Memento Mori: The Lessons of Al McCoy

How the Legacy of Al McCoy will make this season one of the most memorable.

As the Phoenix Suns Community has reeled and then bonded in reaction to the passing of Al McCoy, it has been a truly special experience to hear, see, and read the generous outpouring of love, laughter, grief, and memories about the how the Voice of the Suns bonded generations of Suns fans together.

Many wonderful and talented people have penned incredible retrospectives of his career, told personal stories, and shared how hearing him in their home was meaningful.

The legacy that someone leaves is a testament to their imprint on a community, and Al’s voice shone the brightest across the NBA media landscape. What has always interested me about the passing of someone who was universally beloved and deemed to be great is not the legacy of their actions but the legacy of what they leave behind. How someone’s impact resonated from beyond the veil can be big or small, but in so many ways, it informs us how to turn grief into action. When someone says a person left the world a little brighter, it’s because they impact the future actions of those who remain, and that, in turn, is what directs the future forward.

So, I wanted to honor Al McCoy’s memory by remembering the things he taught us and how we have the honor and privilege to carry that legacy forward for future generations of Suns fans.

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

“Memento Mori”: Remember You Must Die

The power of Al McCoy was his longevity in a media landscape that made him one of the last of his kind. Many of us have been listening to Al McCoy for our entire lives, and it’s a testament to his devotion to basketball, the Suns, and our fanbase. It’s realizing that it’s highly unlikely we will see one sports announcer for any major sports franchise have a career that matches or surpasses his in the future due to how the nature of sports consumption has changed.

What’s incredible is how a man who has been woven into the fabric of our shared history for 5 decades can render us feeling like it all went by a little too fast in an instant. Memento Mori translates from Latin to mean: “Remember you must die.” It’s a philosophical reminder to appreciate every second ticking down on the clock of our existence; a reminder that even a career as long and storied as Al’s will and can be gone in an instant. None of us knows how long we have or that tomorrow is promised, so live for each day.

Appreciate every chance you get to enjoy your favorite things, Phoenix Suns basketball included. Take your aging parent to that game, take your young child, because those memories will sustain you and the ones you love when time runs out.

Kevin Durant often shows us how much he keeps the idea of time at the forefront of his mind. Whether it’s appreciating the greats who came before him or acknowledging that his own records are fleeting, he shows a high awareness that he needs to maximize the time he has. He recently said that he, “wants to play until the wheels fall off”.

For athletes, we see them live a life in metaphor as their career progresses. Every moment we see a great player on a court is one we should hold onto because we will miss it when that time ends. Raise your hand if Devin Booker starting year 10 makes you feel old. I truly believe that I will feel young until Lebron James retires, because he’s the only player left who is older than me (by 30 days).

So, as we hold this upcoming season in Al’s memory, let’s drink in every moment of the Sun’s rays while we have it.

Lend Your Voice

While Al will always be known as the Voice of the Suns, one of his lasting impacts is how he has supported, mentored, and made space for so many other voices to lend their impact to the Suns community. His calls have been modeled, studied, and incorporated into the repertoire of so many in the Valley sports community.

Think about how incredible it is that there are some callings for the Suns G-League team to be called the ‘Shazam’. No other team is getting that call; so seared into our cortex is that call.

What Al always called his protegees to do was to make their voices heard and to contribute. As Suns fans, we get the opportunity to be vocal and loud and bring his energy with us to each and every game. Whether home or away, at the arena or in our homes, it would give me no greater pleasure to hear the arena erupt with a Shazam every time a player hits a three.

I haven’t been to a home Suns game in years since moving to Colorado, but I’ve heard that the vibe in the arena can get down, quiet, or just outright unsettled. (Given the last three playoff exits, it’s understandable). But remember this: Al McCoy called every game for us as if it was someone’s first time listening. He did it for 50+ seasons, through good times and bad. If he could muster the energy to give it 100% during a loss to the Bobcats in the middle of our worst decade in franchise history, we can muster the same energy for the weird third-quarter lull, blowout loss, or baffling Jusuf Nurkic turnover. Someone in the arena has never been to a Suns game before, and they deserve to experience the passion we bring.

We can never replace the voice we lost, but he left a legacy of dedicated, talented, and fantastic announcers to lead us into the next generation. We can all lift our voices to honor the passion he brought to the Valley every night!

Leave it Better than You Found It

Undoubtedly, one of the lasting impacts of Al McCoy was how he expanded the reach of our Suns’ community. His introduction of our head coach was something that truly touched me. Seeing an accomplished professional who had been to the mountain top clearly moved by the moment, reflecting on listening to Al in his driveway in Holbrook in his presser was the kind of full circle moment we can only dream of.

Players, coaches, employees, and fans alike all feel a sense of responsibility to Al. We’re sad “we” never won one for him, and we felt it in our souls when we realized he wouldn’t call a Finals win after all that time. But despite all of the times the Suns fell short of the ultimate prize, Al built our reputation as an organization, and I love watching our team reflect on how much of a lynchpin to our culture and community he was.

The anecdote I heard this week that really touched me was how he impacted people outside the Suns. He was a talented pianist and loved a jazz club in Phoenix called Nash. When he was inducted into the Ring of Honor, he was gifted a beautiful grand piano by Robert Sarver that was too big to fit in his house. He turned around and donated it to his favorite jazz club, and it is still in use to this day.

He looked at something he loved and made it a little bit better for everyone in the future. In my opinion, there is no better way to honor the life of Al McCoy than to strive to make our Suns’ community better than the small actions you can take every day that collectively add up and resonate far and wide. Find out ways to get involved in the Suns’ community, be a little nicer with your fellow fans online, be patient with your expertise, and be gracious with your time.

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You will undoubtedly hear many call to “win it for Al” this year, and I think that’s wonderful. He will be a rallying cry for many of us, and I look forward to seeing how the Suns honor him. But win or lose, we can honor Al as a community.

We know nothing is guaranteed. If we asked Al during his first season if he’d see a Suns title in his lifetime, I’m sure he’d have been bullish. The Phoenix Suns, in my opinion, are one of the greatest sports franchises in the country, and no number of rings changes that. Al McCoy is a big reason why, and he can inspire us to perpetually aim to make sure that the Suns’ community remains vibrant, passionate, thriving, and growing.

If every day we strive to be a little more like Al, his legacy will far outlast every single one of us lucky enough to remember him.