Suns legend and TNT analyst Charles Barkley recalls his memories from the 1993 NBA Finals where the Suns lost to the Michael Jordan-led Bulls.
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The Phoenix Suns make their first NBA Finals appearance this year since 1993. The Suns have had a great run in the 2021 NBA Playoffs.
The Phoenix team ousted the defending champions LA Lakers in the first round. The combo guard of Devin Booker and Chris Paul led the team against Denver Nuggets and LA Clippers to clinch a berth in the NBA Finals.
Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton, in only their first playoff appearance, have impressed the analysts and gurus with their exceptional performances.
Monty Williams as the new head coach for the Suns, followed by the arrival of veteran Chris Paul has given the Suns franchise a new lease of life.
Recently Hall of Famer Charles Barkley spoke about his experience in the 1993 NBA Finals, elaborating on the factors that led to the Suns’ defeat in the 1993 NBA Finals.
The Phoenix Suns faced the Chicago Bulls in the 1993 NBA Finals. The Bulls were coming off a back-to-back championship with their star player Michael Jordan being at the prime of his career.
While the Suns had the best record of 62-20 in the NBA that year, Barkley had his best year and was crowned the regular-season MVP.
NBA legend Charles Barkley analyzes the 1993 NBA Finals vs Michael Jordan
Despite having home court, the Suns lost the first 2 games against the Bulls. Game Two of the Finals had both Jordan and Barkley torch 42-point each. However, the Bulls managed to get past the Suns.
Barkley recently spoke about the 1993 NBA Finals in light of the Suns facing the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2021 NBA Finals.
“I think the main thing is that we got off to a really bad start. We were not ready for the scrutiny — no, ‘scrutiny’ is not the right word. We didn’t react really, really good in Game 1. The lights were too bright for us in Game 1. That’s the only bad game we had.
The other games were really good games, but I thought the one bad game we had was Game One. I thought we were nervous, and I think that was my fault for not having us ready to play. I had been in big moments before, but nobody else on our team had been in big moments.
I just felt that I should’ve had us better prepared, or I should’ve been more aggressive, to be honest with you.”
Barkley even added when Jordan had said he wasn’t ready for Game One against the 1991 LA Lakers because of the lack of aggressiveness. The difference was Bulls were able to come back from that loss and win the next 4 games.
However, the Suns did manage to win 2 games in that series but couldn’t stop Michael Jordan and Co, who would then go on to 3-peat with Jordan was crowned the Finals MVP.
