Suns’ Dillon Brooks shares the last time he lacked confidence
Dillon Brooks scored a season-high 32 points in just 28 minutes in the Phoenix Suns’ win against the Indiana Pacers on Nov. 13, 2025.
Phil Jackson and 40-year NBA journalist Sam Smith have seen it all in the league, long before it became the multibillion-dollar global brand it is today.
On Nov. 4, the 11-time champion coach Jackson, who also played in the NBA, and longtime Chicago Bulls beat writer Smith released their collaborative book titled “Masters of the Game: A Conversational History of the NBA in 75 Players.” The book consists of chapters colorfully profiling each player selected to the NBA’s 75 Greatest Ever list.
That includes recollections of former Suns’ players Charles Barkley, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Jason Kidd and Kevin Durant. In addition, Jackson was either a teammate of during his NBA playing career from 1967-80, coached for or coached against these players among the 75 profiled in the book.
Smith, who also authored the seminal Michael Jordan and Bulls 1991 championship biography “The Jordan Rules,” spoke to The Arizona Republic with some examples of his latest project with Jackson.
Smith calls Nash, Paul “the best to not win a championship.”
“They were small guards. When Michael (Jordan) came along, they said you can’t win a title if your shooting guard is your best player. That was the ethos at the time. You needed a center. You had to build around a big guy. That’s obviously flipped and even more so now because it’s basically inverted — Steph Curry and you need better guards and big guys. That was short of in motion at the time. Nash, to me, was a great player than Paul for shorter time and what he produced. In great part because of Nash’s partnership with (ex-Suns coach Mike) D’Antoni, he wouldn’t have had that success without the position that Mike put him in. We talked about that in the book because I credit Mike a lot with the modern NBA.”
Jordan’s rift with ex-Bulls GM Jerry Krause intensified after not acquiring Suns legend Walter Davis.
“Michael gave up $100,000 to $150,000, whatever it was so the team could have more room during the draft so the team could sign Walter Davis (who was with Denver Nuggets then). So instead of doing that, Krause trades for (New Jersey Nets’ young guard) Dennis Hopson. But Michael is furious now on Krause. So how’s he going to take it out on Krause? He just punishes poor Dennis Hopson, just killing him in practice, dunking on him, taunting him, talking in his face, basically took his confidence away.”
Barkley, Suns allegedly paid infamous NBA heckler to harass Jordan during 1993 NBA Finals.
” A lot of buildup to that series, of course, Barkley (won) MVP, Michael resented that. Going into that series, this guy Robin Ficker, a really notorious heckler, a lawyer in Washington D.C. Funny guy. …
“But when they went to Phoenix (during the NBA Finals), and Barkley or the Suns paid this guy to come in and they got him a seat right behind the Bulls bench. Frankly, it didn’t work very much because Jordan had like 45 in each of those first two games. The Bulls won those first two games in Phoenix. … Michael Esquinas was the gambler who suckered Michael on the golf course and he wrote this book (‘Michael and Me: Our Gambling Addiction’ in 1993) accusing Michael of welching on the bets, so (Ficker) was reading that to him.”
Jackson says ex-Suns guard Kidd was better than John Stockton, Isiah Thomas.
“When we got to Jason Kidd, he was a huge fan and he’s not an outgoing kind of guy. He doesn’t go on talk shows to promote anybody like that. We were talking about (John Stockton) at the time, and he said, ‘I would take Kidd over Stockton or Isiah.’ He said, “Coaching against him, Kidd knew how to run the game more than any point guard at the time.’ He really had the admiration of Kidd’s game, even though he wasn’t a big-time scorer.”