The franchise started in 1948 as a charter member of the NBA as the Rochester Royals. They would win an NBA title in 1951, which would be the only one to date in the team's history. In 1956, the team moved to Cincinnati, and in 1972, the team moved to Kansas City and renamed themselves the Kings. They would move west to their current home of Sacramento in 1985. The Kings spent much of their early tenure in Sacramento as the NBA's bottom dwellers. They made the playoffs only one time between 1985 and 1995. Some of their early lack of success was attributed to poor luck, such as the virtually career ending car crash suffered by promising point guard Bobby Hurley, and some was attributed to poor 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 Kings finally 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. The acquisitions were followed by the addition of Peja Stojakovic the following season. Each of these moves was attributed to general manager Geoff Petrie who has won NBA Executive of the Year several times.

--Wikipedia