The Sacramento Kings are a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California, United States. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Kings are the only team in the Major professional North American sports leagues located in Sacramento; they play their home games at Sleep Train Arena.
The Kings trace their origins to a local semi-professional team based in Rochester, New York in the early 1920s, making them one of the oldest basketball clubs still in existence. The team joined the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1945 as the Rochester Royals. The Royals defected to the NBL's rival, the Basketball Association of America, in 1948. In 1949, as a result of that year's merger between the NBL and BAA, the Royals became members of the newly formed NBA. Though the Royals were often successful on the court, they had trouble turning a profit in the comparatively small market of Rochester, and relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1957, becoming the Cincinnati Royals. In 1972, the team relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, initially splitting its games between Kansas City and Omaha, Nebraska, and taking up the name Kansas City Kings. The team again failed to find success in its market, and moved to Sacramento in 1985.
The team won the NBL championship in 1946 and the NBA championship in 1951. Since 1945, the franchise has won one conference championship and five division championships.
Read more about Sacramento Kings: Team Logo, Uniform and Colors, Mascot, Home Arenas, Current Roster
Famous quotes containing the word kings:
“Whenever there’s a big war coming on, you should rope off a big field. And on the big day, you should take all the kings and their cabinets and their generals, put ‘em in the center dressed in their underpants and let them fight it out with clubs. The best country wins.”
—Maxwell Anderson (1888–1959)