Phoenix Suns draw sellout crowd for the team's preseason open practice

The Phoenix Suns' marketing department could've dubbed its Sunday open practice as "Suns Day."

Purple and orange-clad fans flocked to the sellout crowd at the Footprint Center to see the one of the most anticipated teams in Arizona history, led by All-Stars Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, and Bradley Beal.

The team is 2-1 this preseason, and will host the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday.

Phoenix coach Frank Vogel, his players, the arena's DJ and fans described the event's massive event turnout and experience as if the lovable spider from the classic children's novel "Charlotte's Web" spelled out positive superlatives high up in the rafters.

Amazing. Awesome. Electric. Exciting. Incredible. Fun. Tremendous.

Vogel, who's coached the Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Lakers, said he's never dealt with an open practice of this magnitude.

“I would say that very few teams that I’ve been a part of have the type of buzz around the city about our team than we experienced today and that I’ve experienced since I got here, honestly," Vogel said. "A lot of excitement. I think they really believe in what we have here, and we’re gonna pour everything we got into getting this done.”

That says a lot from Phoenix's first-year coach in comparison to when he took over the Lakers the same year LeBron James joined that team as a free agent in 2018, which drew the NBA's biggest media frenzy that summer. Vogel also led L.A. to the 2020 title.

So when Vogel mentioned "getting this done," that means doing the same as he did in L.A. by raising the first world championship banner for the Suns on Opening Night next season.

“I think the league mandates that every team does this, so we’ve had fan practices everywhere I’ve been," Vogel said. "But like I said, the excitement around this year’s (Phoenix) team and the buzzed around our city is something I have not seen, so I’m pretty excited about that.”

Before the Suns entered the court and ran through team drills, weaves, motion plays, and entertaining shooting contests for an hour, one of the team's longtime fans and season ticketholders Kevin Arnett explained the development of the four open practices he's been to. Arnett's first was five years ago when Phoenix's former No. 1 overall draft pick and former starting center Deandre Ayton was a rookie. Ayton was traded to Portland one week before training camp began on Oct. 2, two years after he helped Phoenix reach the NBA finals.

“Since the changes have been coming to the open practices, everything has been tremendous," Arnett told The Republic. "From the ownership that’s changed, to the more welcoming feeling, and more of a family feeling here. I’m looking around and I see a lot more people than it was just four years ago.”

“You look at (Phoenix center Yusuf) Nurkic, he’s having fun talking with the fans. … This is really different, really nice, a lot more professional.”

In addition, Phoenix has four new players originally from abroad (Nurkic, Yuta Watanabe, Bol Bol, Udoka Azubuike). The team's fans gave the biggest applause to South Sudanese-American big Bol Bol and Japan-bred forward Yuta Watanabe when they emerged from the player's tunnel, showing how much they embrace the team's multicultural diversity.

“It feels amazing. They make me really comfortable being here and more excited to play in front of those amazing fans. I really appreciate them showing support and love,” Watanabe said.

Screaming fans of all ages held homemade signs with captions that wrote out autograph demands from their favorite players, and team's title aspirations.

The hip hop music heightened the party vibe and smiles galore.

“The vibe is electric. I can feel the energy in the building," Footprint Center's DJ Automatic said. "The players, coaches and fans are ready to win! Plus Book, Beal and Durant have amazing taste in music which makes my job that much more fun.”

Durant, who's now in his 17th season, and first full one with Phoenix since he was traded from Brooklyn in February, feels that fandom at open practices never gets old.

“It’s still incredible. Going away, and how many basketball fans there are in the world, but especially here in the Valley, how excited they are for the game of basketball inspires me and keeps me going, to be honest. So when anytime we get in front of our fans and give them an insight to what we do outside of just 7 o’clock on game nights, that’s pretty cool.”

The Valley is on a high because of the Arizona Diamondbacks, celebrating their 25th anniversary season, are set to play against Philadelphia for their first MLB National League Championship Series since 2007. But Phoenix will always be a basketball town, being that the Suns were the city's first pro sport team in 1968, and one of the NBA's winningest franchises.

Suns backup point guard and the team's only Phoenix native Saben Lee can attest how crazy about basketball fans are here, dating back to his childhood in the 2000s in relation to how they were on Sunday.

"It’s awesome. Me being (from) here, I came to Suns games when I was young. The fan base has always been rocking, especially the Steve Nash-(Amar’e) Stoudemire days," Lee said. "Just having that excitement back in the Valley is awesome, especially just seeing the fans come out.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suns draw sellout crowd for the team's preseason open practice