It was another big night Saturday at the AutoTrader.com Open, a desert tradition dating back to 2008.

OK, so playing an NBA exhibition game in the Coachella Valley two years in a row might not constitute a tradition.

The Coachella Valley's NBA connection, at least to the outdoor game at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, barely registers on the tradition scale compared to the Bob Hope Classic, the Kraft Nabisco Championship or the tennis event played in the same stadium, the PNB Paribas Open.

But tradition has to start somewhere. Heck, the Hope tournament barely survived its first year in the desert, and now it's starting its second half-century. So as fledgling traditions go, the NBA under the stars is off to a good start. At least that's the way desert resident and minority Phoenix owner Richard Heckmann sees it.

As a resident of the desert, Heckmann has seen what works in the desert and what doesn't. In just the last 20 years, the desert has seen plenty of short-term sporting events, like the NFL Fastest Man Contest, the Pepsi All-Star Softball game or even some short-term golf tournaments such as the Lexus Challenge or the Diners Club Matches. They were events that rolled into town, sold tickets and rolled back out without having much of a connection to the desert.

Heckman, the rest of the Suns organization, the city of Indian Wells and the folks who run the Tennis Garden believe they found a way to grow roots in the desert sands Thursday night with a high school basketball game on the same court the Suns and Warriors played on Saturday.

The event featured high school bands and the teams from Palm Desert and La Quinta high schools. It was a fund-raiser for the schools, and Heckmann said it was as if a light went on for everyone involved with the AutoTrader.com game. Make the outdoor game the crown jewel of a three- or four-day festival featuring more high schools, more bands and more money for the schools. Make the outdoor game something the desert looks forward to each year by getting the desert involved.

Already Heckmann and the rest of the Suns organization are planning for 2010, meaning they have 12 months to pull together a larger version of what they did with the one high school game this year in just one month.

Bringing the high schools and fundraising into the mix is a brilliant stroke. The Hope Classic is part of the fabric of the desert because it has given $47 million to desert charities. The Kraft Nabisco doesn't give as much money away, but its ties to desert charity organizations and a network of volunteers from the area date back almost four decades.

But as Heckmann pointed out, the outdoor game could be something specifically for high schools, which are hurting for any kind of funding they can get these days. And what better way to hook into the desert than appealing to youngsters who could be fans of the game for years and years to come.

As for the professional part of the game, it's interesting that four other NBA franchises had representatives at the game Saturday, just kind of checking out how the game works. It wouldn't be a stretch to think that one of those four teams, Portland, Miami, the Los Angeles Clippers or Denver (last year's opponent) will be in the game next October. But that game could be just the capper of a celebration of the game from the high school level up.

It is certainly true that Saturday night's game didn't have the same buzz as the debut event last October. The novelty of an outdoor game isn't quite what it was for the first game, and the Suns weren't helped by not having a big drawing card like Shaquille O'Neal, gone from last year's Suns' roster. And Golden State, frankly, ranks pretty low on the list of appealing opponents for the game.

But the crowd filled in nicely, and you have to believe a lot of the almost 15,000 fans that came to this game came last year, too.

Getting people to come back year after year, and giving those people something more than just a 48-minute NBA game, is one way to establish a tradition. And that's just what the Suns plan to do.