Best-selling author and ESPN columnist, Bill Simmons wrote a funny piece about watching Wednesday’s Suns game with the team’s GM, Steve Kerr. The famously-loquacious writer (aka The Sports Guy) takes a while to get to the good stuff, so we’ve got highlights after the jump, including a post-game celebration at Pizzeria Bianco.

“Kerr has a thicker skin than most; he’s the same guy who, when he was playing for Arizona, survived unthinkable “P.L.O.” chants during a college basketball game after his father was assassinated in Beirut.”

“Phoenix [is] a city with sports baggage. Lots of it. Tons of it. For four decades, the Suns have been consistently good and never great. They could never buy a break … They blamed bad luck; they blamed their owner; they blamed dumb front-office moves; they blamed the Spurs for *cheating*

The Phoenix crowd is wired differently from a typical NBA crowd: more urgency, more unbridled excitement, more vitriol for the refs, more hatred for their opponents, more everything. It’s like a college atmosphere, only angry and more desperate.

“In the locker room, more high-fives and fist bumps, followed by a celebratory Bud Light and a giddy trip to Gentry’s office, where the two friends rehash Game 2 and shake their heads at the team’s grit. The night ends at Bianco’s, the famous pizza place, featuring more rehashing and Kerr repeatedly maintaining that he expects a monster Game 3 effort from the Spurs. Champions don’t roll over. Neither does 40-plus years of baggage.”

[ESPN]

Tweet