The Sacramento Kings are a National Basketball Association team based in Sacramento , California . The Kings are one of seven teams in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The franchise plays in ARCO Arena in Sacramento , California and wear jerseys of purple and white. Sacramento Kings started in 1945 as a member of the National Basketball League as the Rochester Royals. In 1948 the Royals shifted to the Basketball Association of America (BAA). They would win an NBA title in 1951, the only one to date in the team's history. The NBA introduced the 24-second clock during the 1955-56 season, this hurt the Royals whose strategy centered on a slower style of play. The franchise dropped from prominence, and before the 1957-58 season it moved to Cincinnati , Ohio . The Royals reached the Eastern Division Finals, losing in seven games to the eventual NBA champions the Bolton Celtics in 1963. The Royals posted a franchise-record 55 wins, with Jerry Lucas joined the team. Before the 1972-73 season the Royals were sold to a group of investors from Kansas City , Missouri . The group moved the franchise and renamed it the Kansas City-Omaha Kings. The team as Kansas City Kings returned to the playoffs during the 1978-79 season under head coach Cotton Fitzsimmons.
In 1983 the Kings were sold to a group of investors from California , and the fr anchise moved to Sacramento in 1985. In 1996, guard Mitch Richmond and forwards Brian Grant and Michael Smith led the Kings to their trip to the playoffs in ten years, but they lost to the Seattle Supersonics in the first round. The Sacramento Kings popularity grew with the solid and steady Bibby as their new floor leader, rising star Stojakovic at the wing, Webber providing all-star numbers nightly and a talented bench led by energetic Bobby Jackson. The Kings finished the 2002 season with the league's best record, 61-21. The Lakers was the Kings in-state rivals and the rivalry reached its apex in the 2002 Western Conference Finals, in which the Kings and the Lakers endured a grueling seven-game series considered to be one of the greatest series in NBA history. The Kings have lost three of their starters from the 2002 team; Brad Miller and Kevin Martin are the only other current players besides Bibby to have been on the team for at least a year. Webber was traded to the Philadelphia for Corliss Williamson, Kenny Thomas and Brian Skinner. The 2005 Mid-season was marked by the trading of Peja Stojakovic to the Indiana Pacers for Ron Artest.
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