Hey, would you look at that? It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time to climb back into the Wayback Machine and see what Bright Side of the Sun looked like once upon a time.
Today, we’re rewinding 14 years to the summer of 2012. It was an offseason full of hope, frustration, and one giant gut punch. The Suns handed Eric Gordon a four-year offer sheet, only to watch the New Orleans Hornets match it. Phoenix was coming off a 33-33 season that had been shortened by the lockout. Then came the move that officially closed one chapter of the Suns’ history. Steve Nash was on his way to the Lakers.
We’re setting the dial to July 12, 2012, using the Internet Archive to revisit what Bright Side of the Sun looked like only hours before that deal became official. It’s a snapshot of a fan base standing on the edge of a new era, even if none of us knew exactly what was waiting on the other side.
I highly recommend [following this link](https://web.archive.org/web/20120712005724/http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/) and spending a few minutes exploring this page yourself. Sure, I posted screenshots above, but they don’t really do it justice. Click through a few of the old articles, and you’ll probably recognize some names. Not the authors, necessarily, but the commenters. If you’ve been around here long enough, you’ll spot a few familiar faces from the old days, back when the comment section felt like the neighborhood bar where every regular had their usual stool.
This version of Bright Side looked chunky. It looked busy. It also worked. There was a poll asking how you felt about the Suns. RSS feeds were front and center. You could become a fan of Bright Side on Facebook. It doesn’t get much more 2012 than that.
Then there are the little details that make me smile. The original Twitter logo. The Suns roster sitting in the right sidebar. The team’s record, along with games back, current streak, and games remaining. It was all sitting there on the front page, waiting for you. No extra clicks or hunting around. Everything you needed was in one place. This was a one-stop shop.
Was it overwhelming? Probably. It also wasn’t built for a world where everyone was staring at a six-inch screen. It was designed for a monitor, a mouse, and someone willing to spend an hour falling down a rabbit hole. To me, this is what a sports blog looked like. Not polished, not minimalist, and not obsessed with whitespace. It was packed with information and proud of it, and I think it pulled it off spectacularly.
The logo still had some growing up to do, although that would change soon enough as SB Nation continued to evolve. Looking back only 14 years, it’s remarkable how much has changed. The internet feels different. Sports media feels different. Bright Side of the Sun feels different.
Maybe that’s the point of this series. It’s not about wishing we could go back. It’s about appreciating where we’ve been, and realizing how far we’ve come.