Jared CohenThe first thing on the schedule for Phoenix Suns Media Day to ignight the start of their 2014 season, the press conference for Eric Bledsoe along side Suns President of Basketball Operations, Lon Babby, and General Manager, Ryan McDonough to discuss what Babby called, the “Summer of Business.”
The Suns and now their point guard of the present and future agreed on a five year extension worth $70 million just before the start of training camp and for Bledsoe despite how long it took to come to an agreement, it is what he always wanted.
“I wanted to be back here,” Bledsoe said. “I am not a man of a lot of words but I did want to be back here and I was just going to stay in shape and leave the business part to my agent. Had a great summer working out and was looking forward to coming back here.”
Babby mentioned that in “The Summer of Business,” the turning point was when he, McDonough and Robert Sarver met with Bledsoe to discuss the process and their position.
“We felt completely satisfied and it was abundantly clear to everybody in that room that Eric wanted to be here, always wanted to be here,” Babby explained. “And a lot of this was just the summer of business and that’s what happened.”
Many in the Phoenix community might have believed that Bledsoe’s pursuit of a max contract was a reach but the biggest problem fans may have had with the process was with how long it took. Ryan McDonough made sure to state that this blame or negative feelings should not be made to Bledsoe alone.
“Don’t blame Eric or his representative for how long this took,” stated McDonough. “If you want to blame anybody, blame Lon and I too because we are half of it. If you think they started too high or we started too low, we share that responsibility and I want our fans to know that. How important Eric is to our team, how much we think of him and how excited we are to have him in a Suns uniform.”
For Bledsoe, at the end of the day he has received one of the biggest, if not the biggest contract he will receive as a player in the NBA. As Uncle Ben said to Spider Man, with great power, comes great responsibility. It’s a new role for Bledsoe, and he would be to acknowledge it.
“Right now, I know I’ve got a lot of expectations now,” mentioned Bledsoe. “I get it. When I was at Kentucky, I was playing behind John (Wall) and what-not and everybody didn’t expect much out of me. So then, I didn’t have to do too much. Now I am looking forward to being a leader with some of the guys on the team…I’m excited.”
The Suns after Media Day 2014 jumped on a bus and drove up to the Campus of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff for the start of training camp where they will be for the rest of the week, finishing with an scrimmage open to the public in Flagstaff on Saturday.
