Notable Former Suns the Won NBA Titles After Leaving The Valley Part 2

Last month I wrote an article about former Suns players to go all the way after leaving us. At the time I did find more players than the ones I showed. After some deliberation, I decided to give all the players some love that did just that:

Markieff Morris

Markieff Morris is the newest former Sun to become an NBA Champion, winning the title this past October in the bubble with the LA Lakers against the Miami Heat. Markieff was drafted by the Suns in 2011 and spent 4 full seasons in The Valley. He started out coming off the bench and averaged nearly 14 PPG in 2013-14. Things seemed complete for Morris that year as the Suns traded for his twin brother Marcus and they seemed to thrive playing together in Phoenix. One thing was for sure they both were not going to back down from a fight from anyone. Unfortunately, things went sour for Markieff in 2015 when they traded Marcus to the DET Pistons. Markieff was under the impression that they both had signed extensions together at a discount so they could continue to play together. After short stints with WAS Wizards, OKC Thunder and the Pistons, Markieff landed in LA to play for the Lakers and helped King James win another ring.

AC Green

With a career that spanned 16 years, AC Green was known as the ‘Iron Man’ of the NBA. He holds the longest streak of NBA regular season games played of 1,192. The streak started in November of 1986 and ended in April of 2001. This was a time when players did not have massively long careers like players such as Kobe, KG, Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan have had. He began his career with the LA Lakers and won 2 NBA titles in 1987 and 1988 in those great Magic Johnson-lead teams. Green spent 3 full seasons with the Suns beginning in 1993 after signing with them in free agency. Unfortunately, Phoenix could not make the Finals again as they had just before Green had got there. He returned to the Lakers for the 1999-2000 season where he was the starting PF alongside Shaq and Kobe and won another title that year by beating the Indiana Pacers.

Matt Barnes

Probably one of the ultimate journeymen, Matt Barnes did play for the Suns as one of his 11 teams. Never one to light up the score board, Barnes was always able to find a way to affect the game by his defence and his intensity. Barnes played one year in Phoenix in 2008-2009 which we finished 9 in the West. After bouncing around multiple teams, Barnes returned to the GS Warriors late in 2017. Later that season, the Warriors won the title beating the CLE Cavaliers. Shortly after the season ended, Barnes called time on his 14-year career.

Dennis Johnson

Known simply as ‘DJ’, Dennis Johnson was most famous by being a part of the great Boston Celtic team of the mid-80s. Before all of that, Johnson was part of the Suns for 3 seasons from 1980 to 1983. He was a bench player for his first year and then progressed to a starter. Over the 3 years he averaged 17.5 PPG. The Suns made the playoffs all those years but unfortunately all ended in first/second round losses. Jonson was then traded to the BOS Celtics before the 1983-84 season, where he joined the original ‘Big 3’ of Kevin McHale, Larry Bird and Robert Parish. Johnson spent his career up until this point as being a SG, however he moved over to PG when he joined the Celtics. Here Johnson helped Boston to be one of the greatest teams of all time by bringing solid defence and PG play. Johnson won 2 titles in 1984 and 1986 to go with a title he had won with the Seattle Supersonics in 1979.

Sam Cassell

Always known as a big shot maker, Sam Cassell won 2 NBA titles in his first 2 seasons of his NBA career with the HOU Rockets. In 1996, Cassell (Along with Robert Horry) was traded to the Suns as part of the Charles Barkley trade that showed Barkley going ring chasing. Cassell played only 22 games for Phoenix averaging nearly 15 PPG. Cassell found himself then being sent to the DAL Mavericks as part of a trade that saw the Suns getting Jason Kidd, another man on this list in Part 1. After bouncing around the league for a couple of years at each team, Cassell signed with the Celtics in 2008. Cassell was part of a very solid bench mob that gave the Celtics had an incredibly good chance on winning the title that year paired with Paul Pierce, KG and Ray Allen. In the Finals, the Celtics beat the Kobe-lead LA Lakers to give Cassell his third title. You can now see Cassell as an Assistant Coach with the PHI 76ers behind Doc Rivers.

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