PHOENIX (AP) — The Phoenix Suns are one of the NBA's feel-good stories this season, having much more success than many anticipated after rebuilding their roster over the summer.
Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein says the best part is it's a team he actually enjoys watching.
Fans apparently agree with him.
The franchise had its 200th consecutive sellout crowd Saturday night, a 108-105 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. It's the second-longest streak in franchise history and the fourth-longest in the NBA behind Miami, Golden State and Utah. Local TV ratings are up 64% compared to last season.
Even the current five-game losing streak can't completely dampen the mood. It's going to take more than a rough 10 days to derail the surprising momentum the Suns have built over the past few months.
“It's pride in building a team that makes the community, Suns fans, proud,” Bartelstein said. "That was the goal. It's a basketball city and they love the Suns. We knew if we built a team that resembled the grit, toughness, playing with joy, that this city deserves, with the talent we had and would bring, that we'd be fine.
“Sometimes you've got to go through some tough times to come out on the other side of it.”
The Suns' relative success — they fell to 39-32 after Saturday's loss — comes a year after one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history. Last year's team was built around the so-called “Big 3” of 15-time All-Star Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and Devin Booker while being led by veteran coach Mike Budenholzer, who won an NBA title with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021.
But the Suns didn't even make the playoffs, finishing with a 36-46 record. Even worse, the team was a chore to watch, with spotty defensive effort and an offense that often turned stagnant, wasting the ample scoring power on the roster.
The crowds at Mortgage Matchup Center — once among the NBA's best — were becoming much more docile. They were still technically selling out games thanks to ticket sales from the high expectations at the beginning of the year, but some seats were empty and interest was fading fast.
It seemed as if the streak would end soon.
That's when owner Mat Ishbia, Bartelstein and newly hired general manager Brian Gregory decided on a new strategy. There would be no more star chasing. Sure, the Suns needed good players, but they also needed the right players, ones who would bring a more hard-nosed persona.
Durant was shipped to the Houston Rockets during the offseason for Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks. The latter has been particularly important to the team's culture change, averaging a career-high 20.9 points per game while providing an edgy presence that gets under the other team's skin.
Brooks has missed the past few weeks with a broken hand, but is expected to return fairly soon.
Beal was released during the offseason, leaving Booker as the team's unquestioned leader and the 29-year-old responded with the fifth All-Star appearance of his career. Budenholzer was fired and first-year coach Jordan Ott was hired.
So far, the moves have worked out quicker than expected.
The Suns are far from perfect, but with three weeks remaining in the regular season, the playoffs are a realistic goal. That's a win for a franchise that looked like as though it might be one of the league's worst teams back in October.
“It's one of the best stories in the NBA, if not the best,” Bartelstein said. “It's all fragile because the season's so long and we're banged up right now, but it's been a really fun season on the court.”
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Phoenix Suns head coach Jordan Ott claps for his players during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs in San Antonio, Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) drives against San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet (7) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in San Antonio, Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
TENERIFE, Spain (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization sought Saturday to reassure residents of the Spanish island where passengers of a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship are expected to be evacuated, issuing them a direct message that the virus was “not another COVID.”
The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, with more than 140 passengers and crew on board, is headed to Spain's Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, and is expected to arrive at the island of Tenerife early Sunday.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, were due on the island Saturday to coordinate the disembarkation of passengers and some crew.
“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment,” Tedros said in a message to the people of Tenerife.
“But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” Tedros added.
The WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said nobody on the Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus.
Hantavirus can cause life-threatening illness. It usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus.
Some on Tenerife say they are worried. On board the cruise ship, some Spanish passengers have voiced concern about being stigmatized.
“I tell you, I don’t like this very much,” said 69-year-old resident Simon Vidal. “Anyone can say what they want. Why did they have to bring a boat from another country here? Why not anywhere else, why bring it to the Canary Islands?”
Others said they empathized with the boat's passengers, but were still concerned.
“The truth is that it is very worrying,” said 27-year-old Venezuelan immigrant Samantha Aguero. She added: “We feel a bit unsafe, we don’t feel as there are 100% security measures in place to welcome it. This is a virus after all and we have lived this during the pandemic. But we also need to have empathy.”
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said passengers and some crew would disembark in Tenerife “under maximum safety conditions.”
The ship will not dock but will remain at anchor. Everyone disembarking will be checked for symptoms and won't be taken off the ship until a flight is already in Tenerife waiting to fly them off the island, Garcia said during a news conference in Madrid. There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.
Both the U.S. and the U.K. have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens. Americans are to be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska.
All Spanish passengers will be transferred to a medical facility and quarantined, Garcia said. Oceanwide has listed 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board.
Those disembarking will leave behind their luggage, Garcia said, and will be allowed to take only a small bag with essential items, a cellphone, charger and documentation.
Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to the Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, the minister added.
According to a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late Friday, Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for a medical evacuation plane equipped for infections diseases to be on standby in case anyone on the ship becomes ill. That person would then be transported by air to the European mainland.
The Dutch government will work with Spanish authorities and the ship company to arrange repatriation of Dutch passengers and crew as soon as possible after arrival in Tenerife, subject to medical conditions and advice from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the letter said. Those without symptoms will go into home quarantine for six weeks and be monitored by local health services.
As the ship is Dutch-flagged, the Netherlands may also temporarily accommodate people of other nationalities and monitor them in quarantine, it said.
Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked before the deadly outbreak was detected. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.
On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, Dutch officials and the ship’s operator have said.
It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a passenger.
Dutch public health authorities have been monitoring people who were on a flight that was briefly boarded by a Dutch ship passenger who later died and was confirmed to have hantavirus. Three people who were on the flight and had symptoms have all tested negative for hantavirus, Dutch National Institute for Public Health spokesperson Harald Wychgel told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Becatoros reported from Sparta, Greece. Associated Press reporters Angela Charlton in Paris and Helena Alves in Tenerife contributed to this report.
A Spanish Civil Guard officer inspects the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Media crew members stand in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Passengers on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, scan the horizon with binoculars during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger checks his camera inside his cabin on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Crew members of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, wait their turns for a first interview with epidemiologists, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, takes a photo of the ship's weighing anchor in Praia, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
