1992-93 Phoenix Suns season

 

1992-93 Phoenix Suns Barkley’s first season
NBA Affiliations
Western Conference (Since 1968) Pacific Division (Since 1972-73)
Location
US Airways Center (Since 1992) Phoenix, Arizona (Since 1968)
1992-93 Information
Owner(s)	Jerry Colangelo
Coach	Paul Westphal
Local television
Local radio

The highlight of the Phoenix Suns season was Charles Barkley leading the Suns to their second trip to NBA finals.

Offseason

NBA Draft

Round	Pick	Player	Postition	Nationality	School/Club Team
1	22	Oliver Miller	Center	United States	Arkansas
2	48	Brian Davis	Guard/Forward	United States	Duke
2	49	Ron Ellis	Forward	United States	Louisiana Tech

Regular season

In 1992, the Suns moved into their new arena in downtown Phoenix, the America West Arena (now US Airways Center). The arena was not the only new arrival into Phoenix though, as flamboyant all-star power forward Charles Barkley was traded from the Philadelphia 76ers for Jeff Hornacek, Andrew Lang, and Tim Perry. Barkley would go on to win his first and only MVP his first year with Phoenix in 1993.

In addition to Barkley, the Suns added some key players to their roster including former Boston Celtic Danny Ainge and drafted players in University of Arkansas center Oliver Miller and forward Richard Dumas (who was actually drafted in 1991 but was suspended for his rookie year for violating the NBA drug policy).

Season standings

Pacific Division

Team	W	L	PCT.	GB
Phoenix Suns	62	20	.756	-
Seattle SuperSonics	55	27	.671	7
Portland Trail Blazers	51	31	.622	11
Los Angeles Clippers	41	41	.500	21
Los Angeles Lakers	39	43	.476	23
Golden State Warriors	34	48	.415	28
Sacramento Kings	25	57	.305	37

Playoffs

Under rookie head coach Paul Westphal (a former Suns assistant and, as a player, member of the 1976 Suns squad that went to the NBA Finals), the Suns squad consisting mostly of Barkley, Majerle, Johnson and Ainge won 62 games that year. After eliminating the Lakers (whom they came back from an 0-2 deficit preventing them from being the first eight-seeded team to eliminate the top seeded team in the first round), Spurs, and Sonics, the Suns advanced to the Finals for the second time in franchise history. They eventually lost to the Bulls, led by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. This series included a triple-overtime game (Game 3) that along with game 4 of the 1976 series are the only triple overtime games in the history of the NBA finals.^[1][2] Approximately 300,000 fans braved the 105 degree heat to celebrate the memorable season in the streets of Phoenix.^[3]

Player stats

Note: GP= Games played; REB= Rebounds; AST= Assists; STL = Steals; BLK = Blocks; PTS = Points; AVG = Average

Player	GP	REB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS	AVG
Tom Chambers	73	345	101	43	23	892	12.2
Dan Majerle	82	383	311	138	33	1388	16.9
Oliver Miller	56	275	118	38	100	313	5.6
Richard Dumas	48	223	60	85	39	757	15.8

NBA Finals

The 1993 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 1992-93 NBA season, featuring the Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan, and the Phoenix Suns, winners of 62 games and led by regular season MVP Charles Barkley. The Bulls became the first team since the legendary Boston Celtics of the 1960s to win three consecutive championship titles, clinching the "three-peat" with John Paxson's game-winning 3-pointer that gave them a 99-98 victory in Game 6. This series was also notable in that the road team won each game, with the exception of Chicago in game 4.

• The Phoenix Suns won game 3 in 3OT, 129-121. By the way, Suns Head Coach Paul Westphal became the only person to appear in both triple-overtime finals games. The first was the classic 1976 contest against Boston, in Game 5 as a player. Ironically, his Suns also appeared in that year's finals, thus becoming the only team to appear in two triple-overtime finals games. Back in 1976, the Suns lost 126-128 against Boston.

• The Bulls got off to a good start in Game 6 but struggled in the fourth quarter, wasting a double-digit lead to trail 98-94. Michael Jordan made a layup to cut the margin to 2 points, and the Suns missed a shot on their next possession. Trailing 98-96 and facing a Game 7 on the road if they lost that day, John Paxson took a pass from Horace Grant and buried a three pointer with 3.9 seconds left, giving the Bulls a 99-98 lead. The victory was secured by a last-second block from Horace Grant.

• Michael Jordan, who averaged a Finals-record 41.0 PPG during the six game series, became the first player in NBA history to win three straight NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Awards. He joined Magic Johnson as the only other player to win the award three times. The NBA started awarding the Finals MVP in 1969.

1993 NBA Finals roster

1993 Chicago Bulls

Head Coach:Phil Jackson
Michael Jordan | Scottie Pippen | Horace Grant | B.J. Armstrong | Scott Williams | Bill Cartwright | Stacey King | Trent Tucker | John Paxson | Will Perdue | Rodney McCray | Ricky Blanton | Darrell Walker | Corey Williams | Jo Jo English |

1993 Phoenix Suns

Head Coach:Paul Westphal
Charles Barkley | Dan Majerle | Kevin Johnson | Tom Chambers | Danny Ainge | Richard Dumas | Negele Knight | Oliver Miller | Mark West | Jerrod Mustaf | Frank Johnson | Tim Kempton |

Series Summary

Game	Date	Home Team	Result	Road Team	TV Time
Game 1	June 9	Phoenix	92-100	Chicago	NBC 9:00pm et
Game 2	June 11	Phoenix	108-111	Chicago	NBC 9:00pm et
Game 3	June 13	Chicago	121-129 (3ot)	Phoenix	NBC 8:30pm et
Game 4	June 16	Chicago	111-105	Phoenix	NBC 8:00pm et
Game 5	June 18	Chicago	98-108	Phoenix	NBC 8:00pm et
Game 6	June 20	Phoenix	98-99	Chicago	NBC 9:00pm et

Bulls win series 4-2

Award Winners

• Charles Barkley, NBA Most Valuable Player

References

• Suns on Database Basketball
• Suns on Basketball Reference

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