Mayor Lucas invites Thunder to move to KC after Oklahoma legislator’s threat
When the T-Mobile Center (née Sprint Center) opened in 2007, sports fans in Kansas City eagerly awaited the announcement of an NBA or NHL team that would play there.
The wait continues.
But Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas has extended an invitation to the Thunder to leave Oklahoma City. That’s not going to happen, of course, but Lucas playfully made the offer following a threat last week from Oklahoma state representative Sean Roberts.
Unhappy that Thunder players were kneeling during the national anthem, Roberts said it might be time to look closer at the tax benefits the NBA team received after relocating from Seattle.
“By kneeling during the playing of the national anthem, the NBA and its players are showing disrespect to the American flag and all it stands for. This anti-patriotic act makes clear the NBA’s support of the Black Lives Matter group and its goal of defunding our nation’s police, its ties to Marxism and its efforts to destroy nuclear families,” Roberts said in a statement.
“If the Oklahoma City Thunder leadership and players follow the current trend of the NBA by kneeling during the national anthem prior to Saturday’s game, perhaps we need to reexamine the significant tax benefits the State of Oklahoma granted the Oklahoma City Thunder organization when they came to Oklahoma.”
On Saturday, the players took a knee again, and that led Lucas to tweet this to the Thunder:
Roberts is from Hominy, Oklahoma, which is in the northern part of the state, a fact noted by Oklahoma City mayor David Holt when he responded to Lucas’ tweet.
Holt said the Thunder wouldn’t be moving and invited Lucas to a game when it’s safe for fans to return:
This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 9:57 AM.
