The Phoenix Suns are well on their way to missing the NBA playoffs for the seventh consecutive season. These kinds of seasons sometimes encourage fans to reflect on their team's history and ask: Where did it all go wrong?
For Suns fans, it has always been one thing or another. In its 48-year history, something always seems to unfairly stand in the team's way of that elusive first world championship.
Here are five things in particular that every long-time Suns fan is still plenty unhappy about.
1. The coin flip
The tone for the Suns' misfortune was set very early in their history thanks to an ill-fated coin toss.
In 1969, a coin flip would determine whether the Suns or Milwaukee Bucks would earn the No. 1 pick in that year's draft. The Bucks won the coin flip, of course. They drafted Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), of course. And they won an NBA championship two years later, of course.
Fast-forward 47 years: The Suns are still looking for their first world title, which seems like it won't come anytime soon.
2. The best to never win it all
It's one thing for a franchise to have a losing tradition. It's another to have a winning tradition... but no world championships to show for it.
Statistically, the Suns are the best NBA, NFL, MLB or NHL team to never win it all. As of 2014, they owned the 10th-best winning percentage among all "Big 4" sports teams -- better than franchises with multiple world championships such as the New England Patriots, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, and the defending Super Bowl champions, the Denver Broncos.
3. Robert Sarver
The Suns never won a championship under long-time owner Jerry Colangelo, but they were competitive more often than not and made NBA Finals appearances in 1976 and '93. But when Colangelo sold the team in 2004 and real estate investor Robert Sarver stepped in as the new majority owner, it altered the course of the franchise's history, as well as its national perception.
Under Sarver, the Suns had some success during the Steve Nash era, but fans have been critical of the University of Arizona graduate for giving away a number of draft picks and not planning for the future, leading to their current undesirable circumstances.
Many fans believe Sarver isn't nearly as invested in winning as Colangelo was -- and Colangelo's joining of the 76ers in December was just another kick in the pants for Suns fans.
4. Robert Horry
Markieff Morris has become a villain in the minds of many Suns fans, but Robert Horry still owns the No. 1 spot in that category. From throwing a towel in then-Suns coach Danny Ainge's face, to his infamous hip check on Nash during the 2007 playoffs, Horry remains Public Enemy No. 1 in the Valley.
Horry, who retired in 2008, played for four NBA teams. He won multiple NBA championships with three of them. The only team Horry didn't win a title with? Yep, that would be the Phoenix Suns.
5. Woulda, coulda, shoulda
The Suns have been to the NBA Finals twice, and they've been to the Western Conference Finals...
..and yet, their NBA championship cupboard remains bare.
But Suns fans remember a number of seasons in which the Suns should have won it all if not for an unfortunate event. Joe Johnson's injury in 2005, Amar'e Stoudemire's injury in 2006, Kobe Bryant's air ball in 2010 -- the list goes on.
In some ways, the fact that the Suns have been a good team more often than not makes their lack of NBA titles that much more difficult to bear.
