Sacramento Kings Retired Numbers
The Sacramento Kings have retired 9 numbers. Each one below records who wore it, the seasons they wore it, and what earned it a place in the rafters.
Back to Sacramento KingsNate Archibald
1970-1976
In the 1972-73 season, playing for the Kansas City-Omaha Kings — the franchise that would eventually settle in Sacramento — Nate Archibald averaged 34.0 points and 11.4 assists per game, leading the NBA in both categories simultaneously. It is the only time in league history any player has accomplished that feat: not Michael Jordan, not Magic Johnson, not LeBron James, only Tiny.
Why #1 was retiredMitch Richmond
1991-1998
There is a certain kind of greatness the NBA has always struggled to properly honor: the greatness of a player who shows up every night in a market without national spotlight, delivers elite performances regardless of the won-loss record, and earns respect from peers and opponents even as the casual fan forgets to include him in the conversation. Mitch Richmond was that player for nearly a decade in Sacramento, and his #2 in the rafters of Golden 1 Center is the franchise's correction of a long-standing underestimation.
Why #2 was retiredChris Webber
1998-2005
Some teams are remembered for championships. Others are remembered for the way they played. The 2001-02 Sacramento Kings belong to that second, arguably rarer category — a team whose style, joy, and basketball brilliance made them beloved across the league and heartbreaking to their own fans in equal measure. At the center of it all was Chris Webber, the most gifted power forward of his generation and the most beloved player in Sacramento Kings history.
Why #4 was retiredFans (6th Man)
Honorary
Bob Davies
1945-1955
To understand why Bob Davies' number 11 hangs in the rafters of Golden 1 Center, you have to travel back to a time before Sacramento, before Kansas City, before Cincinnati — back to Rochester, New York, where a basketball franchise was built in the 1940s that would eventually travel across the country and become the team you watch today.
Why #11 was retiredOscar Robertson
1960-1970
The Sacramento Kings retired Oscar Robertson's number 12 because the franchise's history — stretching from Rochester to Cincinnati to Kansas City to Sacramento — includes one of the greatest players who ever lived. In the 1961-62 season, playing for the Cincinnati Royals, Robertson averaged 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 11.4 assists per game across 79 games at age 23 — and he averaged a triple-double over his first five NBA seasons combined.
Why #12 was retiredJack Twyman
1955-1966
Jack Twyman's number 14 hangs in Sacramento's rafters for two reasons. The first is athletic: Twyman was one of the NBA's finest pure scorers across eleven seasons with the Cincinnati Royals, a six-time All-Star who won the scoring title in 1959-60 with 31.2 points per game and averaged over 25 points per game for four consecutive seasons. The Rochester Royals selected him in the second round of the 1955 NBA Draft.
Why #14 was retiredJack McMahon
1952-1957
The history of the Sacramento Kings begins more than 80 years ago in Rochester, New York, where a professional basketball franchise was built from scratch in the 1940s and competed at the highest level of the sport from its very first years. Jack McMahon was part of that franchise — a guard who played for the Rochester Royals during a period when the NBA itself was being invented, when the rules were being established, and when the foundation of the franchise that would eventually arrive in Sacramento was being laid game by game, season by seas…
Why #27 was retiredSam Lacey
1970-1982
Sam Lacey's number 44 hangs in Sacramento's rafters for something quieter than a scoring title: a decade of loyal service, durability, and steady professionalism that anchored a franchise through years of instability. The Cincinnati Royals selected Lacey 5th overall in the 1970 NBA Draft, and he played his first Kings season in 1970-71 as a Cincinnati Royal and his last in 1981-82 as a Kansas City King.
Why #44 was retired
1 of these 9 numbers are still awaiting a full write-up.