We The Midwest? If the Toronto Raptors are looking for a guest host, try Kansas City
An NBA team for Kansas City on a temporary basis? Patrick Mahomes wants it. So does Mayor Quinton Lucas.
Let the speculation begin.
A rumor making the rounds last week involved the 2019 NBA champion Toronto Raptors possibly looking for rental space as a contingency plan if the team can’t play at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Non-essential travel into Canada has been banned during the pandemic. That’s why baseball’s Blue Jays played their home games in Buffalo, N.Y. Major League Soccer teams in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are playing home games in the United States, too.
Are the Raptors next? And if so, where?
The rumor for a temporary home last week was Louisville. But the Raptors beat writer for the Toronto Star, Doug Smith, dismissed the idea of that Kentucky city in a recent blog post.
“Do you think for one second that the players’ association would agree to, or that the league would ever propose, even temporarily moving a franchise to the city where the cops shot Breonna Taylor?” Smith wrote. “It’s ludicrous.”
Kansas City, meanwhile, may not be so ludicrous, with an NBA-ready arena in T-Mobile Center, a new Lowes downtown luxury hotel and a proven hunger for games. NBA exhibitions have played to big crowds in the building once known as Sprint Center.
The NBA hasn’t released its 2020-21 schedule but is talking about the season starting around Christmas. And Smith said that he believes the NBA will “come up with a plan that appeases the federal government enough they will agree to it.”
But Kansas City, which last played host to a regular-season NBA game on April 14, 1985 — a KC Kings 122-116 loss to the Lakers before the franchise moved on to Sacramento — would be a welcoming guest host.
“We The North” could set up shop in the Midwest. Just ask the superstar quarterback of the Chiefs and the city’s mayor.