chastised them by saying, "you'll be sorry that you booed this young man." In 1989, he won his second NBA Coach of the Year Award. Fitzsimmons inherited a team that had finished 28–54, and improved them to 55–27. The Suns defeated the Denver Nuggets (3–0) and Golden State Warriors (4–1) in the playoffs before being swept by the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. After another successful season, the Suns returned to the NBA playoffs in 1990. This time around, they returned the favor on the Lakers, beating them 4 games to 1 at the Western Conference's Semi-Finals, but once again, Fitzsimmons' team fell short at the NBA's Western Conference Finals, losing to the Portland Trail Blazers, 4 games to 2. In 1991, the Suns lost to the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference Playoffs' first round, 3 games to 1. During the rest of the playoffs, Fitzsimmons served briefly as a color commentator for NBC, most notably, alongside Marv Albert for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons. In 1992, Cotton Fitzsimmons became only the sixth coach in NBA history to reach 800 wins. After losing to the Trail Blazers in that year's Western Conference Semifinals, 4 games to 1, Fitzsimmons retired as coach, to work as Suns senior executive vice-president. By then a long-time friend of Colangelo, he helped Colangelo decide to trade Jeff Hornacek, Andrew Lang and Tim Perry for Charles Barkley, while also helping with the decision of signing free agent Danny Ainge. He also did television commentary, joining Al McCoy for Suns broadcasts. In 1996, Fitzsimmons became the Suns head coach for the third time, guiding the Suns to the NBA Playoffs, where they lost to the Spurs, 3 games to 1. The 1996–97 Suns lost their first eight games, and Fitzsimmons resigned as head coach. With 832 wins and 775 losses, Fitzsimmons was the eighth winningest coach in NBA history. He has since slipped to number ten in the all-time winning list as an NBA coach. Personal Fitzsimmons was diagnosed with lung cancer later on in life. His family chose to keep his health status private. Months after being diagnosed with cancer, his condition worsened because of a brain stroke. He suffered two more brain strokes before it was finally revealed to the public that he was in serious condition at a local hospital. On July