Brace yourself, Kings fans: the royal tenants of the NBA have reached a new low.
The Kings fell to the Grizzlies, 116-110, on Thursday night to eliminate themselves from the playoffs. That makes it 15 consecutive seasons without reaching the postseason, tying the Clippers (1977 to 1991) for the all-time NBA record.
The Kings have failed to post a single winning record in the past decade-and-a-half, with multiple attempts at a rebuild falling short of expectations. Sacramento’s most recent playoff appearance came in 2006, when the team was the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference and featured Ron Artest, Mike Bibby, Brad Miller, Peja Stojakovic and Bonzi Wells.
In between the franchise’s most recent playoff berth and now, the team has compiled 10 different head coaches, 755 losses and a .367 winning percentage. The last Kings playoff game happened on May 5, 2006, in a 105-83 loss to the top-seeded Spurs in Game 6 of the first round.
The top movie at the box office that weekend? That would be Mission Impossible III. The No. 1 song was, fittingly, Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day” . Powter is among the most notable one-hit wonders of the 21st century, while Mission Impossible III has since been followed by three sequels with a fourth set for a 2022 release.
Maybe by then, the Kings’ slump will be over. Or, worse yet, the Kings will pass the Clippers and stand alone as the league’s longest-suffering franchise.
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