The 04-05 season was very successful, with the Suns 31-8 as of January 19, 2005. Point Guard Yuta Tabuse became the first Japanese born player ever to play in an NBA game, scoring 7 points in the season opener against the Atlanta Hawks. He was later released from the team due to constraints on the number of players allowed on a roster. As of January 19, 2005, the Suns are first in the league. It is worthy to note that every single Suns game in history has been covered both on local Phoenix TV and radio by the legendary broadcaster, Al McCoy, who has battled every kind of situation imaginable to keep doing his job every time his beloved Suns play. He even traveled to Japan in 1991, when the Suns kicked off the 1991-1992 NBA season there with 2 games against the Jazz. In April 2004, the Phoenix Suns were sold to an investment group headed by tycoon Robert Sarver for $401 million dollars. The sale also included the Phoenix Mercury and Arizona Rattlers. Quietly the buzz has been building for this franchise that was looking to be in the middle of nowhere just last January. But management had a plan and now the Suns look an awful lot like the old Dallas Mavericks, and not just because Steve Nash and his hair are running the show. The Suns may be the most offensively potent team in the NBA. With Nash moving the ball at a break-neck pace the Suns will find ample space and time for players like Shawn Marion, Quentin Richardson, Amare Stoudamire, Casey Jacobsen, Joe Johnson.. well you get the picture. Many are penciling the Suns in for a shot at the eighth seed. Well, I think the Suns could end up doing better than that. Here's why. Sacramento is starting to show cracks - they're fighting, each year the depth slips one more notch, Webber simply isn't the same player he was before his series of injuries, and Vlade Divac's passing and leadership will be missed a great deal more than the Kings realized. Houston, as I have mentioned, is not nearly as talented 3-12 as most thought they might be, and teams like the Nuggets and Mavericks have to deal with changes in chemistry (much harder when things were working, than in Phoenix where things most definitely weren't). Look at Phoenix head to head against, say, Memphis. Do you not like the Suns just a little more in the here and now? Especially once 6-11 Zarko Cabakarpa is back? Zarko being one of the better kept up and coming secrets in the NBA. Stoudamire is probably the player who benefits the most from Nash's arrival, since the big man can run the floor like most guards, and he has the mean streak needed to get into the holes in the opponent's defense. If Stoudamire doesn't try to do much, and remembers to use his teammates as Nash will surely use him, than the Suns should get open looks - and lots of them. Speaking of Nash, this must be the first time an NBA team broke-camp without a single American player on the roster as a point-guard. The Suns start with Captain Canada, Nash. Then they have Brazilian export Leandro Barbosa backing him up, and behind Barbosa the Suns have the one player you MUST root for this season. 5-9, Japanese national team member Yuta Tabuse. And before you write Tabuse off as a gimmick, take a look at his first NBA game. Seven points and a dish in ten minutes. Look out Yao - Yuta's in town.