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The Phoenix Suns are a professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Suns began playing in the NBA as an expansion team in the 1968–69 NBA season. In their inaugural season, the Suns posted a win–loss record of 16—66. They participated in the playoffs only once in their first seven seasons.
In the 1975–76 season, a rookie Alvan Adams helped the team reach its first NBA Finals, which they lost to the Boston Celtics 4—2. Charles Barkley and Steve Nash won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award while playing for the Suns. Barkley led the Suns to the 1993 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Chicago Bulls. After signing with the Suns in 2004, Nash led the team to three straight division titles, but after reaching the Conference Finals in 2009–10 the Suns have subsequently experienced their worst period of on-court failure, not reaching the playoffs in any season since.
Despite their 2010s failures, the Suns franchise has the NBA’s fourth-best all-time winning percentage, winning 54 percent of its games, as of the end of the 2015–16 season. In their first forty-three seasons, the Suns made the playoffs 29 times, posted nineteen seasons with fifty or more wins, appeared nine times in the Western Conference Finals, and advanced to the NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993. As a result, based on their all-time winning percentage, the Suns are the most successful franchise to never win an NBA championship.
Seasons
Note: Statistics are correct as of the 2015–16 season.