staggering. It should always be valued. Because of that sacrifice, we get the freedom to do silly little things, like write articles on a blog about a basketball team. That’s never lost on me, and it shouldn’t be lost on any of us.
Memorial
Day, on the surface, is one of those holidays that tends to move around. It’s not like Christmas. It always lands on the last Monday in May, same as Labor Day finding its place on the first Monday in September. Easter somehow feels even more complicated, living on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring. Holidays have their rhythms.
With Memorial Day moving around every year, I thought it’d be interesting to take a look through the 58-year history of the Phoenix Suns and see how many times they’ve actually played on the holiday. It’s a tougher exercise than Christmas or Easter. Those fall during the regular season. Memorial Day lands at the end of May, which means the only way you’re playing basketball on that date is if you’ve made it to at least the conference finals.
For a franchise with 34 playoff appearances, 10 conference finals trips, and three NBA Finals appearances, you figure there had to be a few. There weren’t. They’ve played the day before. They’ve played the day after. They’ve been in plenty of meaningful postseason games around this time of year. But only once in franchise history did they actually take the floor on Memorial Day itself.
The Suns are 1-0 all time on Memorial Day. That came on May 30, 2005. And Phoenix made it count.
I’ll take you back 21 years, to when the Phoenix Suns completely changed the way they played basketball. They had acquired Steve Nash the previous offseason. Mike D’Antoni was on the sideline. That team was all gas, no brakes. Seven Seconds or Less in its purest form. By the time Memorial Day 2005 rolled around, they had arrived at the SBC Center in San Antonio down 0-3 in the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs. The inevitable felt close.
Phoenix delayed it one more night, grinding out a 111-106 win.
Go back and look at the box score, and it almost feels absurd. Amar’e Stoudemire dropped 31. Joe Johnson added 26, which was wild considering he was playing through an orbital bone fracture suffered in the previous round when Jerry Stackhouse took him out on a fast break dunk attempt. Nash had 17 and 12. Damn, I loved those teams, and especially this one. Joe Johnson and Q were amazing.
And then you get to the part that always makes me laugh. D’Antoni rolled with a seven-man rotation. Seven! Season on the line, and only Jim Jackson and Steven Hunter came off the bench. Shawn Marion played 45 minutes. Nash, Johnson, and Quentin Richardson all cleared 40.
As I look back on the only Memorial Day game in franchise history, it’s hard not to be reminded why those Suns teams never quite got over the hump. The offense was beautiful. The pace was electric. They changed basketball. And by the end of every postseason, they looked exhausted. A team built to play at full throttle eventually ran out of gas at the worst possible time, year after year.
That’s what makes that lone Memorial Day game feel oddly fitting when you zoom out. A holiday rooted in reflection. A moment to appreciate sacrifice, commitment, and the cost attached to chasing something bigger than yourself. That 2005 Suns team embodied plenty of that. They were innovative, fearless, and endlessly entertaining, pushing the pace and reshaping the modern game even if the finish line always felt one step too far away.
21 years later, that win still stands alone in franchise history, a small piece of Suns lore attached to a day that asks all of us to pause, remember, and appreciate the people whose sacrifices made all of this possible in the first place.
