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The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the only team in the major professional North American sports leagues located in Sacramento. The team played its home games at the Sleep Train Arena from 1988 to 2016. Beginning with the 2016–17 season, the Kings will play home games at the Golden 1 Center.
The Kings are the oldest franchise in the NBA, and 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 and joined the National Basketball League in 1945 as the "Rochester Royals". They jumped 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. However, they found it increasingly difficult to turn 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 their games between Kansas City and Omaha, Nebraska, and taking up the name Kansas City Kings. The team again failed to find success in that market, and moved to Sacramento in 1985.