Kyle Macy: The Phoenix Suns' Original Three-Point Ace
Kyle Macy was drafted by the Phoenix Suns 22nd overall in the 1979 NBA draft. He would bring durability, shooting, and incredible efficiency to the team.
The guard still owns the 2nd highest free throw percentage in Suns’ history, trailing only the legendary Steve Nash.
Macy didn’t miss a game in his first four seasons with the Suns, led the NBA in free throw shooting percentage twice in his career, and shot over .500 percent for his career, an amazing feat for a guard.
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Kyle Macy: The College Years
Macy started his career at the Purdue University, and ended up staying only one season before transferring to the University of Kentucky. Boy did Macy impress in that one season though.
Now, there is the Kyle Macy Award, which is given annually to the top college freshman player in the country.
Things got even better though: he won a national championship in 1978 and made three All-American teams at the University of Kentucky.
More about this later, but Macy was actually drafted into the NBA while still in college. His college experience was a little bit more epic than mine.
Ultimately Macy finished as one of the most efficient Kentucky shooters of all time, similar to his later achievements with the Suns.
Kyle Macy’s Time In Phoenix
Macy was actually drafted while still in college at Kentucky. The Suns took him in the 1979 draft, then had to wait a season for him to join the team. It was worth the wait.
The Phoenix Suns’ teams during this era were a different breed than most associated with the Suns: they played strong defense, and the offense didn’t run through the point guard.
Remember that Alvan Adams was one of the greatest passing big men of all time. On the 1980-81 Suns he led the team in assists by a wide margin with 4.6 per game. Macy, a player that had won everywhere he had gone, was able to fit in well with this offense and score efficiently when he shot.
Led by coach John Macleod for all five seasons Macy was on the Suns, the team made the playoffs every season. However, playoff success was hard to find.
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The Suns’ best season with Macy may have been their first. In 1980-81, the Suns would go 57-25, playing one of the fastest paces in the league and playing some of the best defense. That team finished with the best defensive rating in the NBA.
They would be outed from the first round in 7 games by the Kansas City Kings. That team was led by high-scoring guard Otis Birdsong and featured the Suns’ 1975 NBA Finals nemesis Jo Jo White in a reduced role.
The Suns may not have realized it at the time, but the Western Conference was now under new ownership, thanks to the Lakers’ recent draft pick Magic Johnson.
In retrospect, the Phoenix Suns’ 1st round defeat hurt even more considering the Los Angeles Lakers also lost in the first round that season.
The Lakers wouldn’t lose a series to a Western Conference team again for the next four years, winning the Western Conference 4 straight times. They’d ultimately win 7 conference titles out of 8, and 8 out of 10, winning four NBA Finals during the 1980’s.
These Suns may have just lived in the wrong era. The 1981-82 season was a promising one: the Suns returned the core of Alvan Adams, Walter Davis, Dennis Johnson, Truck Johnson, Alvin Scott, Rich Kelly and Macy. The team also added Larry Nance, giving them an added defensive presence.
After a 46-36 regular season, the Suns beat the Denver Nuggets two games to one in the first round, only to be swept by the Los Angeles Lakers. That team was disgustingly stacked, highlighted by Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but with so much more talent than just those two guys.
The next season, Truck was gone and Nance became a beast, leading the Suns in minutes and blocking 2.6 shots per game. Rich Kelly was also gone and Maurice Lucas joined the team.
That 1982-83 team pushed Kyle Macy to the bench and started Lucas (6-foot-9), Larry Nance (6-foot-10), Alvan Adams (6-foot-9), Walter Davis (6-foot-6), and Dennis Johnson (6-foot-4).
The team once again played strong defense and finished 53-29, only to lose to the Denver Nuggets in the first round this time. Those best-of-three series were tough.
In 1983-84, the Suns were sitting at 35-41 with 6 games to play. It looked as if the window for the Suns may be closing. Instead, the Suns won their final six games, then beat the Portland Trail Blazers and the Utah Jazz in the playoffs.
You already know the ending. The same villain as before: the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Suns in 6 in the Western Conference finals. No repeats of the Sunderella Suns’ run to the finals.
The wheels fell off the next season. In 1984-85, only making the playoffs due to the league’s structure, the 36-46 Suns were swept out by the Los Angeles Lakers once again. This one didn’t hurt the same, since this wasn’t the same Suns squad.
Macy would leave in free agency that next offseason, and be out of the NBA after just two more seasons.
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