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A $300,000 statue of Jerry Colangelo has been completed. It’s bought and paid for by some of the biggest names in basketball, including Michael Jordan, Mike Krzyzewski, Gregg Popovich and Danny Ainge. Now, it just needs a home.
Shouldn’t be a problem in Arizona, right?
Wrong.
Sadly, the fate of the statue appears to be stuck in a state of political limbo. It’s threatening to derail a grand gesture to one of the founding fathers of Phoenix. And this column is a heartfelt plea for current city leaders to rally around a very important monument.
Timeliness matters. Colangelo will turn 85 in November. At a recent banquet, he spoke openly about his own mortality. Posthumous gestures are the worst form of tribute, frequently a byproduct of guilt and shame. The Suns family has already lost Al McCoy and Walter Davis in the past 12 months. Let’s be better than that.
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But this isn’t solely about Colangelo, a true Valley icon. He built the Suns from scratch. He brought Major League Baseball to Phoenix, winning a World Series in their fourth year of existence. He opened doors for the Coyotes to move here in 1996. He owned the Rattlers. He owned the Mercury. He restored pride to Team USA, winning four gold medals. His name is on the court at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Today, the Valley is a sprawling boomtown metropolis shaped by a number of billionaires, power brokers and very important visionaries. But there was a time when Colangelo stood above everyone, bigger than life. More than anyone else, he turned downtown Phoenix from a dusty desert outpost to Major League city.
Longtime readers know this is a cause near to my heart. Great sports towns commemorate their true heroes with statues, cementing them into their landscape. There’s nothing wrong with banners, plaques and rings of honor. But a statue is a much stronger gesture, eternal and immortal.
I’ve seen fans gravitate to the statue park outside the Cardinals’ stadium in St. Louis. Same with the dazzling array of statues outside the Lakers’ arena in Los Angeles. Statues are civic landmarks and pieces of communal art, designed to make history feel important. They bring people together. Plus, they are great for selfies.
How proud do you feel when you see the Pat Tillman statue outside State Farm Stadium? Or when football star Cam Skattebo holds the hand of the Tillman statue at ASU before taking the field for the Sun Devils?
We need this in downtown Phoenix. There should be statues of Colangelo, McCoy, Diana Taurasi, Charles Barkley and Steve Nash in the plaza outside Footprint Center. There should be statues of Randy Johnson and Luis Gonzalez outside of Chase Field. Because statues help grow the heart, fuel the imagination and feed the soul of undernourished sports towns. They make us feel good about being us.
Back to Colangelo:
The Suns endorse the statue, even though renovation plans currently prevent any statue park outside of Footprint Center. The team even worked with local businessman Jimmy Walker, who is spearheading the project, to find an alternate location. They landed on what appears to be the perfect site — on the steps of the old convention center at the corner of Jefferson and 3rd streets.
The statue looks really good (whew). It features Colangelo holding a basketball and a baseball bat, standing in between the franchises and stadiums he built from the ground floor. Plus, the location has real elevation, like the “Rocky” statue in Philadelphia.
It seems like a no-brainer, and certainly not a time for pettiness or politics. This is a time to see the forest and the sweep of history, and not a time to get lost in the trees.
To wit: On Oct. 17, Mayor Kate Gallego dropped by the Van Buren Theater to honor a local rock band made good, proclaiming it Jimmy Eat World Day in the Phoenix. She even credited the band with having “built this city.”
With all due respect to Mayor Gallego, Colangelo is the one deserving those words. He’s the one who built this city. And his statue deserves a home as soon as possible.
Make it happen, Phoenix.
Reach Bickley at dbickley@arizonasports.com. Listen to Bickley & Marotta weekdays from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.