Pro Basketball in KC:
This is a different topic for me. I do not follow a lot of pro basketball. I lean toward college basketball, KU, MU plus UCM, and MS. With that said, many may remember that KC had an NBA team for a while. They were the KC Kings. They came from Cincinnati where they were called the Royals. The Cincinnati Royals had terrible home attendance and needed to look for a more friendly environment. At first, the team was called the Kansas City-Omaha Kings. They played some games in Omaha. Later they dropped the name Omaha and dropped the games played there. The Kings played in KC from ‘72 to the ‘84-’85 season when they moved to Sacramento. They have had their ups and downs in Sacramento but are still playing there. The old KC Kings had some serious players. Their most memorable player was Nate Archibald.* Note: Kansas City also had a semi-pro team called the KC Steers that played from ‘61-’63. Several local players worked out with them.
If you are much of a NBA fan you probably know or remember the old ABA and how they merged with the NBA in 1976. The original ABA had stars like Dr. J, Rick Barry, and Moses Malone.
Now back to KC pro basketball. The ABA was ‘reformed’ in 2000 by the same people that started the old ABA. The new ABA is a large, ever-changing, collection of semi-pro teams. The league does give many young men a chance to keep their dream alive. It seems the first ‘new’ ABA team in KC was the KC Knights which played from ‘01 to ‘05. Interestingly, their owner was later sent to prison for fraud. KC also had a semi-pro team called the KC Sizzlers, (1985-86). The KC Sizzlers did not draw well and quickly moved to Topeka and then later to Yakima, Washington. Weird huh? So, maybe now we know why the NBA is a little reluctant to put a team in KC. I also had to dig into the pro G-League. It is kind of like the minor league for the NBA. They have a lot of teams in many cities, but KC is not on their list. The G-League is one of the reasons I do not feel college players should be paid. If a college kid is not truly a student-athlete but an athlete just looking to move up to the pros then the G-League is available.
*Nate (Tiny) Archibald came to KC from Cincinnati and was a tremendous player. He later played for the Nets, Celtics, and Bucks. He was inducted into the Basketball HOF in ‘91. He is one of the few players to lead the league in scoring and assists in the same year. He was known for being a small man playing a big man’s game at 6’1”. Yet, he was called Tiny Archibald not because of his height but from his father’s nickname of Big Tiny.
