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The Royals, on moving to Kansas City, renamed themselves the Kings to avoid confusion with the Royals baseball team. The team initially divided its home games between Kansas City and Omaha until 1975, when it abandoned the Omaha market. During that time the team was officially called the "Kansas City-Omaha Kings". The move from Omaha marked the opening of the 16,785-seat Kemper Arena in Kansas City. During the first days the Kings played at the 7,316-seat Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City and the 9,300-seat Omaha Civic Auditorium in Omaha.
1972–1976
The team netted a new superstar in Nate Archibald, who led the league in scoring and assists. The Kings later played several home games in St. Louis during the early 1980s to large crowds.
While still in Cincinnati, the Kings introduced a most unusual uniform design, which placed the player's surname below his number. The design remained intact through the first several seasons of the team's run in Sacramento, even when the shade of blue on the road uniforms was changed from royal blue to powder blue, and the script '"Kansas City"' which adorned the road jerseys was scrubbed after the move in favor of a repeat of the "Kings" script on the home shirts. The Kings' back jersey template was later adopted by the WNBA and the NBA Development League, as well the NBA during the All-Star Game since 2006.
The Kings had some decent players throughout. Tom Van Arsdale, the shooting forward, "Jumpin" Johnny Green, and Matt Guokas helped Archibald in the first year in Kansas City. Toby Kimball was a fan favorite. Jimmy Walker teamed with Archibald as the Kings made the playoffs the second year. Sam Lacey, an effective passing center, became one of the most dependable players in the league. Archibald became the first player to lead the league in scoring and assists in the first season in Kansas City. However, the management traded Archibald, and wasted high draft picks. Bob Cousy gave way to Phil Johnson, who was fired midyear in 1977 and replaced by Larry Staverman, a player on the team on two separate occasions when it was in Cincinnati and who later became the Cleveland Indians groundskeeper.
1976–1984
The Kings finally achieved some success in their new home when they hired Cotton Fitzsimmons as coach. Fitzsimmons won the Midwest Division in 1978–79 with rookie point guard Phil Ford, who was NBA Rookie of the Year in 1979. Kansas City was led by shooting guard Otis Birdsong, strong on both offense and defense, all-around shooting forward Scott Wedman, and passing center Sam Lacey, who had a trademark 25-foot (7.6 m) bank shot. They drew an average of 10,789 fans to Kemper Arena that season, the only time during their tenure in KC that average attendance was in five figures (the attendance at the peak was only two-thirds of Kemper's capacity). Most Kansas City sports fans preferred to spend their entertainment dollar on the Royals, who won the American League West division championship four times in five seasons between 1976 and 1980, and reached the 1980 World Series.
The Kings made the playoffs in 1979–80 and again in 1980–81, despite finishing the 1980-81 regular season at 40–42. The Kings made a run in the 1981 NBA Playoffs, reaching the Western Conference finals. Ernie Grunfeld played the point in this run in place of an injured Ford, as KC used a slow half-court game to win the first two rounds. Power forward Reggie King had a remarkable series, dominating the opposition. After upsetting the Phoenix Suns by winning Game 7 at Phoenix in the Conference Semifinals, they bowed to the Houston Rockets (who also went 40-42 in the 1980-81 regular season) in five games in the Conference Finals. Lacey, the last remaining Cincinnati Royal to play for the Kings, was completely dominated in the low post by Rockets superstar Moses Malone, who won the first of three consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player awards in 1980-81.
However, a series of bad luck incidents prevented the team from building on its success. Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien lured Wedman and Birdsong away with big contract offers. In 1979, the roof literally fell in at Kemper Arena because of a severe storm, forcing the team to play most of the 1979–80 season at the much smaller Municipal Auditorium. The ownership group sold the team to Sacramento interests for $11 million. The general manager was fired in a scandal in which he was found to be reusing marked postage stamps. When the Kings rehired Joe Axelson as general manager, they brought back the man who had previously traded Oscar Robertson, Norm Van Lier, Nate Archibald and Jerry Lucas, and used the third pick in the ABA dispersal draft on Ron Boone. Axelson stayed on after the Kings left Kansas City where, in their last game ever, fans wore Joe Axelson masks. Axelson later said he hoped his plane would never touch down in Kansas City.
Axelson became the first general manager in the history of sports to fail with the same franchise in four different cities: Cincinnati, Kansas City, Omaha and Sacramento. He was not fired for good until he rehired coach Phil Johnson, whom he had fired in mid-season in Kansas City ten years before. The Kings also had the misfortune of entering this period competing with the Kansas City Comets for the winter sports dollar, when the Comets were led by marketers—the Leiweke brothers. Their final season, 1984–85, resulted in a 31–51 record as fans stayed away from Kemper Arena in droves, with average attendance of 6,410. New York Knicks forward Bernard King suffered a devastating knee injury on March 23. Long-time ABA and NBA star, Don Buse, played his final professional season for the Kings.