Joplin-area NBA interest increases with Thunder's march to Finals

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Globe/T. Rob Brown Kyle Tastad, 16, a South Dakota resident who is in Joplin on a mission trip, looks at an Oklahoma City Thunder T-shirt of Kevin Durant.
Globe/T. Rob Brown Oklahoma City Thunder T-shirts are part of the merchandise for sale at TNT Sports at Northpark Mall in Joplin.
Globe/T. Rob Brown Oklahoma City Thunder hats are becoming more popular in Joplin.

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June 16, 2012

Joplin-area NBA interest increases with Thunder's march to Finals

By Ryan Atkinson Globe Sports Writer The Joplin Globe Sat Jun 16, 2012, 11:37 PM CDT

— Julie McKinley has been working at TNT Sports, the store her brother owns, for more than nine years.

The fan merchandise shop in Northpark Mall has never been able to move much NBA-branded gear. The usual summers at the store consisted mostly of people coming in to buy Royals, Cardinals, Chiefs and Rams paraphernalia.

Things are different this summer.

“I’d say at least every third or fourth purchase today has been Oklahoma City Thunder gear,” McKinley said on Thursday. “At times it’s every other sale. The Thunder stuff is going fast.”

With Oklahoma City — an easy three-hour drive on I-44 from Joplin — front and center in the NBA Finals, professional hoops is once again a regional interest here.

“People are jumping on board,” McKinley said.

When the Kansas City Kings left for Sacramento in 1985, it left the Four-State Area without a regional NBA team to follow. That changed when the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008 and rebranded themselves as the Thunder.

Interest picked up in the Joplin area then, but the Thunder’s run this season to the NBA Finals has started a rumble through southwest Missouri and Southeast Kansas.

“Right after the Lakers series (the Western Conference semifinals) we saw a huge increase in the number of people coming in and buying Thunder gear,” said Jon Fierro, an assistant manager at Champs Sports, also at Northpark Mall. “It is definitely going quick. And it keeps going quicker.”

Before the playoffs began, Champs stocked a handful of Thunder T-shirts among its NBA gear. A quick glance on Thursday showed a full table of OKC gear — name and number T-shirts in multiple colors for stars Kevin Durant, Russell Westrbook, Serge Ibaka and James Harden along with a variety of team designs.

“The jersey T-shirts are the most popular,” Fierro said. “Especially the Durant, Ibaka and Harden shirts. All three of those are selling really well.”

On the north end of the mall, McKinley said TNT Sports is quickly selling its Thunder shirts — including Western Conference Champions shirts and some with a cartoon likeness of Durant. The store also offers Thunder key chains, flags, license plates and more, all of which McKinley said was selling well.

“We reopened on June 1 after our remodel and its been extremely steady ever since,” she said. “NBA sales have never been good for us. This is easily the best NBA year I can remember.

“We were down to about 10 Thunder shirts and we just got another shipment in today. It’s great.”