Kingsley’s Kingdom – 6 • 15 • 23

Josh Kingsley

Bill Simmons’ time at ESPN is some of my favorite sports writing of all time. He helped blaze the trail for the homer, opponent-hating (sports hate, not real hate), personal storytelling type of stuff I do most weeks. A bunch of his stuff sticks with me for extended times. Heck, I was talking about his epic basketball book last night with co-workers while discussing the Nuggets title. (Quick note before I forget: this column will pull from and potentially repeat many things from this article just under a year ago.)

One of his articles really stuck with me this past weekend. I read this piece in 2010 and still think of it often. Bill is a Boston native, life-long Celtics fan. He also lives in LA among rabid Laker fans, and was right to have concern with his daughter liking purple. At the time this published I was less than a year married and not even remotely considering kids yet. But I knew this was my potential future. The CHIEFS and Packers are in no way the level of Celtics/Lakers rivals, but mind share is a real thing. I work in marketing and spend my career fighting for it.

My primary goals as a parent are to love my kids, provide for them, and ensure they contribute positively to society in that order. My secondary goals are related to the things Bill covered in the linked article. I want them to like things I like. My CHIEFS fan group family is important to me, and I like presenting as a fanatic family. You can bet I took no chances with the Broncos, Raiders and Chargers. That was some real slander.

My Daughter the Wedding Service Provider

My first born turned 10 in May. I knew the Simmons article was on point 13 years ago, but couldn’t conceive how much. Much of my time goes into steering my kids, especially my daughter (girls develop waaaaaaaaaay faster than boys) in certain directions. One such direction is to think big. I constantly encourage her to take big swings. She and the neighbor girl mentioned a lemonade stand. I pressed for a name. They came up with Llama Town, so I pressed for a brand. My daughter drew a logo, I had it printed on labels. Their next idea was a local trash cleanup. I helped them organize, pressed them to recruit the neighborhood kids, and push them for consistency. Oh yeah, I built them a website too.

Since a very young age she showed interest in the wedding stuff. It started with curiosity around all the daycare overnights on Saturdays, turned into real questions about what Misty and I actually do, and is gaining steam as an actual interest. She is an entertainer at heart, so I naturally want her to be a DJ. However, I believe a good start for her (and very pragmatic in many ways for me) is photo booth host. Misty and I drop hints often mainly to check status. My number in my head started at 14. One day she came to me saying she wants to go to Paris. I responded with something like “I bet you do” and telling her to get a job. Then came the immediate pivot: I can give her a job.

I made her a deal: as soon as you can start working photo booth on your own we will go to Paris. Bam. Can kicked.

Last Weekend

Fast forward to last Friday. My daughter finished her last day of fourth grade. She is friends with every kid in her class, loves school, and always forms relationships with her teachers. This year was no different. Saturday hit our calendar hard. My wedding client for my DJ gig? Her fourth grade teacher. The stars aligned for a solid test. I did my standard pre-call to cover all details about two weeks ago. At the end I dropped a note about potentially bringing an assistant for this one. The teacher seemed all about it.

Last Saturday my 10 year old got all dressed up for a night out with me. My primary goal was to get her through the night without any issues. It was a low bar, she’s a great kid. The secondary goal and ultimate hope was to get interest in the event world. I can’t act like she took major interest in things like the schedule, but I cannot deny she carried herself quite well. She was perfectly fine grabbing food at the end and eating at my DJ area. Crowd mingling is a natural thing for her, so she talked to a bunch of people.

The next concern was fatigue. We were at a country club. I made it clear early in the day a bed was not an option. If tired the options were sleep in the car or under a table discreetly. At one point she crawled under a table with her phone, and I assumed it was over. This was 10:30pm, so good run… and no worries. About five minutes later she appeared in front of me going nuts on the dance floor. She told me she caught her second wind. The dance floor was her home the rest of the night until she helped me pack up.

I think we have something brewing in wedding service interest. Paris may be coming quicker than I thought.

Go Nuggets!!

Like my last article link said: I am a sports bigamist, which is another Simmons term. The CHIEFS are my one and only football team, but I have multiple rooting interested in NBA and MLB. I tout myself a Rockies, Brewers, Royals fan in baseball. In basketball it’s Nuggets and Bucks. The Nuggets are NBA Champs for the first time in their 47 year history!!

This excites me greatly because I didn’t think it was possible. I questioned this Nuggets team deeply. My concerns included depth, clutch scoring and reliance on Jokic to carry a load he could not handle. That’s right, I bought some of the anti-Jokic hype. Nikola Jokic is a two-time regular season MVP, and now an NBA Finals MVP and Champ. Questioning his MVP credentials was the talking head past time until very recently. Some of the most scathing commentary came from fellow CHIEFS homer, Nick Wright on his First Things First show. I love watching Nick, but often cringed when the subject turned to NBA knowing the Jokic slams would soon follow. Nick is compelling and persuasive. I started to believe him.

No Predictions

I have a cousin that grew up and spent most of her life in Denver. She played college basketball, and married a guy from Denver who also played college ball. They are massive Denver sports fans. As documented I align 75% of the time. Anyway I was talking to my cousin’s husband over Thanksgiving. The fun part of the conversation included his disdain for Russell Wilson and bleak outlook of the Broncos. I loved that part. The conversation shifted to the Nuggets, and we agreed a title was not in the cards regardless of their regular season dominance. That regular season dominance continued and culminated with the #1 seed in the Western Conference and the fourth best overall record.

I was at a wedding show just before the playoffs began. A conversation started with a group of my DJ’s and the topic turned NBA. Who wins the title? My answer: unfortunately not Denver, most likely Bucks, but I can see the Warriors and can’t rule out LeBron and the Lakers. I cannot think of a more thrilling time to be wrong.

How Did This Happen?

I will start with the moment I began to believe. It was May 9th AKA game five vs the Suns. Phoenix shocked the NBA landscape trading in season for one Kevin Durant. I’m a huge Durant fan and believer. A buzz saw matchup, the kind of team that always sends Denver home. The Nuggets started fast winning games one and two at home, but then dropped games three and four in Phoenix. Here we go again. Then game five happened. Jokic had one of his million triple doubles and the Nuggets dominated the game, and I started believing a title could happen.

Game six was a shorter discussion. The Nuggets dominated and closed the Suns. Next test was LeBron and the Lakers, the team that steamrolled the last good Nuggets attempt (the 2020 bubble Western Conference Finals). Nick Wright et. al. called for a repeat. Jokic and Murray had other plans and swept the Lakers. The NBA Finals was more of the same: Jokic and Murray led dominance and a gentleman’s sweep.

So, how did this happen? How did the Nuggets finally win what I never expected them to win? The first answer is Murray, the deputy Jokic needed. He was never healthy and lethal for a full playoff run. The next was depth and solid role players. Denver put together a solid team and reaped rewards. Cheers to the Champs, and cheers to Jokic and his now solid legacy.

Lionel Messi

Let’s check the scoreboard of matching my July 1, 2022 column:

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Argentinian, Leonel Messi is on the short list of greatest player ever. Here are his key stats:

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Messi just made the move to MLS joining David Beckham-owner Inter Miami. This is a huge get for MLS. The MLS takes constant knocks for being a retirement home for great European players. This is less true every big move. Zlatan played and returned to AC Milan to win Serie A. Gareth Bale was my argument last year. He did retire, but it was only by choice. Bale joins any club he wants tomorrow if he decides to play again.

Messi is the same. He gets a three-year contract from anyone he wants, and he chose MLS. Inter Miami is now the fifth most followed US team on Instagram. That’s wild… and an effect only an all-timer can produce.

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CHIEFS in Donks Clothing

Frank Clark is making headlines. He started by signing with the Broncos. I don’t believe he did with direct intention to stick it to KC, but that has to be at least a small percentage of motivation. It’s most likely as simple as money in that Denver offered more than Veach was willing. Clark on the Broncos is unfortunate and disappointing. Is it a total disaster? Doubtful. Veach is not in the business of letting major contributors walk for $5.5-7.5M. The reality is clear that Clark is now a rotational player, and the CHIEFS favor youth. I asked the question in Arrowhead Kingdom about Clark’s CHIEFS legacy in light of the Broncos signing. The general consensus was indifference. That surprised but didn’t shock me. The CHIEFS are top of the NFL world and trust in management among fans is fever pitch high.

The answers did provide a pleasant surprise, a list of other players who left us for them. It was mostly comparative to present. Using that discussion I present my three most memorable CHIEFS to Broncos moves and associated opinions then and now.

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Josh Kingsley — ArrowheadOne and Arrowhead Kingdom

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