NBA mascot power rankings, best past and present

13. Go the Gorilla: Phoenix Suns

It must be hard rooting for the Phoenix Suns. Not only has the team delivered a substandard on-court product over the last few seasons, but they also suffer from incompetent ownership.

If you believe Charles Barkley, the Suns organization provides their loyal customer base with dirty seats, cold nachos (with pickles instead of jalapeños), flat sodas and hot dogs with hard buns.

Aside from the promising Deandre Ayton and Devin Booker’s empty-calorie stats, the only thing Suns fans have to hand their hat on is Go the Gorilla, or simply The Gorilla. Phoenix’s resident simian became the official team flagbearer in 1980 in a scenario that has to be read to be believed:

"For the record, this mischievous mascot was born quite by accident. A messenger for Eastern Onion, a singing telegram service, came to the Coliseum during a home game dressed as a gorilla. As he left, Coliseum security suggested he do a few dances underneath the basket during a timeout and the fans loved it. So did the messenger, who kept coming to games until he was officially invited to be part of the team. The messenger, a quiet young man named Henry Rojas, was anything but quiet in his costume. Given a Suns warm-up jacket, Rojas shed his shyness, and turned into an entertainment beast, dancing, joking with fans and, in general, enjoying himself to the fullest."

And with that, The Gorilla became one of the most recognizable mascots in sports. Sure, he has to work really hard to obstruct the fans’ attention from a far-too-often Suns’ blowout loss, but he still brings plenty of enjoyment to those who come and see him at the games.