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The franchise began in 1945 as a member of the National Basketball League as the Rochester Royals. After winning the 1946 NBL title, the Royals shifted to the Basketball Association of America in 1948. They would win an NBA basketball title in 1951, which would be the only one to date in the team's history. In 1956, the NBA team moved to Cincinnati . In the 1960-1961 season, Oscar Robertson joined the team, and though he played brightly, he along with another future hall of famer Jerry Lucas could not lead the Royals to the NBA Basketball Championship and by the 1970-1971 season he left the Royals to join the Bucks, and in 1972, the team moved to Kansas City and recalled themselves the Kings. For numerous years, the Kings Basketball team divided its home games between Kansas City and Omaha . However, not even the talents of Nate Tiny Archibald could not change the fortunes of the Basketball team in a new town. In the 1980-1981 season, the Kings made a surprise run in the NBA Playoffs, they beat the Phoenix Suns in the divisional playoffs before they lost from the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals.
The team moved west to their existing home of Sacramento in 1985. Much of their early tenure in Sacramento was spent as the NBA's bottom dwellers, making playoffs only one time between 1985 and 1995. Some of their early lack of success was attributed to poor luck, such as the nearly career-ending car crash suffered by promising point guard Bobby Hurley, and some was attributed to poor team management such as the too-long tenure of head coach Garry St. Jean and the selection of "Never Nervous Pervis" Ellison with the first overall pick in the 1989 NBA Draft. The Sacramento Kings lastly broke through mediocrity with the draft selection of Jason Williams, the signing of Vlade Divac, and the trade of Mitch Richmond for Chris Webber prior to the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season. These acquisitions coincided with the arrival of Peja Stojakovic, who had been drafted in 1996. Each of these moves was attributed to general manager Geoff Petrie who has won NBA Executive of the Year numerous times.
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