Not a fan of all sport, but that’s OK

There are sports which I don’t find myself drawn to as a fan but cover — or would cover if need be — because it’s what I do. I’m a journalist, specifically a sports journalist.

Right now my mind is on professional hockey and basketball because the NHL and NBA wrapped up their 2019 playoffs. There was a time when I could have been big fans of each of those sports. If I had to choose one to be a fan right now it would be the NHL — and I know very little about hockey.

I will watch the Stanley Cup Finals. I had last Wednesday’s Game 7 between the St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins on the television at the Newton Daily News office which waiting for high school baseball and softball results. I’m not an every day hockey fan.

What brought all this to mind was a tweet with a graphic I saw following Wednesday’s game. “Kansas City was the No. 5 rated market in the country for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals last night.” The graphic and information was put together by NBC Sports PR.

I watched no NBA game or playoff game. I haven’t in many years. There was a time I’d watch the NBA Finals but I can’t stand the game they play, it’s all about 3-pointers and slam dunks. I do respect one of the veteran NBA coaches — Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs.

I saw this quote by Coach Pop in November about the NBA shooting more 3-pointers:“There’s no basketball anymore, there’s no beauty in it. It’s pretty boring.” Sums it up for me.

While I was in high school in the 1970s, the NBA and NHL came to my hometown area in Kansas. Kansas City, Mo., is the home of all my professional sports teams — the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals. I lived the first five years of my life in Kansas City, Kan., before we moved to a rural area between the Kansas City metropolitan area and Lawrence, Kan.

In 1972, the Kansas City Kings or initially the Kansas City-Omaha Kings came to bring the NBA to our area. They were originally the Cincinnati Royals — changed the name after reaching Kansas City because of our baseball team.

The NBA team was in Kansas City from 1972 to 1985 then the owner moved it to Sacramento, Calif. I remember a couple of players from those days — Nate Archibald, Phil Ford and Otis Birdsong — and one coach — Cotton Fitzsimmons. I think they thought it would be a great place to have an NBA team with the University of Kansas just west of Kansas City. It just never took off.

NHL was only in Kansas City for two years with the Kansas City Scouts, 1974-76. It was an NHS expansion team. It didn’t work either. The franchise moved to Denver in 1976 as the Colorado Rockies then on to New Jersey in 1982 as the New Jersey Devils.

The Scouts suffered from inflated player costs, undercapitalized ownership, an economic downturn in the Midwest, poor performances on the ice and weak attendance. The Scouts averaged just 8,218 per game during their two years in the 17,000-seat Kemper Arena (at a time when the league average was approximately 13,000).

So, that tweet by NBC Sports was interesting to me.

Motorsports are not in my fan wheelhouse but they are in my journalist wheelhouse. I covered dirt track stock car racing in Kansas for almost 30 years. For the past six years here, I’ve been at the Iowa Speedway working to give our readers the best coverage I can of NASCAR and IndyCar racing.

I have to thank those people who work at Iowa Speedway, NASCAR and IndyCar for providing me with guidance in covering the sport. Also, the drivers and racing teams for being patient with a non-motorsports junkie to help me understand the sport enough to tell their stories before, during and after races.

To cover sports, we all don’t need to have participated in those sports or even be a fan of those sports. We do the research, ask people in the know for help and tell the story correctly.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at jsheets@newtondailynews.com