There seems to be a pattern emerging lately of sportscasters, NBA teams and MLB teams claiming they are being haunted by ghosts. See our other stories on the Knicks, the Lakers, the Marlins, and Bill Simmons. You may now add the Phoenix Suns to that list.
G-g-g-ghosts! Oh yeah, we play basketball, too! Please pay attention to us?
Be afraid, be very afraid. We’ve come to the following conclusion: lately, Phoenix Suns ghost stories have been much more intriguing than their game stories. (Feel free to fear both my conclusion and this tale).
And yes, we said – ghost stories. As in spooky, scary, haunted hotels.
“Something about the water running in the sink,” recounted Alvin Gentry, obviously bemused. “I think he should’ve recorded it, if it’s going to be legit.”
Paulie Poltergeist doesn’t have infrared video evidence. But! What if we said we have a first-person eyewitness account from one of Coach Gentry’s players. Well, sort of.
“I went to sleep and woke up the next morning. I remembered that I left my bathroom door open,” said Wesley Johnson.“But I got up and it was closed.” (Cue the scary music soundtrack from the horror movie of your choice.)
This hotel o’ horrors would be the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City. It’s 101 years old and seemingly boasts more than 100+ stories that include the words “creepy, chilling, supernatural.”
“So, I was thinking that I was still groggy from the morning and then I had a tub full of water,” Johnson continued. “That’s a lot of water for the pipes to be old and filled up like that. Then everybody else was telling me their stories.”
Simply put, the Suns went to OKC and saw a ghost. Actually, according to Johnson, an assistant coach saw a ghost as well. And, no, the ghosts weren’t NBA All-Stars named Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook.
“One of the coach’s sinks was on full blast when he got out of the shower,” shared Johnson, before returning to the tale of his own harrowing haunting.
“Just waking up in the morning and seeing that tub full of water had me kind of iffy about what was going on,” Johnson said calmly. “I wanted to change rooms but I decided to stick it out.”
According to Wikipedia (what better source for paranormal activity, right?), recent NBA history is slimed, err, littered with hardwood hauntings. In 2010, the New York Knicks famously blamed their loss on the haunted hotel. The Chicago Bulls have reported doors slamming shut on their own. And during the 2012 NBA Finals, this story again received national attention when the Miami Heat was staying in the visiting team hotel.
“Supposedly, I guess they saw a ghost,” Gentry summed up. “I didn’t think you could see ghosts, though. So, I’m a little confused by that.”
Stay scared, err, tuned. The Suns return to the OKC (and Skirvin Hotel) for a game on Friday, February 8th.
It does seem a bit odd to me that all of the paranormal activity mentioned in this story is bathroom related, with the bathroom door closing, water running, and the tub being full of water.
