Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • SP4

4SP SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2018 THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC Walter Davis Shooting Guard BEST: SHOOTING GUARD How you voted We asked you to choose the best Suns player at each position over the past 50 years. how you voted at shooting guard: Walter Davis ..........................................547 Paul Westphal .......................................196 Devin Booker .........................................168 Dick Van Arsdale ....................................83 Al take on Davis Davis was the man with the velvet touch, and probably was the best pure shooter to ever put on a Suns uniform. A great guy, great play- er, and certainly one of the best, no question about Booker for 70 Before March 24, 2017, only five play- ers in NBA history scored as many as 70 point in a game: Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant, David Thompson, Elgin Baylor and David Robinson. On this night in Boston, Devin Booker, 20, made it six. world Paul Westphal was a first-team All- NBA pick in three of his six seasons in Phoenix.

Acquired in a 1975 trade with Boston, first season with the Suns was, to say the least, memo- rable 20.5 points per game in the first trip to the NBA Finals. Original Sun Dick Van Arsdale was many things in his NBA career second-round draft pick, All-Rookie Team selection, three- time All-Star but in Arizona he will always be known as the Original Sun. Taken from the Knicks in the 1968 expansion draft, Van Arsdale scored the first points in the first offi- cial game. He played nine seasons in Phoenix, the last one with his twin brother Tom, later was the general manager and has been a VP for basketball operations. Suns guard Devin Booker shoots over Celtics Jonas Jerebko, left, and Terry Rozier in 2017.

BOB TODAY SPORTS The Phoenix Paul Westphal goes up for a shot in 1979. GARY REPUBLIC start with some of the nick- names because there were plenty. Greyhound. Sweet D. The Man With the Velvet Touch.

Walter Davis was all of those things and much, much more. His relationship with Phoenix was fractured at times, but his accolades are clear. the all-time leading scor- er, netting 15,666 points while suited up in purple and orange. The points started falling fast and they started falling early. Davis was the overall pick in the 1977 draft, with the Suns plucking him from the University of North Carolina.

A North Carolinian born and raised, Davis would then spend the next 11 years of his life in the desert. If the adjustment was tough, Davis certainly show it. He averaged 24.2 points in his rookie campaign, playing in every game but one. "They played exactly the same way that we did at North Carolina fast- breaking, team basketball. I got out there at small forward and ran," Davis told ESPN in 2003.

And run he did. Playing alongside Paul Westphal and Don Buse, Davis helped lead the team to 49 wins, 15 more than the previous season. He did all this in front of record crowds; the Suns averaged 11,464 fans at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. For that, he was named the Rookie of the Year. He would never top those 24.2 points per game, but he came close.

Davis averaged 20 points or more six times in his 15-year career. It just that the shots fell; it was how pretty they looked along the way. After all, you have the masses herald your velvet touch with- out a silky smooth jumper. At 6-feet-6 but a lean 193 pounds, his style of play was by his ef- fortless elegance. He was too.

In his time in Phoenix, he averaged 20.5 points per contest while using hovering around 30 minutes a game. He also had a career shooting percentage of 51.1, despite attacking from the perime- ter. At one point, Davis held the record for most total points scored without a miss, 34. "I don't remember a sweeter shot," former teammate and fellow Suns Ring of Honor member Alvan Adams told NBA.com. "Ray Allen's got a great shot.

The Splash Brothers (Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, He was a feared shooter. The other team knew it, too. "Walter was one of the great shooters in NBA history." He was named an All-Star in each of his four seasons, helping Phoenix return to the each of the next eight years. In total, he received All-Star nods six times, all while playing in the Valley of the Sun. The Sweet moniker started during his Chapel Hill days, where he played under coaching legend Dean Smith.

Smith also coached Davis on the 1976 Olympic men's basketball team, which captured gold in Montreal. "Sweet was a testament to his lock-down defense, but also his glossy movements that carried him across the court. All of his nicknames went back to that same smooth nature. But life is messy, and relationship with the Suns got rocky. In the 1980s, Davis was dealing with cocaine addiction, entering rehab twice.

As he tried to steer his personal life back on track, his game was The problems were more wide- spread. The team as a whole found itself in the middle of a drug scandal that rocked the league. In 1987, Davis ended up testifying against teammates in exchange for im- munity. It begot a nickname, one that Davis would probably like to smooth over: Waltergate. "I had no choice.

I had to answer their questions," he told Sports Illustrated's Armen Keteyian in 1987. "The last thing I wanted to do was get my teammates and friends indicted. If I'd known I was going to do that, I'd have probably gone to jail instead." He avoided jail, and his teammates avoided trial. But there was no statute of limitations on the fallout. A year later, Davis would play his last game with the franchise.

His output had dipped; he was aver- aging just 17.9 points per game. The team had been shell-shocked and would garner just 28 wins. With his contract up, the Suns were not particularly aggressive about re- signing him. Davis became a free agent and signed with the Denver Nuggets. Davis was known as "Greyhound" for his appearance, but also for the way he bounded up and down the court.

In many ways, he made a habit out of bouncing back. He had faced elbow, knee and back injuries throughout his time in Phoenix. He moved from small forward to shoot- ing guard and back again. He faced de- mons in his personal life but fought hard to shake addiction there, too. Davis masked those bumps each time he stepped on the court, making the crowd go wide-eyed at that silken shot.

If the initial break with the franchise felt jagged, Sweet and the Suns smoothed it over. In 1994, the Suns re- tired his Number 6, and 10 years later, Davis was added to the Ring of Honor, a tangible sign of the impact he'd made in his 11 years with the Suns. feel part of the Suns Da- vis told The Republic in 2011. He was a part. He was a Greyhound, the Man with the Velvet touch and Sweet D.

But above all, he was a Sun. Phoenix Suns guard Walter Davis the way to the basket blocked by the T. R. Dunn (left) and teammate Danny Schayes during a game in 1988. BOB GAZETTE Davis silky smooth on the court, tumultuous it The Davis With Suns: 1977-78 to 1987-88.

College: University of North Carolina. Honors: NBA Rookie of the Year (1977- 78), six-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA. Key stats: Suns all-time leading scorer also Top 10 in franchise history for games played (2nd), goals and attempts (1st), free throws (4th), as- sists (4th), steals (3rd) and offensive rebounds (9th). Katherine Fitzgerald Arizona Republic USA TODAY NETWORK.