There will be times in the upcoming inaugural season of the Northern Arizona Suns that the players on the Phoenix Suns’ D-League affiliate will be dragged down by minor-league frustrations and lose sight of big-league goals.
Staring back at them will be a reason to believe and focus.
Ty Ellis, the coach for the team's inaugural season, knows how to grind. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees while playing at Southern Nazarene, an NAIA school where stardom usually does not translate to a pro career. He paid his way from Dallas to the Portsmouth Invitational - without an invitation - armed with bio sheets, VHS tapes and dreams that he would not relinquish until he got the one person's attention that mattered.