KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Three times in my life I have come to Kansas City, and two of them were to cover first-time WNBA contests, both involving the Minnesota Lynx. Twenty years ago in 2005, the team played at Kemper Arena. This time, it was the Nigerian National Team serving as their preseason opponent April 27 at the city’s newer downtown arena.
The final score, 88-77 in favor of Minnesota, the designated home team, didn’t diminish the overall significance of the Nigerians’ three-game preseason exhibition tour against WNBA clubs. This was the middle leg, as they had previously played at Los Angeles on April 25 and would travel to Indiana on May 2.
“The team’s getting ready for the FIBA World Cup,” said Nigerian journalist Chuka A. Erike, who is based in New York and followed the Nigerian club on its tour. “So instead of practicing against each other, they get to practice against some of the top-level competition in the world. It’s a perfect way to prime themselves before international competition.”
The Lynx were thoroughly impressed with the visiting team. Said Nia Coffey afterward, “Basketball is international. We’re seeing more and more players coming to the WNBA, so it’s just really cool just to see.”
Whenever I cover an out-of-town sporting event, I can’t help but chat it up with the locals, getting their take on what’s going on in their city. This time it was an African-born taxi driver who drove me from the airport to my hotel and provided the return trip a couple of days later, he said he has lived in Kansas City for 10 years, and we talked politics.
A Black female arena worker shared her experience of being in Minneapolis with her group to watch her Kansas City Chiefs play the Vikings. She has lived in K.C. her entire life, and we talked about the city.
But my longest conversation came outside the downtown arena while waiting for the media entrance to open before the exhibition game.
“All we are known for is barbecue,” said Brandon Johnson, a self-taught videographer and photographer. We shared an outside bench while we waited on a nice late afternoon after almost 24 hours of torrential rain and thundershowers that had hit Kansas City and the surrounding areas. It would be his first WNBA game ever, he admitted.
Born and raised in Kansas City, Johnson had been living in Topeka, Kansas since 2005 before moving back three years ago. “I’ve come back to a whole new city,” he said.
Johnson returned to a growing, vibrant Kansas City, known for its jazz heritage, where the Negro Leagues were founded and, of course, its barbecue. For the record, I’m not that big on barbecue.
Earlier this year, K.C. hosted the Big 12 women’s and men’s basketball tournaments in March. Six FIFA World Cup 2026 matches will be held here from mid-June through mid-July. KC Pride, June 5-7, is one of the nation’s top LGBTQ festivals, and the city has a large annual barbecue cook-off in June, an ethnic enrichment festival in August and other planned events throughout the year.
Kansas City’s population has grown more than 2% since the 2020 Census, surpassing 500,000 residents, 54% white, 25% Black, 12% Hispanic and 4% other races. It is home to professional football (the Chiefs), MLB (the Royals), women’s soccer (the Current) and both the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum, located side by side.
More importantly, according to Johnson, the city’s Black population is as involved in civic affairs and hosting large- and small-scale events as ever.
“The biggest thing right now is opportunities,” he said. “For me, that’s what I feel like for everybody… it’s a lot of connections. There’s been a remarkable amount of Black entrepreneurs that have been ready for these opportunities. Opportunities that have been grown from the success of our football team, our baseball team. These events are happening and are giving more small business owners bigger platforms to host.”
Kansas City, “K.C.” or “KCMO” are two of its better-known nicknames and is a “growing town,” Johnson said. “Especially in the Black community, we get a lot of chances to show ourselves, not prove ourselves, but just to show our talents. And not just sports, rapping and acting.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses at challman@spokesman-recorder.com.