Bright Side Baller: C’est fini

The Phoenix Suns season ends not with a bang but with a beer.

For the first time all season, the Suns JAM Session Podcast was not broadcast after a game. No postgame show. No rants. No catharsis through conversation. Just the quiet resignation that the end had arrived.

Instead, I found myself posted up at The Backyard, an open-air bar tucked into Desert Ridge Marketplace in North Phoenix. A fitting setting, really. Casual, communal, with just enough distance from Footprint Center to let it all settle in. Around me sat the familiar faces of Phoenix Suns content creators, each nursing their own version of disappointment.

We drank beers. We tossed around what-if’s and what’s-nexts. We tried to predict the future of a franchise that once promised everything and delivered far less. And as the season faded into memory, we let the final moments slip away with laughter, frustration, and just a touch of hope, the kind only basketball and beer can brew.

At long last, this odd and meandering chapter in the saga of the Phoenix Suns has reached its final page. A season that began with bold proclamations and preseason justifications ends with the sobering clarity of hindsight. We acknowledged how wrong we were. We let go of the expectations we clung to. And we gave this season the closest thing to a Viking funeral we could. Not with fire and fury, but with beer and bittersweet laughter.

The final result? Another double-digit loss. But this one didn’t sting. There was no heartbreak, no frustration. Just a shrug. A game that meant nothing. A finish that felt routine; standard operating procedure for a team that long since ran out of steam.

It’s over. The season is done. And as I sat with friends — people I’m genuinely grateful to have met through this beautiful, strange community — we reminisced, laughed, and inevitably began what Suns fans do best: rebuilding. The future will demand choices. Changes. Hard looks in the mirror. And those conversations will come.

But for one night, take a breath. Let it go. Appreciate the absurdity of it all. And enjoy the simple, beautiful truth: this season is finally over.

Bright Side Baller Season Standings

Ryan Dunn dominated the voting after his 26 and 11 night against the Spurs, giving the rookie his 7th on the season and tying him with Bradley Beal in third place on the year.

It’s kind of wild when you really think about it, isn’t it?

A rookie — fresh out of college, wide-eyed and unproven — is tied for third in Bright Side Ballers this season. Matched in standout performances by someone earning $50.2 million. That alone is a snapshot of the season. A subtle but searing reminder of how things unraveled.

If a rookie matched an overpaid veteran in best-game honors, then one of the spokes in the wheel wasn’t just loose, it was flat from the start.

Bright Side Baller Nominees

Grayson Allen

20 points (8-of-13 FG, 4-of-7 3PT), 2 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 turnovers, -10 +/-

Tyus Jones

17 points (7-of-13 FG, 3-of-7 3PT), 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, +1 +/-

Ryan Dunn

12 points (5-of-11 FG, 2-of-6 3PT), 10 rebounds (6 OREB), 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover, +8 +/-

Collin Gillespie

12 points (4-of-7 FG, 3-of-6 3PT), 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover, -14 +/-

Oso Ighodaro

10 points (5-of-7 FG), 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers, +7 +/-

Monte Morris

8 points (3-of-7 FG, 2-of-4 3PT), 3 rebounds, 2 assists, -14 +/-

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Last one of the year. Who ya got?

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