The Worst Team in NBA history

0:00 In a league where the Pelicans have done nothing to alter their roster and the Hornets shipped away their star player for pennies, the Sacramento Kings stand pretty clearly as the worst franchise around. One postseason appearance in 20 years. Just absurd to think about for the NBA. You know it's bad when this is the best manner that your team has and was a team led by a center shooting below 40% from the field. So, how did the Kings get here? Well, before we get to the modern Kings, I want to hammer in that this franchise has had a very poor history mixed in with quite a bit of bad luck. Fun fact, the Kings are actually the NBA's oldest franchise. Starting off as the Rochester Seagrams in 1923, joining the NBA in 1949, and becoming the Rochester Royals. In just their third year, they won the aforementioned title and had some other playoff appearances. Though, take that phrasing

0:45 lightly because uh yeah, these ain't the playoffs we know. Throughout the rest of the '50s, the Royals struggled and eventually relocated to Cincinnati where uh this was their logo. 1956 was the first real boneheaded moment in this franchise's history when they had the first overall pick in the draft and this guy was available and they passed on him. >> Oh, come on. He couldn't have been that terrible of a pick. >> Yeah, that's pretty bad. >> What makes it so bad was that the reason Russell gave for why the Royals didn't draft him is because the Celtics offered a trade package of an ice skating show. Add that to the weird list of NBA stories. Two years later in 1958, that history of bad luck would show. When the Royals young star forward Maurice Stokes would fall during a game, hit his head, and lose consciousness. A few days later, he blacked out once again, had a seizure, and was paralyzed for the rest of his

1:31 life requiring constant care. It is likely the most tragic injury in the history of basketball and robbed a young man of his life. In the coming years, the Kings would draft the legendary Oscar Robertson and Hall of Famer Jerry Lucas. But, they were only anything better than mediocre for three seasons in the 1960s. Getting slapped around by the guy they passed on and another pretty all right center. And it gets even worse. In 1967, the Kings drafted future Hall of Famer Mel Daniels. Daniels an awesome career. He was a seven-time All-Star, a five-time All-NBA member, a two-time MVP, and a three-time champion. >> Wow, man, that sounds great. What could possibly be bad about that? >> Well, you see, the problem is none of that happened with the Royals. The newly formed ABA offered him more money and left Cincinnati with nothing. They never made the playoffs again in the Oscar

2:17 Robertson era and traded him to the Bucks 3 years later. >> Oh, but surely they got something good for a top 20 player of all time, right? >> Yeah, no. They got Flynn Robinson and Charlie Paulk for him. Now, I'm sure what you're saying. >> Who? >> Well, Robinson spent a year in Cincy averaging 13 points a night, and Paulk, despite looking extra dapper, only spent a year with the team averaging nine a night. In 1971, they abandoned this cursed logo for something better, became the Kings, and moved shop to Kansas City in 1972. Oh, and Omaha, too, but they got rid of that after a couple years. Now, good news for the Kings, they drafted Nate Tiny Archibald in 1970, who would go on to make three All-NBA teams with the franchise and become the only player in NBA history to lead the league in scoring and assists in the same season. But, apart from that, they only made the playoffs a handful of times in Kansas City and had virtually no

3:04 success. >> Oh, what about that one conference finals appearance in 1981? >> Oh, you mean that run where they admittedly beat a good team, but won 40 games and somehow faced another 40-win team in the conference finals? Yeah, not exactly a recipe for success. All right, it's 1985, and we are finally in Sacramento, and this new era is starting off great. A playoff appearance is something to look to build upon. So, what did we do the next year? Oh, nothing. >> Well, what about the next year? >> Maybe the year after Yeah, they missed the playoffs for the next nine seasons, including eight straight seasons with a sub-30 win total and a year where they won one road game all year. >> It's not even like these rosters were barren. Mitch Richmond, a Hall of Famer and certified bucket. Spud Webb, I mean,

3:51 he was a good role player and won a dunk contest at 5'6" and uh yeah, this roster is actually pretty rough. Now, don't get me wrong, they had some good decisions, notably trading a guy who wasn't going to play for them for the aforementioned Richmond, but so many of their decisions aged horribly. Like, how about their number three overall pick in 1976 or their number six overall pick in 1985? Otis Birdsong was a good second overall pick, but after just four years, they traded him for a worse player who they subsequently traded for an even worse player who played just 81 games with the team, all occurring within two years. Or how about the separate times that they traded Otis Thorpe Smith away for guys that would be gone within two years. Their 1989 first overall pick also aged very poorly. Just look at who else they could have picked that would have made a bigger impact on

4:37 their team. And they have quite a few examples of bad luck as well. Phil Ford, a college star and the 1978 Rookie of the Year, suffered a serious eye injury early on and struggled with substance abuse that rendered his career effectively over by 25. Two examples of straight-up tragedy include Bobby Hurley, their seventh overall pick in the 1993 draft that got into a severe car accident just months into his career that proved to be life threatening and sapped his potential. Ricky Berry, no relation to Rick Berry, showed tremendous promise after his rookie year, but tragically ended his own life just a few months after the season concluded. And none of this even touches on all these other draft picks that didn't work out for whatever reason. But rest easy, Sacramento fans, because after 50 years, we are finally in the best era in your franchise's history. Welcome to the greatest show on court. In 1994, the Kings hired former NBA All-Star Geoff Petrie to become their

5:23 franchise's next GM. He would become the undisputed best GM in Kings history and would go on to become a two-time executive of the year with the team for his roster moves. Later in 1998, Rick Adelman would be hired as head coach of the team. Adelman had previously coached the Trail Blazers to two final appearances and implemented a system predicated on pace and ball movement. This system benefited heavily from the plethora of talent the Kings would have in the late '90s and early 2000s, which included, though not all at the same time, Chris Webber, Peja Stojaković, Vlade Divac, Jason Williams, Mike Bibby, Doug Christie, and Bobby Jackson. In his first season at the helm, Adelman led the Kings to a record of 27 and 23 in the lockout-shortened 1999 season. Not only was this just their third playoff appearance in Sacramento, but it was actually their first winning season in

6:09 the city after 13 losing seasons. More than all of that, the Kings showed tremendous promise as they battled the third-seeded Jazz to an incredibly close loss in five games. The following season, they stayed in that mediocre kind of range by going 44 and 38 and having the eighth seed to face the rapidly ascending Kobe and Shaq Lakers. Still though, Sacramento managed to fight till a do-or-die game five. I'm sure this will be the last time Kobe and Shaq come up when discussing the Kings. The following year, the Kings would take a leap going 55 and 27 and capturing the third seed in the West as they had the second best net rating in the league. Webber made first team all-NBA, Christie made all-defensive second team, and Divac made the All-Star team as Stojaković poured in a highly efficient 20 points a night as the team's second leading scorer. In February 2001, Sports Illustrated would publish the now iconic

6:55 cover featuring the Kings starting five and the name that they become known by. And this team wasn't done at making history. After losing a closely contested game one, they won three clear games against the Suns to win their first playoff series in Sacramento and first in 20 years. And oh boy, looks like we got a rematch on our hands here. Let's get some revenge. Well, that didn't go to plan. Still though, there is something good to be taken from this series. Three of the games were closely contested and were lost in large part because Shaq was doing that, and he also did that, and oh yeah, Kobe was doing this. And after all, it's not like any other team did much better against the Lakers that postseason. And the Kings were only going to get better as in the summer of 2001, they traded away Jason Williams for Mike Bibby. The reason was that despite Williams' immense talent, his play style was was

7:40 flashy, a lot of times to the detriment of his own team. Bibby, meanwhile, fit a more traditional point guard mold and was viewed as the safer option when competing for a championship, and he proved just how accurate that idea was. The Kings jumped to a franchise record 61 wins. They nabbed the first seed in the West and had the best net rating in the league. As Webber was once again all-NBA, Peja was an All-Star, and Christie was once again all-defensive. The Kings would dispatch both the Jazz and Mavericks in two competitive but quick matchups before facing the Lakers for the third straight season. This time, however, things were different as both sides grinded things out for an extremely competitive five games before the Kings found themselves with a 3-2 series lead heading to LA. Just 48 minutes away from toppling a bid at a three-peat and heading to the NBA Finals. By this point, the franchise already had a 51-year-long championship

8:27 drought and had an extremely rough first decade in Sacramento. Everything felt like it was their year. Little did this Kings team know they were about to get screwed. In the fourth quarter, which was tied when starting, the Kings shot just nine free throws while the Lakers shot 27, getting called for half as many fouls as the Kings did. Oh, but Sacramento was probably just playing extremely physical defense and paid the price, right? Oh, yeah, I mean, what is Shaq supposed to do against this defense? He almost died. Chris Webber should be thankful he wasn't shipped off to Somalia for this act of violence on Robert Horry. Here's another look, and oh boy, I'm shocked he wasn't ejected on the spot. Look at Mike Bibby using his Jedi mind tricks to get Kobe to elbow him in the face. I'm thankful the referees saw what was going on and

9:13 didn't call anything. On a serious note, you know a quarter is being poorly officiated when there is nearly a five-minute compilation on YouTube going over all of the bad calls. David Stern's tenure was often times marked with claims of the sport being rigged. I mean, just about a year into his tenure when we got the most controversial draft lottery ever. Now, I'm not saying this game was rigged or anything. The disgraced referee is. But at minimum, it was an objectively awful performance by the officials roughing this game, made even worse by the fact that none of them were ever officially punished for their performance. I guess some things never change. The Kings would go on to lose a close and competitive game seven at home with their own poor free throw shooting being a major reason. This was the peak of the franchise. The following year they were still elite and won 59 games with a plethora of their players being honored with awards once again. The

9:59 Kings ended the Stockton and Malone Jazz before facing the Dallas Mavericks. After winning game one of the series, the Kings found themselves down big late in the third quarter when yet another tragic moment struck this cursed franchise as Webber tore his meniscus. The Kings eventually fell in a hard fought seven game series without their best player. Webber required surgery and although he had a few more productive years left, his career was never the same and his days as an All-Star were over. Despite that, the Kings still managed to win 55 games the following year behind a career season from Peja, but they once again saw their season end in a close seven game series. This time at the hands of the Timberwolves. After this, the roster began to unravel. First with Vlade Divac for Los Angeles in the off season. Then in the '04-'05 season, both Webber and Christie would be traded away in the middle of the year as Sacramento fell to 50 wins, getting

10:45 eliminated in five games in the first round. The following year they fell even more, winning just 44 games as Peja was shipped off to Indiana. And then at the end of the season, Kings ownership decided not to bring Adelman back. And after playing another season and a half with the team, Mike Bibby was gone as well. The greatest run in Kings history was over, arguably losing out on two championships due to a badly called game and one knee injury. In 2007, the Kings missed the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade and they also missed the next year and the next and the next and the next and actually, they missed the playoffs for 16 straight years, an NBA record, breaking the previous of 15 which was held by the Clippers. This included another seven year stretch where they failed to win at least 30 games. And it's not even like they didn't have some talent to build

11:31 with. They guys like Kevin Martin, Ron Artest, a young Isaiah Thomas, Rudy Gay, Tyreke Evans, who was the 2010 Rookie of the Year, and of course, DeMarcus Cousins, one of the league's premier big men in the mid-2010s. But, when your organization is constantly being exhausted by rumors of relocation and is making boneheaded mistake after boneheaded mistake, it's hard to build anything even with talent. They had 11 different coaches during their 16-year long drought, none of them getting more than 3 years to figure out the mess that the front office put the team in. Look, some of them were probably not head coach caliber, but they did have some guys who have proven that they were at least competent at their jobs. By no means are they perfect, but George Karl, Michael Malone, and Paul Westphal are all better coaching options than flipping jobs every half a second. How about in 2014,

12:16 when they committed to a sign-and-trade with Isaiah Thomas, who was coming off of a season where he averaged 20 and six a night. The reasoning itself isn't the bad part. They didn't believe in him as a traditional point guard and felt like he conflicted with Cousins. The problem is what they got for him, which was Alex Oriakhi. >> That's funny. I've never heard of that NBA player before. >> Hmm, wonder why that is. They also were pretty consistent at messing up the draft lottery. Their picks in 2012, 13, 14, and 15 all failed to crack double-digit career scoring averages, despite all being top eight picks. That's not even counting some of these other picks, like Papagiannis. What about the time that they attempted to do a salary dump, got nobody worthwhile for the salary they got in return, and were left with uh these guys, and lost the number three overall pick, which the 76ers flipped with Boston for number one. fair to the Kings, though, that was the year that Markelle Fultz was

13:02 drafted, and if he didn't work in Philly, he sure as heck wasn't going to work in Sacramento. And of course, the single worst move of this entire drought happened in the 2018 draft. Deandre Ayton was the consensus first overall pick for the draft and went to the Phoenix Suns. The Kings were next up on the clock with one of the deepest and most talent-rich draft classes we have ever seen. I'm talking about the likes of Trae Young, Jaren Jackson Jr., Jalen Brunson, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But, let's be real, none of those guys were doing what Luka Dončić was doing at the time. At just 16, he was playing against grown men in Europe and became the youngest EuroLeague MVP ever at just 19. He had remarkable potential as a large guard who possessed a polished scoring and play-making game. So, let's draft our point guard of the future. They drafted Marvin Bagley. Okay, look, credit to Bagley, he's done a great job

13:47 at reviving his career as an actual role player. But, I don't think I have to explain to you why this and this aren't the same. Worst of all was what Vlade Divac, who took over as GM in 2015, said about the decision in hindsight. I already had Fox, who I had a good relationship with, so I would have to trade him. The small market was a perfect fit for Fox. Luka is a big market player. If I get him, I might lose him down the road. I can't even make a joke out of this. It's just so bad. Look, I get it. Fox was a promising rookie and would develop into an All-Star with the team. None of that matters though, because they were drafting for fit when they had the second overall pick and their team had done nothing in a decade. It is likely the most gross mismanagement of an asset in this team's history, which says a lot. And one last bonus move I have to talk about is the Haliburton trade,

14:34 which feels a little difficult to get on the Kings for. At the time, most people didn't like the deal. They got Sabonis in return and the fit with Halley and Fox was rightfully questionable and it paid off in 2023 as the Kings broke their playoff curse with Fox and Sabonis both being All-NBA. Still though, seeing what Halley was able to achieve later on in 2025, while Sabonis' upside seemingly gets worse and worse every single year, does put a sour note on the trade. On that 2023 team, I think it is both true that Sacramento caught lightning in a bottle for a season and the league overall was just in a down year. No team won 60 games and just two Western teams were over 50 wins. The Kings were also the best offense in the league, a feat that they would not come close to replicating in this era. Part of that also has to do with guys like Keegan Murray and Kevin Huerter experiencing dramatic declines as shooters after this season. This was also Mike Brown's first

15:19 year in Sacramento and and won his second coach of the year. And within 2 years of that award, he got fired mid-season as the Kings also traded Fox. And guess where both of those guys ended up 1 year after leaving town. Everything good from this team from just 3 years ago is either gone or watered down severely. And what did we get to see in place of that wonder? Russell Westbrook, DeMar DeRozan, and Zach Levine. This team would have already been pretty gross if they were all in their prime. Russ and DeMar spacing? But you are getting straight grandfathers here. Now, I will say I do think Sacramento is at least moving in the right direction by getting off of DeMar and presumably being in the final years of having Sabonis and Levine on their roster. But at the same time, do I think that this team will have the confidence to actually make an effective roster? Nope, not at all. As I said earlier in this video, the Kings have made some good

16:04 moves. But when you are at the highest level of a sport, that isn't even the bare minimum. This organization has been in the NBA for 78 years and has one title 75 years ago. That's the third longest drought in North American sports. They have made the playoffs just 30 times or about 38% of the time. A percentage on par with the Pelicans. They seem genuinely cursed with the misfortunes that have hit them and I think it is fair to say that the NBA itself partially screwed over the franchise out of its best chance at getting a championship in Sacramento. But none of that excuses the fact that they have been horrible 90% of the time they have a shot to do something effectively. I think nothing encapsulates just how miserable this franchise is than looking at its own subreddit. Normally sports subreddits are quite biased and very optimistic for their teams. Usually a little foaming at the mouth in regard to the coach, but

16:50 that's as negative as it usually gets. Not with this franchise. Be careful out there. I had two Sacramento tickets in my car. Someone broke my window and left two more. But who knows? Maybe Darius Acuff is actually Jaylen Runson. Maybe the front office gets its head on right. And maybe, just maybe, some hope can be brought to this team sometime soon. Thank you all for watching and if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a like, commenting, and subscribing. And also checking out this last video where I give my thoughts on some of the biggest moves of this off-season. Have a great day everybody.