The report last week that Omaha will host the 2020 Major League Baseball draft got me to thinking about a time when Omaha did even better than that. This city was once home to a major league professional sports team.

Even the most diehard NBA fan may not realize it but Omaha, Nebraska a place better known for steakhouses, Warren Buffett and “horizontal sleet” once had an NBA team. It actually shared a team with Kansas City, a city better known for professional baseball and football and for erecting fountains everywhere including in front of mortuaries and inside dental offices.

This is the story of how Omaha landed an NBA team, made a go of it and then ended up losing the team. The Kansas City-Omaha Kings were a thing from 1972 to 1975. It was the old Cincinnati Royals franchise that changed its name from Royals to avoid confusion with the Kansas City baseball organization. Big mistake. Management would’ve been better off sticking with Royals and selling tickets to confused fans thinking they were going to see a young George Brett.

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