KC’S NBA bid fell short but illuminated constructive spirit between competing forces

If a sequence of circumstances had played out otherwise, the T-mobile Center on Wednesday night might have featured the Toronto Raptors playing host to New Orleans in their NBA regular-season opener. But among other cities, Kansas City’s gambit to lure the Raptors for the season as they navigate the pandemic and Canada’s travel restrictions was eclipsed by the enticements of Tampa, Florida.

While it’s unclear to what degree Kansas City’s interest was reciprocated, the most substantial known response from the league or the Raptors to any Kansas City delegation turns out to have been a reply from Commissioner Adam Silver to three civil rights organizations:

Yes, the ones that had written him asking the NBA to consider the Kansas City Police Department’s “extreme hostility” toward Black people and city leadership’s complicity.

Silver’s Nov. 13 letter addressed them: Gwendolyn Grant, president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City; Rodney Williams, president of the KC Chapter of the NAACP; and Vernon Howard, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Kansas City.

“I appreciate your sharing your concerns regarding incidents of racialized violence and racial inequality in Kansas City. Please know that the NBA remains committed to standing for social justice and racial equality and advocating for meaningful reform through our recently established National Basketball Social Justice Coalition,” wrote Silver, later thanking them for their “commitment to addressing critically important issues plaguing the Black community.”

Given the NBA’S priorities and values, the brief letter suggests a constructive level of engagement with Kansas City, somewhat ironically, through a mechanism of protest.

Even with Silver on Monday tenuously acknowledging the prospect of expansion, the exchange may or may not have future implications for the city’s hopes of securing an NBA team, hopes that figure to most hinge on the emergence of a multi-billionaire owner or ownership group. (Despite Lamar Hunt Jr.’s dedication to hockey, that simple financial element also hovers over any future here for the NHL — which as of early this week still was seeking to figure out where its seven Canadian teams would play this season amid reports Kansas City could be considered if the season opens as planned on Jan. 13.)

But something meaningful and encouraging, particularly in these contentious times, stood out about the city’s approaches to the NBA.

And it’s a reminder that this volatile year can be about not just a reckoning but reconciliation, too.

With all due respect applied, a rare commodity these days, we can find a constructive spirit even within competing political forces.

Peer at it through the lens of the dynamics between Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, an ardent NBA proponent, and Rev. Howard.

They came at this from different angles but essentially the same place in their hearts ... and approaches to each other.

Instead of yielding to any impulse to be frustrated with the civil rights leaders as he led the charge for the Raptors, Lucas in a statement praised the organizations for reminding that “preservation of Black lives should be a most pressing concern for our community and our partners.”

As he pondered it all a few weeks later, Lucas said this year has taught him patience “and a much greater level of understanding and listening ability than I think I ever had before. … You have to try to understand why people are doing what they’re doing.”

Meanwhile, Howard vows he will never rest until racism itself is terminated and says it’s “morally wrong, economically exploitative, inhumane to profit from the gifts and talents and beauty of Black men” without eradicating systemic issues and confessions that bring change. He is appointed by Jesus Christ, and so “will do my best, so help me God, to defend the victims of racism and violence and honor those who have given their lives in the struggle ...”

Still, he appreciates that Lucas’ devotion to Kansas City is “a noble thing,” that he has many constituencies to serve and how much they have in common.

“Because of the very real obstacles and challenges that we both have faced and overcome (as) native sons of Kansas City. I have a great amount of respect for that, ” Howard said.

Noting the significance of various matters they’ve worked together on before, he added, “I think it’s critical for Kansas City to know that, whoever might be reading this piece. I think that’s important to know that these are two men and two journeys who have consistently tried to work towards the betterment of Kansas City. And at times have been successful together!”

United by commonalities

The common ground is striking.

Lucas grew up in unstable, sometimes seemingly desperate circumstances, moving often with his single mother and two sisters and at times homeless. While he found solace and sanctuary in libraries, those hard days doubtless informed his passion for the greater good here.

Howard also grew up without a father and remembers struggling early in life, moving from apartment to apartment with his mother and baby sister. As with Lucas, those days have much to do with who he became.

“Transient living with a single-parent mom and absent of a father, by the grace of God, fueled my fire rather than crushing my hope,” Howard wrote in an e-mail followup, later adding, “To be forsaken, to face the reality that your life doesn’t matter to your community or city, is an anguish I have no words for.”

Each had a common haven through sports. Lucas ran track and played soccer at The Barstow School before going on to Washington University in St. Louis and Cornell law school. Sports pages of The Star and other publications inspired him to create a sports journal in which he first chronicled his ongoing fascination with and allegiance to the Chiefs.

Howard played basketball at East High and considers the game to be “a gift to me in so many ways.” He recalls winning a Hotshot contest that earned him a chance to play at Kemper Arena when the Kansas City Kings were playing host to the Detroit Pistons … and remembers seeing the foot of Piston’s star Bob Lanier, a legendary size 22.

Through a labyrinth that included broadcasting William Jewell varsity games before earning a basketball scholarship from an intramural game, this year he was inducted into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame.

Still, he understood something broader about all that.

“The court is a prism into the deeper matters of life,” said Howard, who earned his doctor of ministry from Virginia Union University. “And we can just never forget that.”

Mutual understanding

So here they stand now, each with different views of how the NBA could serve Kansas City but also knowing the other’s priorities are not only valid but crucial.

And understanding that this process has made that more clear and, presumably, helpful going forward in a struggle shared … even if at times by different ways and means.

Lucas certainly knows that “basketball is actually tangential” to the core issue and that the message of the letter the group sent the NBA wasn’t sabotage but a plea to hear their voices.

Voices that say they’d love the NBA to be here. But voices that say in an area where a large percentage of Black families live in poverty and new service jobs aren’t likely to change that much, an area where calls for police reform and accountability remain largely unheeded, that it would be unconscionable not to seize the moment.

Two different approaches, to be sure, but one direction that at least bodes well for future endeavors and hopes.