Sacramento Kings

Sacramento Kings
2024–25 Sacramento Kings season
Sacramento Kings logo
ConferenceWestern
DivisionPacific
Founded1923
HistoryRochester Seagrams
1923–1942
Rochester Eber Seagrams
1942–1943
Rochester Pros
1943–1945
Rochester Royals
1945–1948 (NBL)
1948–1957 (NBA)
Cincinnati Royals
1957–1972
Kansas City-Omaha Kings
1972–1975
Kansas City Kings
1975–1985
Sacramento Kings
1985–present[1][2][3]
ArenaGolden 1 Center
LocationSacramento, California
Team colorsPure black, royal purple, gray, white, royal blue[4][5][6]
         
Main sponsorDialpad[7]
PresidentJohn Rinehart[8]
General managerMonte McNair[9]
Head coachMike Brown
OwnershipVivek Ranadivé[10]
Affiliation(s)Stockton Kings
Championships2
NBL: 1 (1946)
NBA: 1 (1951)
Conference titles0
Division titles6 (1949, 1952, 1979, 2002, 2003, 2023)
Retired numbers11 (1, 2, 4, 6, 11, 12, 14, 16, 21, 27, 44)
Websitewww.nba.com/kings
Association jersey
Team colours
Association
Icon jersey
Team colours
Icon
Statement jersey
Team colours
Statement
City jersey
Team colours
City

The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. The Kings are the oldest team in the NBA, and the first team in the major professional North American sports leagues located in Sacramento. The team plays its home games at Golden 1 Center. Their best seasons to date in the city were in the early 2000s, including a very successful 2001–02 season when they had the best record in the NBA at 61–21 (a winning percentage of .744).[11][12][13][14][15]

The franchise began with the Rochester Seagrams (a semi-professional team) from Rochester, New York, that formed in 1923 and hosted a number of teams there over the next 20 years. They joined the National Basketball League in 1945 as the renamed Rochester Royals,[1] winning that league's championship in their first season, 1945–46. In 1948 they jumped with three other NBL teams to the Basketball Association of America, that later merged with the NBL to form the NBA. As the Royals, the team was often successful on the court, winning the NBA championship in 1951. The team, however, found it increasingly difficult to turn a profit in the comparatively small market of Rochester and relocated to Cincinnati in 1957, becoming the Cincinnati Royals.

In 1972, the team relocated again, this time to Kansas City, Missouri, and renamed the Kansas City–Omaha Kings because it initially split its home games between Kansas City and Omaha, Nebraska; the nickname was changed to avoid confusion with the baseball team dubbed the Kansas City Royals. After three seasons, the team truncated to Kansas City Kings, but continued to play several home games per season in Omaha, through March 1978.[16][17][18]

The franchise again failed to find success in its market and moved after the 1984–85 season to Sacramento. Between 2006 and 2022, the Kings had 16 consecutive losing seasons, the most in NBA history.[19] The Kings also had the longest active postseason drought in the four major North American sports, which started in 2006 and lasted until 2023. Thanks to these periods of futility and their historic age, the franchise has the most losses in NBA history.

  1. ^ a b "Franchise Timeline". Kings.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Archived from the original on December 2, 2022. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
  2. ^ "Franchise History–NBA Advanced Stats". NBA.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Retrieved May 13, 2024.
  3. ^ "NBA.com/Stats–Sacramento Kings seasons". Stats.NBA.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Archived from the original on December 2, 2022. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
  4. ^ "NBA LockerVision - Sacramento Kings - Icon Edition - Story Guide". LockerVision.NBA.com. NBA Properties, Inc. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved November 6, 2023. The new Icon Edition uniform for the Sacramento Kings marks a significant return to the team's iconic black primary color, reminiscent of the 1994 transition from royal blue and red to black and purple. Purple takes on a vital role as a secondary color, prominently featured in the core uniforms.
  5. ^ "Color" (PDF). 2023-24 Sacramento Kings Brand Book. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  6. ^ "Sacramento Kings Reproduction and Usage Guideline Sheet". NBA Properties, Inc. Archived from the original on July 1, 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  7. ^ "Kings and Dialpad Announce Multi-Year Jersey Patch Partnership and Commitment to Bridge the Digital Divide". Kings.com (Press release). NBA Media Ventures, LLC. September 27, 2021. Archived from the original on October 19, 2021. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  8. ^ "John Rinehart Profile". Kings.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Archived from the original on April 25, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  9. ^ "Kings Name Monte McNair General Manager". Kings.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. September 17, 2020. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  10. ^ "NBA approves Kings sale to Sacramento group". NBA.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Associated Press. May 28, 2013. Archived from the original on February 21, 2017. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
  11. ^ Khan, Shahbaz (February 26, 2018). "Oral History: The Greatest Show on Court". Kings.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Archived from the original on December 24, 2022. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
  12. ^ RonHamp614 (May 13, 2014). "NBA: Remembering The Greatest Show on the Court". The Front Office News. Archived from the original on December 24, 2022. Retrieved December 24, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Poust, Nick (April 14, 2011). "Remembering the Sacramento Kings at Their Finest". Bleacher Report. Archived from the original on December 24, 2022. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  14. ^ Adams, Damain (June 30, 2017). "The Lost Rings: A Look Back at the 2001-2002 Sacramento Kings - The 3 Point Conversion". Archived from the original on December 24, 2022. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  15. ^ Tan, John (November 27, 2022). ""It's a common expression here" - Scot Pollard revealed the code the Sacramento Kings used for too much dribbling | Basketball Network - Your daily dose of basketball". basketballnetwork.net. Archived from the original on December 24, 2022. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  16. ^ "Kings troubled despite changes". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. December 2, 1977. p. 5C. Archived from the original on April 28, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  17. ^ "Kings win in overtime". Lawrence Journal-World. (Kansas). Associated Press. December 5, 1977. p. 20. Archived from the original on April 28, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  18. ^ "Gervin gets point mark". Lawrence Journal-World. (Kansas). Associated Press. March 27, 1978. p. 17. Archived from the original on April 28, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  19. ^ "SB Nation su Twitter: "THE SACRAMENTO KINGS HAVE MADE HISTORY ... The bad kind… "". Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.