For the second year in a row, the Sun will have failed to achieve a berth in the post-season. I don't know enough about basketball of any level to "know" why this happened, except the obvious: they didn't win enough games to qualify.
I saw them Sunday afternoon with our daughter, Michelle (we've attended all but two of this season's games, and they were playing against the Washington Mystics, whom they had failed to beat on three previous occasions this season. But this time....
In double overtime, because there literally wasn't enough time in regulation to triumph, the Sun topped the Mystics 89-81. Mathematically, the Sun are still a possible playoff team especially if two of the teams ahead of them get lost heading to their next three games and have to forfeit.
This hasn't been the season the team had hoped for. On the other hand, for a lot of us it hasn't been the summer we would have liked. That the team never gave up on themselves was pretty obvious Sunday afternoon, at least to those of us in the upper deck. When it becomes obvious to themselves, we'll see the beginnings of the next phase of their growth. As it is, that's why next season was invented. And that's where we'll see them.
-bill kenny
