Rest assured, I’m not resigning due to personal reasons or anything. By most accounts, my life is in a really good spot (great job, great girlfriend, healthy family, and trying to break 3 hours in a marathon this upcoming weekend... fingers crossed). I’ve been through the ups in the CSL, as well as the downs (still haven’t gotten over blowing a 3-1 finals lead with 2 home games remaining…). Looking back though, even though I choked those finals away, I remember it being a really fun and epic battle. Right down to blowing that fateful game 7 in the first live sim. I still haven't forgiven Dennis btw
. But at some point along the way, I stopped having so much fun. I remember having a conversation with Brett ~midway through the season, where I said I don’t even have fun winning games anymore. When I checked the standings each day this season, If I saw I won, I’d best describe myself as feeling relief more than anything else. That’s when I knew it was time to take a serious look at stepping away. So once the trade deadline passed, I pretty much took off the rest of the regular season. I thought maybe it would rekindle my desire, but I found I didn’t miss it at all. So just before the end of the regular season I decided to step down and mentioned it to a couple people. Then early on in the playoffs (well before getting steamrolled by the Kings), I let the admins know that I would make an announcement after the playoffs were over. Congrats again to bt and Jon for an epic finals showdown!I feel good about leaving the Suns in a good spot. I didn’t want to leave a dumpster fire for the next GM. The next GM will take over a team that’s made 4 consecutive conference finals dating back to DDS3. They have a nice mix of promising youth and win-now vets. They're in a good financial position (they can easily retain all of their pending FAs). And after this upcoming draft, they’ll also have all of their own draft picks going forward. So no matter what direction the new GM wants to go, they should be set up for success. I’m hoping this team ends up going to a respectable veteran for obvious reasons, but that part is out of my hands.
Although I don’t have plans of returning, who knows what the future holds? At some point in the future, I'd like to think that maybe I’ll get the itch again. But it will probably be a while at the least.
I wish everyone in the league the best of luck going forward (in the CSL and in life), and don’t forget to have fun
Cheers,
Doug
i did not expect this at all but best of luck and hope to see you again here soon..à
2020, 2023, 2027
