Please allow me one extremely self-indulgent thread tonight.

I started covering Phoenix Suns games in person with @ValleyoftheSuns back at the start of 2015. One month into such a thrilling new experience, they traded away Goran Dragic and lost 10 of their last 11 games

Disappointing finish, but I was just ecstatic my dream of covering NBA basketball was coming to life 2 years out of college. The Suns won 23 games the next season.

That was followed by a 24-win season. I was still loving the job, but the novelty was starting to wear off in the wake of the on- and off-court dysfunction of the team I was covering

Then came 2017-18. The 48-point massacre on opening night. Watson getting fired 3 games in. Bledsoe summing it all up with “I dont wanna be here.” A 15-game losing streak. A 21-win season. I started to accept this was just the reality of my beat

Then...some hope? Igor Kokoskov, Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton and some vets blow out the Mavs on opening night!...and then a 17-game losing streak ended in a 19-win season. I accept that watching losing basketball had become my new master.

Like many of you, the start to the 2019-20 season and the bubble provided my first legitimate source of hope since I first started covering the team.

Like many of you, I was here for all of it. The blowouts. The frustration. The apathy. The towels thrown at head coaches. The constant turnover. The home crowd boos. The draft busts. The Devin Booker slander. The parting shots from former Suns fleeing the desert.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying...thank you to everyone still following along, because holy shit is it gonna be fun to cover Phoenix Suns playoff basketball for the first time