As some of you may know, I stumbled into this whole “covering the Phoenix Suns” thing back in November 2019. I was writing out of a small corner of the internet, a personal blog I built on Wix, and recording a little show called The Solar Report Podcast. It wasn’t an attempt to rip off what Dave King, Tim Tompkins, and Greg Esposito were doing. Honest. At that point, I barely knew Bright Side existed beyond the occasional read. I had no clue Dave already had The Solar Panel. Oops. My bad. Cosmic coincidence.
Things started to pick up in January 2020 when I began writing for FanSided’s Valley of the Suns. They wouldn’t let me promote the podcast, which was fine, because I recorded anyway. I kept hitting record, week after week, talking hoops into the void.
Eventually, Dave King noticed. He reached out, and before long The Solar Report was invited to join the Bright Side Podcast Network, with a name change, of course. Around that time, I also brought my writing here.
During the strange stillness of COVID, the show briefly became The Suns Report Podcast. That didn’t last long. One night, sitting in my garage, it hit me. JAM. John and Matthew. My co-host and I slapped our names together and The Suns JAM Session was born. Simple, clean, easy to remember.
If you’ve been reading Bright Side since then, you’ve probably seen the Suns JAM Session pop up here and there. It’s one of my favorite things to do. It keeps my pulse alive. It’s where ideas turn into conversations, and conversations turn into stories. Every article I write starts somewhere in that dialogue with my co-host, talking ball, sharing laughs, and diving headfirst into whatever madness this franchise brings next.
As we gear up for another season covering this beautiful madness known as Suns basketball, I’ve decided to make a small tweak to the podcast. Nothing drastic, but something that makes it a little more personal. It starts with the cover art.
For those who don’t know, The Suns JAM Session is the original postgame podcast on Planet Purple. Long before PHNX started firing up live streams, we were doing it, talking through the highs, the heartbreaks, and everything in between. And yes, Planet Purple. Because purple simply owns orange. Always has, always will.
This year, though, I’m doing something a bit obsessive, maybe even masochistic. I’m changing the cover art every game to reflect the current state of the Suns. Sounds tedious? It will be. But it’ll also be a reflection of where this team is, night to night, in all its chaotic beauty.
The inspiration comes from one of the all-time greats: NBA Jam. If you grew up in the 90s, you know what I’m talking about. Whether you played it on Sega or spent too many quarters at the arcade, you remember the thrill of scrolling through teams, picking your duo, and watching those stat bars light up for three-pointers, speed, defense, and dunks.
That’s the blueprint. Every piece of cover art this season will channel that old-school NBA Jam spirit, complete with custom bars for 3PTs, speed, defense, and dunks. Game to game, I’ll adjust the visuals based on performance, vibe, and whatever madness unfolds on the court.
It’s tedious. It’s time-consuming. It’s completely unnecessary. Which is exactly why I love it.
Here’s how it’ll work.
Each category — three-pointers, speed, defense, and dunks — will have ten bars. Think of them as little meters of truth. Since there are 30 teams in the league, each bar represents roughly a third of the standings. So, if the Suns rank among the top three teams in three-point shooting, all ten bars light up green. If they sit dead in the middle of the pack at 15th in pace, six bars glow. Simple, visual, effective.
Take the Suns’ final preseason game, for instance. Below is the graphic with both teams’ attributes properly updated (minus dunks, as there is no tracking of that until the season begins).
It’s easy to find the data. NBA.com was it all, minus the dunks, which can be found via Basketball Reference.
3 PTRS: The team’s three-point percentage
SPEED: The team’s pace of play
DEF.: The team’s defensive rating
DUNKS: Umm… self-explanatory, right?
I’ll be doing this for both teams every game, so when you see the matchup graphic, you’ll immediately know where Phoenix stacks up and how their opponent compares. It’ll give a snapshot of strengths and weaknesses before the ball even tips off.
To save myself from spiraling into spreadsheet madness, I had AI build a little calculator to do the math for me, a small miracle that keeps this whole experiment feasible. Ahhhh. So this is what AI is good for!
Enter each league rank from 1 to 30 to see the 1–10 scale equivalent.
Calculate Reset Copy results
Maybe I’m out of my mind. Maybe this is unnecessary. But it’s fun. It adds a layer of context for anyone watching live or even scrolling through the channel. It’s a tiny creative touch that makes the podcast feel alive, game to game.
You’ll see it all on our YouTube channel. And if you haven’t subscribed yet, I’d really appreciate it if you did. We’ve been hovering around 3,800 subscribers for what feels like forever, despite putting out content that’s thoughtful, detailed, and fully steeped in Suns’ insanity.
Hopefully, this new addition brings a little more life to the experience, something you can enjoy visually while listening to the conversations that often fuel the words you read here on Bright Side of the Sun.