opinion

Fans to Morris brothers: Thanks. Now shut up and play

The Morris brothers are young men. Young millionaires. Young, gifted – blessed – professional athletes. But still young, and young people can sometimes be injudicious.

With that in mind, I would like pass along this small bit of advice to Phoenix Suns stars Markieff and Marcus (particularly Markieff). Something I've heard from a several Suns fans over the weekend:

Shut up.

And play.

After the team's recent loss to the San Antonio Spurs Markieff said, "I don't think we have a home-court advantage. It does not feel like a home-court advantage at all. Some games are going to be bad. You can't win every game. That comes along with sports. Nobody wins games. We need the support. We need, as a team, to know that our fans are going to be behind us and I don't feel like this year they're behind us enough.

"I feel like we do have those genuine Suns fans but, for the most parts, I feel like we had more San Antonio than Phoenix fans tonight."

His brother chimed in, "We didn't have no energy, building wasn't energetic. I saw more Spurs jerseys than Suns jerseys, so sometimes when you come out flat you need your fans to pick you up and we didn't get that tonight. We can't blame them for the loss, but if they can help out a little bit."

That's true. Noisy, enthusiastic fans can help a team.

But here's the thing.

Fans are paying customers.

They're not required to do anything.

Players, on the other hand, are PAID to play.

And in the case of the Morris brothers, they are paid very, very well.

Last year, the team decided to keep both brothers. And, in doing so, handed over a total of $52 million for four years, leaving it to the twins to determine how the money would be split.

Highly paid professionals should need no more motivation than their enormous salaries.I am a sports fan, not a sportswriter. The fans who have written to me are regular folks who work hard every day for a lot less money that professional athletes and never have anyone cheering for them. Ever. The way they figure it -- and I agree -- it shouldn't matter if the basketball arena is empty when you are being paid millions to play.

Think of all the hundreds of thousands of amateur players – millions maybe -- whose dream of signing a professional contract never comes true.

You want fan support?

Win.

That usually does it.

You want a pat on the back?

Turn in your Suns' uniforms and join a church league or a YMCA team.

On the other hand, if you want to be admired, appreciated multi-millionaire professionals you need only do two things:

Play.

And once in awhile ... don't talk.

Photos: Spurs at Suns