Stern visit, TV additions, more slices

Phoenix Suns update:

Off-day Orange Slices ...

* It has been almost five years since the 2007 playoff suspensions of Boris Diaw and Amar'e Stoudemire. Is all forgotten?

That ruling hangs in Suns fans' memories like a haunting shadow but the flashbacks will come before their eyes Tuesday night. Diaw returns as a San Antonio Spur, of all things, and NBA Commissioner David Stern will attend the game.

Stern has been back in the arena fora private All-Star Game announcement in 2008 and the All-Star Weekend itself in 2009 but the former was a controlled business environment on a non-game day and the latter was more of a national, corporate crowd than a Phoenix crowd. This will be Stern's first time to walk among and be seen by Suns fans at their purple palace, although Stern will watch the game from a midcourt suite and likely not be introduced to the crowd.

Stern is in town on other league business unrelated directly to the Suns.

* You can tell the Suns are back in the playoff hunt when the networks are adding their games.

Earlier this season, two Suns games' national telecasts were dropped as they struggled. Today, ESPN has added the Suns' April 13 game at Houston and TNT added the April 24 game at Utah, changing the Utah game time to 7:30 Phoenix time.

* Today's news that Amar'e Stoudemire is out indefinitely after a MRI revealed a bulging disk goes back to the point made in this story that Managing Partner Robert Sarver perhaps was just in making a maximum-salary contract offer with stipulations that protected him against Stoudemire's health issues.

* The best part of the ongoing free throw swish competition has been the celebrations that now include a championship belt to the winner of the post-practice or post-shootaround contest. Ronnie Price has added a new element. After winning the last swish showdown on the road (first to five swishes wins), Price enlisted rookie Markieff Morris to be his hypeman. Pricegreeted the team once this weekendwearing a robeasMorris carried the belt walking behind him.

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Stern visit, TV additions, more slices