he 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 Western Conference's Pacific Division. The Kings are the 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 the
2001–02 season when they had the best record in the NBA at 61–21 (a winning percentage of .744).
The Sacramento Kings are the latest and current version of one of the oldest continuously operating
professional basketball franchises in the nation. They originated in Rochester, New York, as
the Rochester Seagrams (a semi-professional team) in 1923, hosting 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. 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 was renamed the Kansas City-Omaha
Kings because it initially split its home games between Kansas City and Omaha, Nebraska. In 1975,
the Kings ceased playing home games in Omaha and in 1977 simply became the Kansas City
Kings. The team again failed to find success in its market and moved yet again to Sacramento
in 1985, where they continue to reside today.
Contents
1Franchise history
o 1.11948–1957: Rochester Royals
o 1.21957–1972: Cincinnati Royals
o 1.31972–1985: Kansas City–Omaha/Kansas City Kings
o 1.41985–present: Sacramento Kings
2Team logo, uniform and colors
o 2.1Rochester Royals
o 2.2Cincinnati Royals
o 2.3Kansas City(–Omaha) Kings
o 2.4Sacramento Kings
3Mascot
4Season-by-season records
5Head coaches
6Home arenas
7Rivalries
o 7.1Los Angeles Lakers
8Players
o 8.1All-time roster
o 8.2Current roster
o 8.3Retained draft rights
o 8.4Retired numbers
o 8.5Naismith Basketball Hall of Famers
o 8.6FIBA Hall of Famers
o 8.7Franchise leaders
9See also
10References
11Further reading
12External links
Franchise history[edit]
1948–1957: Rochester Royals[edit]
The logo of the Rochester Royals
The basis of the purely-pro basketball Royals team that came into existence in 1945, was some two
decades of sponsored 'semi-pro' ball in the cold Lake Ontario port city. Seagrams was the team's
main sponsor, based on a local distillery, and received the bulk of what monies were made. One of
the team's key early stars was Lester Harrison, a local high school star of some publicity before
joining the team. The driven Harrison later became the team's Captain, Coach, Manager and chief
Scout over the next two decades, and was very key in the team's continued success and existence
through hard years in the 1930s. Among visitors to Rochester then to play the team were the
Original Celtics of New York, the New York Rens and the Harlem Globetrotters. With news that
World War II was approaching its end, the National Basketball League announced that it was
expanding, and Harrison was approached for interest in a franchise. While the sponsored Seagrams
balked at additional expenses involved, Harrison and his lawyer brother Jack jumped at the chance.
They pooled money to meet the steep entry fee, $25,000 dollars, and were granted a NBL franchise.
Their team pushed out the Seagrams locally at their facility, smallish Edgarton Park Sports Arena.
With his new team, Harrison took advantage of conditions and rules in 1945. The best players were
returning Navy and Army players now being released from the war. There was no draft for the
league in the selection of new players. So, Harrison was able to scoop up several name stars for his
new team, among them Bob Davies, Red Holzman and William 'Fuzzy' Levane, as well as NBL free
agents like George Glamack and Al Cervi. The result was a strong league champion in their very first
season of existence as the Royals, 1945-46.
The team had two more seasons of success during their NBL years, which permitted the team to
play non-league opponents. During all three years, 1945-1948, the team played over 300 total
games, hosting most of them.
The Royals defected to the NBL's rival, the Basketball Association of America, in 1948. In 1949, as a
result of that year's absorption of the NBL by the BAA, the Royals became members of the newly
formed NBA along with the Fort Wayne Pistons, Minneapolis Lakers, and Indianapolis (Kautskys)
Jets. A year later, the BAA absorbed the remaining NBL teams to become the National Basketball
Association.
The move to the BAA took away Rochester's profitable exhibition schedule, and placed it in the
same Western Division that Minneapolis was in. Of the two best teams in pro basketball, only one of
them could play in the league finals from 1949 to 1954. Minneapolis, with George Mikan, was almost
always a little better at playoff time than the Royals. With their smallish arena and now-limited
schedule, the Royals became less profitable even as Harrison maintained a remarkably high
standard for the team, which finished no lower than second in its division in both the NBL and
BAA/NBA from 1945 to 1954. Harrison knew that the NBA was outgrowing Rochester, and spent
most of the 1950s looking for a buyer for his team.
Red Holzman
The Royals won the NBA title in 1951 by defeating the New York Knicks 4–3. It is the only NBA
championship in the franchise's history. The title, however, did not translate into profit for the Royals.
The roster turned over in 1955, except for star guard Bobby Wanzer, soon the team's new coach.
The team moved to the larger Rochester War Memorial in 1955 in an attempt to improve fortunes
with a much larger arena. The NBA even agreed to host their All-Star Game there in 1956. But the
Royals were now a losing team filled with rookies, and did not turn a profit. Meanwhile, the NBA was
putting pressure on Harrison to sell or relocate his team to a larger city. With this in mind, the 1956–
57 season was the Royals' last in Rochester.
The Royals' stay in Rochester featured the services of nine future members of the Basketball Hall of
Fame, Al Cervi, Bob Davies, Alex Hannum, Les Harrison, Red Holzman, Arnie Risen, Maurice
Stokes, Jack Twyman, Bobby Wanzer, one member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Otto Graham,
a Hollywood Walk of Famer, Chuck Connors, and Jack McMahon.
1957–1972: Cincinnati Royals[edit]
Logo used in Cincinnati
In April 1957, the Harrison brothers moved the Royals to Cincinnati, a city that was then trying to
obtain a NBA expansion franchise. This move followed a well-received regular season game played
at Cincinnati Gardens on February 1, 1957. The change of venue was said to have been partly
suggested by Jack Twyman and Dave Piontek, who were two of several roster players on the new
Royals from that area. Cincinnati, which had a strong college basketball fanbase then, and
no NFL franchise to compete with, was deemed the best choice for the Harrisons, who also
considered other cities. The Royals name continued to fit in Cincinnati, often known as the "Queen
City".
During the team's first NBA draft in Cincinnati, the team acquired Clyde Lovellette and guard George
King. They teamed with the 1–2 punch of Maurice Stokes and Twyman to produce a budding
contender in the team's very first season in the Queen City. But injuries and the loss of star guard Si
Green, the #1 overall pick of the 1956 NBA draft, to military service dropped the team into a tie for
second place in the NBA Western Division during the 1957–58 season's second half.
In the season's finale, All-Pro star Maurice Stokes struck his head when he fell after pursuing a
rebound. He shook off the effects of the fall, even as he had briefly been unconscious. After Game
One in the playoffs three days later, Stokes' head injury was greatly aggravated by airplane cabin
pressure during the flight back to Cincinnati for Game Two. He suffered a seizure and was
permanently hospitalized, a tragedy that greatly shook the team. Stokes, a tremendous talent who
could play center, forward and guard, was 2nd in the NBA in rebounds and 3rd in assists, a double-
feat only Wilt Chamberlain has matched for a full season. The impact of losing Stokes was such that
the team nearly folded. Six of the team's shaken players simply retired on the spot.
Fellow All-Star Twyman rose to All-Pro level over the next two seasons for Cincinnati, even as the
team posted two 19-win seasons. The 1958–59 Cincinnati team featured five rookies, with
Lovellette, King and other key players having left the team in the wake of Stokes' tragic injury. The
Harrisons, wanting out at this point, sold to a make-shift local group, headed by Thomas Woods,
Cincinnati Gardens management, and a number of local businessmen.
Jack Twyman came to the aid of his teammate, and even legally adopted Stokes. Raising funds for
Stokes' medical treatment, Twyman helped him until his death in April 1970. The 1973 feature
film Maurie, which co-starred actors Bernie Casey and Bo Svenson, dramatized their story.
