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 The Making of the 2007 Suns Playoff Media Guide
Posted By: Adam Green |
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Anyways, we made it up to the office and the first task was under way: deciding on a cover for the guide. I weighed in on the matter myself, and finally a cover was chosen
“That wasn’t so bad,” I thought to myself. “This guide thing will be cake.”
Or not. I’ll give a timeline and some of the key events of the night from that point on.
5:30 p.m. - Suns Basketball Communications Manager Dustin “Meat” Krugel and I start entering in Suns statistics. I went through every single stat from this season as well as career numbers, and relayed them to Dustin so he could put them in the computer. 14 players times 15 categories times two times a piece…something tells me Dustin was sick of hearing my voice by the end of the night.
5:45 p.m. - Food is already on the brain. We look at a menu from Cibo urban pizzeria café and are faced with the tough decision on which pizzas to order and how many of them to order. We decide on two Salsiccia pizzas, one Funghi pizza, and one Margherita pizza along with three House Salads. The decision is made to get the food and eat around 9pm.
5:55 p.m. - Back to work, which means more stats from more players. Good news, though, as we have added another helper! He gets into the office and goes straight to work…on Phoenix Mercury stuff. Hmm…
Meanwhile, in the background, the Hornets/Clippers game was going on. If the Clippers won and the Warriors lost their game to Portland then the Clips would get the eighth seed in the Western Conference Playoffs. The ESPN broadcasters made sure we knew this by mentioning it over, and over, and over, and over again.
Later on, the fourth and final member of our crew arrives and we all get to work. Dustin and I are still doing player stats, while the other two are working on editing player biography pages as well as team information pages.
8:30 p.m. - Enough is enough, time to take a break and go get the pizzas. Our last arriving crew member volunteers to make the 1 mile trek to the restaurant to get our food. Given the light rail construction going on downtown, this journey could prove to be quite perilous.
During this break the talk turns to the NFL Draft that is coming up next weekend. We talk about the Cardinals (my favorite team) and I mention how I think they should draft Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson if he is available when they pick. Of course, it is at that time where I am reminded that it doesn’t matter who your running back is if you do not have the linemen to block for him. I cannot accept the pessimism, because, after all, it the draft is when a Cardinals fan is traditionally the most excited about the season.
8:55 p.m. - Still not back with the food, I start to get concerned. Where can he be, why is it taking so long? I hope he is alright because if something went wrong I’d be hungry the rest of the night.
9:00 p.m. - Thankfully the pizza and salads made it safely. Apparently the restaurant was out of mushrooms, so that nixed the Funghi pizza. We got an extra Salsiccia, which was great; I don’t think any of us actually wanted the other one. The Margherita was basically a cheese pizza with a big basil leaf on top. This prompted the observation that it looked like a “salad pizza.”
After that break it was back to work. More with stats, more with editing. It was at this point where I had seen so many numbers where they all started to run together. This made things a bit trickier. By now we know that the Lakers and Warriors both won their games, so we can start editing the guide with that in mind.
11:00 p.m.- It’s getting late and we have our first “MySpace.com” break.
Still editing away, although finished with numbers, a couple of us take a look at some box scores from the year. A few names get cut short here and there, so it is up to us to figure out which names are missing some letters. The Warriors page is tough, because Sarunas Jasikevicius is not the most common name out there. At any rate, we get it done.
There is also a chance for me to do some Suns and Warriors playoff history. Did you know the Suns beat the Warriors 140-133 in a playoff game back in 1994? That was the last time the Warriors were in the playoffs. Crazy.
12:30 a.m. - ESPN is replaying the Hornets/Clippers game. I think the Hornets are going to win.
1:00 a.m. - I am given the task of editing the Golden State Warriors page for the guide. I announce that editing is my specialty, as I took an editing class in college. I fail to mention that I got a C for my efforts.
1:43 a.m. - We have our first “Are you on drugs?” question of the night. Let’s be fair: at that hour with all those numbers things can get a bit confusing. I reveal now that I am planning on writing a blog about this experience. I am told stories of playoff guide’s past, and something about someone getting schooled in basketball.
2:17 a.m. - The offer is on the table to get on out of there. I take advantage of the offer as sleep beckons.
I start to try to find my way out of the arena and of course, I got lost. That place is much different when the lights are off and there is nobody there.
Comments
Teddy Shafer - Tucson, Az
Good luck to the players and coaching staff, I'll be watching....
Susan :-) - Hawaii
I'm a "fungi" pizza lover too! Well...add EXTRA black olives to mine please! :-) GREAT picture for the media guide! Don't doubt it will be a collectors item! Thank you for your blog Mr. Green, I enjoyed your detailed entry. Sending much love & respect to the Suns team! Get rest guys & recharge your batteries for a "knock-out dog fight" against the Lakers! ~ Aloha ~
aditya - denver
You are a good team.
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