82 FUN & GAMES BEST UNEXPECTED TURNAROUND PHOENIX SUNS It would be hard to overstate how dismal things looked for the Suns after the 2024-25 season. The franchise had dismantled its roster from the 2020-21 club that won the Western Conference — adios, Mikal Bridges; sayonara, Chris Paul — in order to build a star-studded, top-heavy cast around Devin Booker. But the team flailed despite the pres- ence of Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, and after limping to a 36-46 record that year, it was clearly time to do something different. Suns owner Mat Ishbia fired his third head coach in as many years, traded Durant, bought the oft-injured Beal out of his deal and signaled to fans that 2025-26 would be something of a rebuilding season. Instead, new coach Jordan Ott and a new cast of characters led by Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks were surprisingly competitive, culminating in a return to the playoffs and a first-round loss. Despite adding more talent this offseason, the Suns don’t quite look like a contender, but at least watching them won’t make your eyes hurt. i i i BEST MOVE ACROSS TOWN MOLLY MILLER When big-time athletic schools like Arizona State University have a coaching vacancy, they have the luxury of looking all over the country for the right person to fill it. Some- times, though, that right person is just on the other side of Interstate 17. At the end of the 2024-25 season, the Sun Devils had fired women’s basketball coach Natasha Adair, who’d had a losing record in all three of her seasons at the helm and had won only seven conference games total in that span. To replace her, ASU tapped Molly Miller, who was coming off a terrific five-season run at Grand Canyon University — five straight winning records culminating in a 32-3 season, a conference championship and the school’s first-ever trip to the NCAA tourna- ment. Miller immediately turned the Sun Devils around. ASU finished 24-11, its best record in a decade, and made the NCAA tournament’s “First Four.” If only the solu- tion to every problem could be found so close to home. BEST PARTY DISGUISED AS A SPORTING EVENT WM PHOENIX OPEN WMPHOENIXOPEN.COM We never tire of the irony. The year’s wildest, most anticipated, least predictable party in the Valley happens at … a golf course. Each February the WM Phoenix Open takes over TPC’s Scottsdale’s Stadium Course (and by extension, Scottsdale in general). Believe it or not, some folks actually show up to watch the golf. We attend to take part in our favorite sport (people-watching) and our second-favorite sport (day drinking). You’ll see packs of beautiful young women outfitted in sporty club wear. Swaggering businessmen who stay in their Bay Club suite, trying to not make eye contact with the help. Packs of bros dressed as bananas or wizards, assaulting their own livers. The infamous 16th hole is ground zero for debauchery, but this party knows few bounds. Who can forget 2025, when heavy rains turned the course into a mudslide and drunk fans laid down to become human toboggans for other fans? They don’t call this the Greatest Show on Grass for nothing. i i i BEST SPORTS TALK RADIO SHOW ‘BICKLEY & MAROTTA’ ARIZONA SPORTS/KMVP-FM ARIZONASPORTS.COM/SHOWS/ BICKLEY-MAROTTA-SHOW The pain of waking up each morning to the realization that we are still Phoenix sports fans has dissipated at least a bit in recent years, as “Bickley & Marotta” has, against the earnest efforts of the local teams, revitalized morning sports talk in the Valley. Phoenix has been home to many distinctive morning-drive shows over the years, but nothing on the AM sports dial quite like “Bickley & Marotta,” which combines the trademark antagonism of longtime former Arizona Republic columnist Dan Bickley with the old-school radio sensi- bilities of veteran Phoenix public address announcer Vince Marotta and producer Jarrett Carlen. What other show could break major local news in one segment, then play through a game called “Mustache, No Mustache” without missing a beat? Since moving to mornings in 2021, “Bickley & Marotta” has only gotten better.