By: Stephanie Valderrama
Photo by: Stephanie Valderrama
Student Jade Jacobo listens to Kick recount his days growing up in her shared hometown of Houston, Texas.
It’s the mid-80’s and the youngest NBA producer to-be is writing sports at the University Star newspaper at Southwest Texas State. The Meadows Center is a small theme park called Aquarena Springs. The student population is roughly 18,000. The Star is being printed twice a week. A young college student named Mike is on a 1 a.m. deadline to publish his Bobcat sports stories for the Star. Hours later he would arrive late to Larry Carlson’s 8 a.m. class to write more. This was the beginning of the the NBA’s youngest producer.
Meet Mike Kickirillo, a Southwest Texas alumnus, and the director of broadcasting for the San Antonio Spurs. He’s been with the Spurs organization since he was 23 years old, shortly after graduating from Southwest Texas University, as Texas State was then known. He’s been with the Spurs 31 years, and has 5 NBA championship rings.
Student Hunter Mansuco, picked his brain during class on Tuesday, “what is it about a job, but more so your job that makes it worth staying with one team?” Kickirillo highlighted the uniqueness of his role: “This is one of 30 jobs. They aren’t easy to come by, and once you get one, you don’t want to let it go. Around the league, you see people who are in legacy positions or retiring from them. It’s a fun, great job. The hours can be tough, and the politics aren’t always great, but there’s way more good than bad. I have to remind myself of that sometimes.”
Kickirillo’s passion for his work was evident as he discussed the rarity and rewards of his role with the Spurs, but his journey to this point had humble and, at times, controversial beginnings. Reflecting on his days as a student journalist, he recounted one of his most memorable—and infamous—moments writing for The University Star.
“When I look back over the years, I was working for the Star, and you’re not going to believe this, but the Bobcat football team sucked, and I wrote they lost in nickels, 28 to nothing…and the lead to it was something along the lines of… Head Coach John O’Hara pulled aside his captains and proceeded to shoot them, dot, dot, dot, with blanks. This week you might want to consider using real bullets to exterminate the already half-dead Bobcat team,” wrote Kickirillo.
It still made Sports Illustrated that he (Coach O’Hara) had done that. Kickirillo speculates jokingly there might have been a hit put out on him by the football team. “I got harassed. I got called in my dorm room, and the coach was to my face ‘I did it,’” said Kickirillo.
However, he had heard that the coach told the team if you see the little f*****, you kick his ass. So he learned a lesson, what writers do has a big impact, and you have to be really careful.
Kickirillo still laughs about it, “I thought it was clever as hell. But what we do has an impact on people… maybe not be as sharp or snarky.”
Kick, as his former professor has nicknamed him, has come full circle working with the San Antonio Spurs organization from his snarky writing days at the University Star. In his role with the Spurs organization, he hires and fires people.
“I’ll tell you this much when we hire we look at social media accounts. So if I see that…you’re bad mouthing the Clippers, you’re bad mouthing Kawhi Leonard, and you’re out there and it’s out there for the public to see. Like, is that really what we’re about as the Spurs organization?” said Kickirillo.
Kickirillo also worked for the Austin American Statesman covering Bobcat sports. He had an internship at KSAT TV in San Antonio. Instead of partying the day of his college graduation, he reported to work. Mike is married and has a daughter named Robin. “Yea, she’s a Bobcat also,” he said.
He visits the university renamed Texas State University and the professor’s class he often was late to and shares with students what his job duties are in the NBA both on a game day cranking out the broadcast and on the a day in between. Kickirillo is holding a position that only about 30 other people hold nationwide.
The basketball season has barely just begun and Kickirillo is looking forward to it. The Spurs will have a game in Paris. “I think Sean Elliott and I will go, we’ll produce some elements to send back to incorporate during the course of the game,” said Kickirillo. “I’m going. My daughter also lives in Paris. Yea, She’s a Bobcat, too.”
Kick, once a student in Larry Carlson’s class, visited campus on Tuesday as a guest speaker and answered questions so students could practice gathering information.
