Quick Intro: Sacramento Kings History

A brief history of the Sacramento Kings goes all the way back to 1948 when they were the Rochester Royals. The team has had its ups and downs. It has seen exciting highlights and fast paced play, but has also spent much of the last two and a half decades rebuilding.

The Kings started in Rochester, then moved to Cincinnati in 1957, then Kansas City-Omaha and became the Kings in 1972, then just Kansas City in 1975, and finally settled in Sacramento in 1985. Players like Oscar Robertson and Nate Archibald played for these teams and they enjoyed success in 1950-51 when they won the NBA championship. Once in Sacramento though, the team struggled greatly and was a perennial cellar-dweller until the arrival of Jason Williams and Vlade Divac.

In the late 1990s, the team became one of the most exciting to watch. Jason Williams was on highlight reels almost every night for his amazing passes, and the team played an up-tempo, high scoring game. In 2001 they won their first playoff series in twenty years, all while being called "The Greatest Show on Court", before they were swept by eventual the champion Lakers. That summer, they traded Williams and brought in Mike Bibby. That year they won 61 games and played in one of the most controversial and exciting playoff series in NBA history. They ended up losing again to the Lakers, and their window of opportunity quickly closed. The next year Chris Webber was injured.

In recent years, the team has struggled and has steadily gotten worse. They haven't made the playoffs since the 2005-2006 season. The team decided to rebuild and is currently filled with young players like Tyreke Evans, Rashad McCants, and Shelden Williams. They will try to build another exciting and successful team for the future.

References:

Kings History