Taking Turns

One of the best parts of NBA playoff games is when the home crowd all wears matching, team-provided t-shirts.  You can't tell me that a sea of raucous fans wearing the yellow "We Believe" shirts didn't help propel the Golden State Warriors to a momentous first round upset over the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in 2007.  Earlier in this year's playoffs, Oklahoma City was led to a Game Three victory over the Lakers by its own lively home crowd decked out in blue "Rise Together" shirts.

The matching shirts look just as great on TV as they do in person.  It's a great effect that simultaneously pumps up the crowd and intimidates the road team, so I'm not at all surprised that Phoenix tried it for their Game One showdown with San Antonio last night.  The Suns gave their fans orange t-shirts sponsored by Fry's Electronics that read "IT'S R TURN" and, below that, "Beat The Spurs."  Aside from the usual problem of some fans not wearing the shirts - it seemed like an unusually high percentage of fans choose to wear purple or white instead of the orange - I had a number of issues with Phoenix's shirt giveaway.

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The Suns failed to pull off an intimidating "Orange-Out" against the Spurs in Game One.

What is it with the Suns and unnecessary abbreviations?  I've always disliked the way the Suns write "PHX" on the front of their orange alternate jerseys instead of "Phoenix" (which the "ATL" Hawks have now started doing, too, on their red alternates), and the "IT'S R TURN" shirts are similarly annoying.  Based on the slogan, I'm forced to assume that the team's Head of Game Operations is a 15 year-old girl from suburban Scottsdale who sent the t-shirt order to the Fruit of the Loom factory via text message, which doesn't give me a ton of confidence.  I've learned that the playoff shirts were a follow up to the team's season-long "R U Orange?" marketing campaign (more abbreviations!), which begs the question: Is the "R" shorthand for the word "are" or the word "our?"  I'm not an SMS or IM expert, but I have seen Billy Madison numerous times and, based on that, I'm pretty sure "R" is a replacement for "are."  The fact that the Suns screwed this up is extremely surprising and mildly alarming.

Also, even without the bad abbreviation, the slogan really bothers me.  Sports are meant to be competitive; the phrase "it's our turn" conjures up images of little children begging their older siblings for a few minutes on the playground swings.  Basketball fans are well aware of San Antonio's recent playoff dominance over Phoenix, and the orange t-shirts only seemed to rekindle those bad memories for Suns fans.  Unlike the Thunder's far more positive "rise together" catchphrase, the timid "it's our turn" slogan reads like a cry for help and mercy.  I know Phoenix is a fairly laid-back city, but I think a more cutthroat attitude would serve their team, and their fans, well.

That being said, the crowd did seem energized in helping the Suns to the Game 1 victory, so maybe the shirts were more effective than I thought; after all, I was home watching on TV.  I guess we'll have to wait and "c wat happens 2morrow."