"Jason Richardson woke up Saturday in his new home, a Phoenix hotel room. After waking from his first full night's sleep in three days, he peered out a sun-kissed window.

"It was surreal," he said. "I wake up and it looks like it's about 90 degrees. Back in Charlotte, it's cold and probably raining. That put a smile on my face, like, 'This is the life here.' "

Life as a Suns player began with a US Airways Center standing ovation that shocked him as he entered Friday's first quarter. The good life continued with a 21-point game, the best midseason Suns debut ever, on Friday and a Suns 101 class at Saturday's practice for Richardson and Jared Dudley, the other Charlotte import from Wednesday's trade.

Everything about the chance to play for a winner is so special to Richardson that his trip back to US Airways Center on Saturday felt like an All-Star practice. There is Grant Hill, a former Pistons player the Saginaw, Mich., native grew up idolizing. There's Steve Nash, Amaré Stoudemire and Shaquille O'Neal, who rejoined the team and welcomed his new teammate.

"He told me, when he's in there, throw it to him," said Richardson, perhaps not realizing yet that O'Neal was not joking. "If you're in the outside lane, cut because he's going to throw me a pass and put us both on SportsCenter."

Richardson has played for one winning team, the 2006-07 Golden State Warriors who went 42-40.

"They (the Suns) just added an unbelievable piece," Charlotte coach Larry Brown told the Charlotte Observer. "He averaged 20 a game for us this year without a true post game. When you put him with Shaq, who can pass the ball and command double teams and Stoudemire as well and a guy like Steve Nash, they've got a pretty formidable weapon."

When a good player gets his first shot at playing on a top team, the product often is that his strengths are maximized and his weaknesses are minimized."