Steve Kerr's campaign for the Pete Babcock Hall of Fame

Every so often in sports, you encounter a championship-level team that gets completely destroyed by someone who has no idea what the fuck they're doing. It's usually a team that's got most of the right pieces in place, and in searching for that final piece to put them over the hump, they completely destroy the entire thing by killing the thing that made it special in the first place. It's just the classic example of the artist not knowing when to stop tinkering with his masterpiece, except that in this case the artist is overpaid and not very smart.

In 1994, believe it or not, the Atlanta Hawks were major players in the NBA. They were in a neck-and-neck battle with New York and Chicago for the entire season and were expected to make some noise in the playoffs. Led by Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins in his prime and a defensive focus, they started the season ending Houston's 15 game win streak and never looked back.

But there was talk of Dominique Wilkins' upcoming free agency and whether or not he would resign with Atlanta, the only team he'd ever played for. This was back in the days when it wasn't uncommon for a player to stay with one team for his entire career, so there was no reason to think he wouldn't resign. Still, the talk hung over the team for the entire season.

Well, not the entire season. See, then general manager Pete Babcock and his low 50s IQ was convinced that he couldn't resign Wilkins, so at the trading deadline, he shipped him off to the Clippers for Danny Manning, who also didn't resign with the Hawks. Even though the 57-25 Hawks earned the #1 seed in the playoffs, it took them all five games to put away Miami, before falling to the Indiana Pacers in six games. The Hawks were left with, literally nothing. The Wilkins-less, Manning-less team finished the next season at 42-40. All because Pete Babcock had no idea what he was doing.

The sports landscape is littered with stories like this. The 2006 San Diego Chargers firing Marty Schottenheimer after a 14-2 season, because general manager AJ Smith didn't like him. The 1997 Seattle Supersonics trading Shawn Kemp for Vin Baker. The 2004 Los Angeles Lakers trading Shaquille O'Neal for three loaves of bread and a set of steak knives. All of them dropped from championship level teams to struggling to make the playoffs overnight. Well, go ahead and write the Phoenix Suns down on that same list, because if the Shawn Marion for Shaq trade didn't convince anyone, shopping Amare Stoudamire will.

Not only are the Phoenix Suns considering trading Amare Stoudamire, they want to blame all their woes on him, because clearly, it was his decision to trade Shawn Marion, fire coach Mike D'Antoni, and hire Terry Porter to replace him. It couldn't have been because general manager Steve Kerr, who somehow qualified for being a general manager by color commentating at TNT, is about as good at his job as Pete Babcock was at his.

If the Marion trade was just plain stupid, then the idea of trading Stoudamire has to get a brand new word, because "more stupid" can't adequately describe how dumb you have to be to think this is a good idea. Amare Stoudamire is a 26 year old beast from anywhere on the floor who holds career averages of 21 and 9 who fought back from microfracture surgery to become one of the premier power forwards in the league. The knock on him is that he doesn't play defense, but no one on the Suns did when Mike D'Antoni was coach. Defense got in the way of scoring more points.

But instead of tweaking the run-first team that was on the floor and building around Stoudamire, Steve Kerr is determined to turn Phoenix into San Antonio by building around 36 year old Shaquille O'Neal, who can't run with Steve Nash and Stoudamire. Instead of using the old "Showtime" format that Magic Johnson's Lakers used, they're slowing the whole team down, I guess so Shaq won't feel slighted. The entire format of the team changed in favor of a guy who's openly flirting with the Lakers for a return in two years. It's kind of like how the New York Jets fired Eric Mangini in favor of 38 year old Brett Favre, who might not even be back next season. It's almost like Steve Kerr manages both teams.

I guess I just take for granted that anyone working in sports knows to favor your young, up and coming stars, because the veterans are halfway out the door, anyway. Shaquille O'Neal is 36 years old and can't play back-to-back games without needing an IV. Steve Nash is 35 and can't even sit quietly on the bench without his back locking up. Stoudamire is 26 and is the only other star on the team, so logically, that's the guy Kerr islooking to trade. Of course. How'd this strategy work out for the Washington Wizards, when a 40 year old Michael Jordan did the exact same thing by trading 22 year old Rip Hamilton in favor of himself?

The Suns were already burned once by trading Marion, but since they didn't learn the lesson that only a third degree burn can provide, they're about to jam their hand in the fire one more time by shopping Stoudamire. I guess they want to see if there's such a thing as fourth degree burns, but let's face it: You're not getting anything back worth whatever Stoudamire provides. So what are you trying to prove? Are the Suns secretly filming a reality show that answers the question of how quickly one team can prod its own fanbase into rioting? Because the moves that have been made since Steve Kerr has come on board are really making me wonder.