Sacramento Kings
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 and only team in the major professional North American sports leagues located in Sacramento. The team plays its home games at the 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).
| Sacramento Kings | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023–24 Sacramento Kings season | |||||
| Conference | Western | ||||
| Division | Pacific | ||||
| Founded | 1923 | ||||
| History | Rochester 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 | ||||
| Arena | Golden 1 Center | ||||
| Location | Sacramento, California | ||||
| Team colors | Pure black, royal purple, gray, white, royal blue | ||||
| Main sponsor | Dialpad | ||||
| President | John Rinehart | ||||
| General manager | Monte McNair | ||||
| Head coach | Mike Brown | ||||
| Ownership | Vivek Ranadivé | ||||
| Affiliation(s) | Stockton Kings | ||||
| Championships | 2 NBL: 1 (1946) NBA: 1 (1951) | ||||
| Conference titles | 0 | ||||
| Division titles | 6 (1949, 1952, 1979, 2002, 2003 | ||||
| Retired numbers | 11 (1, 2, 4, 6, 11, 12, 14, 16, 21, 27, 44) | ||||
| Website | www | ||||
| |||||
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, winning that league's championship in their first season, 1945–46. They later jumped with three other NBL teams to the Basketball Association of America, forerunner of the NBA, in 1948. 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.
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. The Kings also had the longest active postseason drought in the four major North American sports, which started in 2006 and lasted until 2023.