User:GoizanePe/sandbox/Articles/Phoenix Suns part to be changed

Team creation

Original Suns logo (1968-1992) The Suns were one of two franchises to join the NBA at the start of the 1968–69 season, alongside the Milwaukee Bucks. They were the first major professional sports franchise in the Phoenix market (and the entire state of Arizona), and would be the only one for 20 years until the Cardinals of the National Football League relocated from St. Louis in 1988. The team played its first 24 seasons at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, located northwest of downtown Phoenix. The franchise was formed by an ownership group led by local businessmen Karl Eller, Don Pitt, Don Diamond, Bhavik Darji, Marvin Meyer, and Richard Bloch, and also part of the group were entertainers Andy Williams, Bobbie Gentry and Ed Ames. There were many critics, including then-NBA commissioner J. Walter Kennedy, who said that Phoenix was "too hot", "too small", and "too far away" to be considered a successful NBA market.[8] This was despite the fact that the Phoenix metropolitan area was (and still is) growing rapidly, and the Suns would have built-in geographical foes in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle.

After continual prodding by Bloch,[9] the NBA Board of Governors decided that on January 22, 1968, Phoenix and Milwaukee would be granted franchises. They paid an entry fee of $2 million. The Suns nickname was among 28,000 entries that were formally chosen in a "Name the Team" contest sponsored by the Arizona Republic;[9] the winner was awarded $1,000 and season tickets to the inaugural season. Suns was preferred over Scorpions, Rattlers, Thunderbirds, Wranglers, Mavericks, Tumbleweeds, Mustangs and Cougars. Stan Fabe, who owned a commercial printing plant in Tucson, designed the team's first iconic logo for a mere $200; this was after the team paid $5,000 to a local artist to design the team's logo, but were disappointed with the results.

In the 1968 NBA Expansion Draft, notable Suns' pick-ups were future Hall of Famer Gail Goodrich and Dick Van Arsdale.