Every NBA team’s greatest playoff moment

Phoenix Suns: Barkley and Co. nearly go all the way (1993 NBA Playoffs)

It stands to reason that fans will remember the most successful teams in a franchise’s history the most fondly. Winning usually brings about good feelings, so that all makes sense. However, there are special cases involved in such affairs, which in the NBA includes teams like the Phoenix Suns. The Suns have no titles to their credit in franchise history. With that factor in play, how then do you measure success if they’ve always lost their last game of the postseason when they earned a berth?

For the Suns specifically, you measure it by Charles Barkley and the 1992-93 squad. In the regular season that year, Phoenix finished with 62 wins and as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. However, that meant nothing if they weren’t able to go into the postseason and look the part of the top seed out of the West. Barkley made sure that was the case, however.

Barkley was an absolute monster throughout the entire playoffs, averaging 26.6 points, 13.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game. However, he turned it on further when it mattered most. In the Western Conference Finals, the Auburn product posted a 43-point triple-double in Game 5. But when the series went to Game 7, Barkley turned it up a notch again with an unreal 44 points and 24 rebounds to carry the Suns to the Finals.

Of course, they met up with Michael Jordan and the Bulls, who would go on to win their third-straight championship. The Suns were no pushover, though. Barkley, Kevin Johnson and Dan Marjele all stepped up, but just weren’t enough to take down Chicago. Still, the team has never seen a greater success than reaching the 1993 Finals, which is why they’re royalty over 20 years later still in the city.