The national wave of interest in the Phoenix Suns was at an all-time peak entering the 1992-93 season. Charles Barkley was in town. So, too, were All-Star guards Kevin Johnson and Dan Majerle. Phoenix had already nearly come within inches of the NBA Finals in recent seasons. The addition of Barkley – a six-time All-Star and double-double machine – was thought to be the missing superstar link that now completed the puzzle.
That hype, however, was stunted by a preseason injury to Kevin Johnson. The Suns’ floor general had suffered a strained abdomen by trying to lift teammate Oliver Miller after a preseason win. KJ, who averaged 19.7 points and 10.7 assists the previous season, would miss the first two weeks of the Suns’ much-anticipated campaign.
Barkley’s first regular season game in a Suns uniform would show just how much he and Johnson would help each other in the coming years.
Phoenix opened the season on Nov. 7, 1992, in front of a ravenous home crowd against the Los Angeles Clippers. The previous season, L.A. had finished a respectable 45-37 and made their first playoff appearance since 1976 (then as the Buffalo Braves). With Mark Jackson, Ron Harper and Danny Manning in tow, it appeared Los Angeles’ “other team” was about to become a long-term factor in the league.
Barkley, however proved he was the best player on the court – and in the league, that season – in emphatic fashion. The burly forward started his MVP season with a bang, scoring 37 pionts on 11-of-16 shooting while tying Curtis Perry’s 17-year franchise record for most offensive rebounds in a game (12). The Round Mound of Rebound lived up to his nickname, amassing 21 total boards and coming within two assists of a triple-double.
His dominance forced the Clippers to double-team repeatedly, opening the flood-gates for a new era of three-point shooting in the NBA. The Suns shot 8-of-16 from beyond the arc that night, with Dan Majerle (3-of-7) and Danny Ainge (4-of-7) accounting for seven of Phoenix’s long-bombs. From the inclusion of the three-point arc in 1985 through the end of the 1991-92 season, the Suns had hit at least eight threes in a game just four times total. They would connect at least that many 10 times in 1992-93 alone.
Barkley’s performance set ablaze a new era in Phoenix and the NBA, one in which the Suns would be at the front and center of the NBA landscape.
