Letters From the Issue of Thursday, May 31, 2007

I do agree that it's time for the Suns to stop whining and start figuring out how to get tougher. We saw a little bit of Suns toughness against San Antonio, but obviously not enough. Maybe they learned more of that from the Spurs, the toughest team in the league.

I mean, you're right, the fast game is great, but some opposing teams' heads need to be knocked for Phoenix to be propelled into the championship round. (Only Raja Bell is willing to knock somebody down and take the consequences.) That and some luck (two crucial players, especially Stoudemire, getting thrown out of a "momentum" game really hurt. And they didn't even do the crime to get the time).
Richard Nelson, Phoenix

The horrible truth about goat-boy: Finally, somebody in Phoenix had the balls to say it! Steve Nash no more took over the Suns' second-round series against the Spurs than Dirk Nowitski did in the Dallas Mavericks' first-round series against Golden State. Well, not enough to matter, anyway.

Remember how everybody was going around saying how Dirk didn't deserve the MVP trophy because of this? It was all anybody on TV sports shows talked about for a few days. "MVPs carry their teams on their shoulders during the playoffs," Kenny Smith said on Inside the NBA. And Dirk didn't do that.

I still think Dallas owner Mark Cuban was right to trade Nash to the Suns because he's never been the closer in the big games. (Dirk may not be, either, but the subject here is Nash.) The fact that he was getting older was secondary in that trade.

I found it interesting that in the San Antonio series, Nash kind of came back in the fourth quarter, but only enough so that his stats looked respectable, not enough to even have any chance of winning the game in the limited time remaining.

Thanks for telling the truth over there in the belly of the beast.
James Todd, Irving, Texas

Goat-boy was right: What you wrote is foolish. Nash hardly complained at all and was very restrained considering what happened [after the Spurs' Robert Horry pushed him down].

Nash was right to point out that the suspensions of Amaré Stoudemire and Boris Diaw factored into their loss. Game 5 was obviously a physical and mental drain on the team. Game 5 would have belonged to the Suns if Amaré and Diaw had been there. Even dropping Game 6 wouldn't have mattered a lot because Game 7 would've been back at home.

Bottom line: Horry knew the series was slipping away, because, in a seven-game series, the Suns are a better-conditioned team. He took a cheap shot and it worked. Conditioning and execution are everything in basketball.
Name withheld by request

Take it like a goat-man: Yes, Steve Nash complained and complained a lot. I guess he should have shut his yap and taken it like a man.

Yes, they lost, but it wasn't because of his lack of leadership or effort. Spurs defender Bruce Bowen was in [Nash's] shorts pretty much the whole series.

But as you obviously know (being facetious here), Bruce Bowen's a pretty lousy defensive player. Basically, he is a pussy and he doesn't play very tough. So, it is very obvious that Nash is the "goat" in all of this.

How many easy shots did he set up, only to have teammates miss?! The bottom line is this: Nash did not fail to deliver. San Antonio mustered all its experience and ability and did what it does best. Win! That team makes it difficult for teams to beat them.

So, what more did you want Nash to do? It's a team game, and some of his teammates did not pull their weight. The beauty of Nash's game is that he wants his teammates to excel, and he will take a backseat to them. He wants to put them in a position to shine.

Unfortunately, NBA sixth-man-of-the-year Leandro Barbosa did not come through for the Suns, and neither did Diaw.

Why is any of this about Nash's lack of leadership? You obviously don't know much about basketball or team sports.
Name withheld by request

WOE IS JOE

Plenty of time for apologies: Sarah Fenske wrote an excellent article on Joe Watson, touching on a lot of really nice points ("Afraid of the Dark," May 17). I know Joe, and agree with most of what you say, including his refusal to accept responsibility.

However, I don't think you can read his letter asking for legal fees as evidence of him lacking contrition (although there is plenty of other evidence of that). Given the phase of the criminal process Joe is in, if he said anything along the lines of "I'm sorry to the people I hurt," or "to the women I scared," it would be an admission that would come back to haunt him by way of additional jail time.

I'm sure he's accepted that he'll be in jail for a while, but that doesn't mean he should double his time by apologizing in [a journalism] forum when there will be plenty of time to do that later. Whether he'll do that later is another story.
Name withheld by request