FanHouse Suns Media Day

Stories from a trip to Media Day for the Phoenix Suns.

When Boris Diaw made his entrance yesterday, I honestly didn't recognize him. His jersey was covered with a black t-shirt, and with his full head of hair, at first glance I figured he was just one of the newcomers that were invited to training camp. But when I heard someone behind me talking with a French accent, I turned around and made the connection. It's really a different look for him, but don't get too attached: Boris said he has things all planned out, and that as soon as the pre-season is over, he's getting it cut.

Stories from a trip to Media Day for the Phoenix Suns.

Amare Stoudemire's question and answer session wasn't all fun and games (as it was with some of his teammates), but he did cover some interesting topics. He talked about how it was time for a change after playing the same style for four years without winning a championship, how his ankle sprain is healing nicely, and how the new system should help the Suns' chances. But where did the team improve the most during the off-season? According to Amare, they've now got some guys who can 'mean mug' defensively.

Stories from a trip to Media Day for the Phoenix Suns.

NBA players have occasionally had a tense relationship with long-time league journalist Sam Smith. Fellow NBA scribes have questioned Smith's tactics, and we know how Smith feels about bloggers. Or maybe that should be,"felt" about bloggers, since he pretty much is one himself now.

The reason I mention all of this is because Sam decided to ask Shaquille O'Neal about his weight heading into the season, and as you might imagine, Shaq was not appreciative of the question. In fact, he responded to Sam by name as he wondered why he seemingly asks the same questions every season.



If there's one thing we know about Shaq, it's that he's a little sensitive when it comes to the topic of him missing games or possibly being out of shape. I'm not sure why Sam decided to pursue the topic this season, especially since Shaq looked to be in amazing physical condition. Dude was lean, had his jersey tucked into his shorts with no sign of any gut whatsoever, and appeared to be pretty chiseled in the upper body. With Shaq looking the way he did, the question seemed to be completely off base, and you can't fault Shaq for being a bit annoyed by it given the circumstances.

Stories from a trip to Media Day for the Phoenix Suns.

Terry Porter is getting ready to begin training camp with the Suns for the first time, and had plenty to say to reporters about the upcoming season. He didn't hit the podium as some of the players did, and instead chose to hang out informally crowded by the press, comfortably answering questions for almost 20 minutes. Here are some of the highlights of his comments, asked by various members of the press in attendance.

Q: Does this training camp gain added significance because [the team] has played that certain style for so long, and you've got to kind of ween them into playing something a little different? As unconventional as it was?

Terry Porter: Yeah, but I think they were moving towards that last year in the second half when they got Shaq. I mean, I don't think they quite played the style they had played before Shaq because of the fact that they had [Shawn Marion] and they had the guys that could really space the floor. So, from that standpoint, I think they were slowly making that adjustment last year. But it will be an adjustment for these guys because it won't be a situation where it wasn't many sets. Now they may have had a lot of pick-and-rolls, I don't know if that was [Mike D'Antoni's] different sets, but there will be more traditional types of sets.

And we won't play, as far as from a shot selection standpoint, shots won't go up as quickly as they did with Mike. [Laughs] I'm not a big believer of uh, jacking the ball up as quickly as possible. I think it's important that we do, you know, push the ball if we have an opportunity early in the offense, definitely take advantage of it because a lot of times ... if you have a shot early in the shot clock, that may be the best shot you're going to get. But if you don't have it, then we're really going to try to work the possession a little bit more and try to take advantage of some of our match-ups.

Stories from a trip to Media Day for the Phoenix Suns.

Steve Nash was in good spirits as he sat down for his Q & A session with the media today, and in between some serious basketball talk, the conversation turned to a more lighthearted topic. Nash was asked about the hilarious video he shot with Baron Davis over the summer, and if it was part of his own off-season workout routine. And since the first line of that video refers to Baron's large, um, backside, I asked Steve what he thought about Baron recently going on the Jenny Craig diet plan.