8. Song Of The Week: For Phoenix, The Song Remains The Same

You may remember the discussion from a month ago, where we examined the Phoenix Suns' amazing TNT curse. As of last month, they'd lost an astonishing 17 straight games that were televised on TNT. Back in December, I wrote the following:

Who knows what's happening here? The Phoenix Suns are a good team; since 2007, TNT has made them look like the Clippers. And last night's fourth quarter collapse typifies the Sisyphean nature of all this. No matter how close they come to breaking through, it's not happening. Maybe Zeus cursed them?

One things for certain: if Phoenix loses at Memphis on January 18th--on TNT--the universe is against them.

To be fair, that was before we could really call Memphis a legitimate threat to anyone. But still. With Monday's loss to the Grizzlies, the Suns have now lost 18 STRAIGHT GAMES on TNT. Is the universe unfair? Maybe not to everyone, but in Phoenix, there's really no debating it anymore. Somewhere out there, forces have conspired to make the Suns look bad on national TV.

And while I'd originially planned to use Led Zeppelin's "The Song Remains The Same" to commemorate Phoenix's consistent failure here, I think Radiohead would be more appropriate. I don't begrude anyone for liking Radiohead or thinking they're the most groundbreaking band of the century or whatever it is that makes people obsessed with these people. It's just that, their lead singer sounds like someone who is slowly dying, and that seems appropriate here:

I'm definitely not smart enough or pretentious enough to understand what's going on with Radiohead, but I feel like, if nothing else, they sure provide a great soundtrack to someone softly breathing their last breath, convinced that everything means nothing, the universe is against them, and that it's better to just end the charade of life on their own terms. Radiohead is excellent suicide music.

As for the Suns, they play Dallas at home on TNT later this month, so... On second thought, maybe hold off on the Radiohead. The Mavs can't defend the pick-and-roll to save their life.

Until next week....