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. Davies was the star of that franchise, the player who defined what the Rochester Royals were during their championship years, and his retired number connects Sacramento to the founding era of professional basketball.
Bob Davies played in an era before television coverage made NBA players into household names nationwide. His greatness was witnessed in arenas, read about in newspapers, and passed down through the memories of fans who watched him play. That generational transmission is how reputations survive without modern media, and Davies' reputation has survived it: he is remembered as one of the most innovative and exciting guards of the first decade of professional basketball.
Harrisburg to Seton Hall to Rochester
Robert Edris Davies was born January 15, 1920, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He played college basketball at Seton Hall University, where he became one of the most celebrated players in the school's history and developed a reputation as a showman whose behind-the-back dribbling and creative ball-handling were genuinely novel at the time. Davies was among the earliest practitioners of flashy dribbling techniques that would not become commonplace in the NBA for decades — a genuine innovator in the way he handled the basketball.
Davies joined the Rochester Royals of the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1945, and when that league merged with the Basketball Association of America (BAA) to form the NBA in 1949, Davies and the Royals came with it — making him a founding-era NBA player whose career bridged the pre-NBA and NBA eras of professional basketball.
The 1951 Championship and a Franchise Legacy
The Rochester Royals won the 1951 NBA Championship, defeating the New York Knicks in seven games. Davies was the team's star guard and primary playmaker throughout the championship run, and his performances in that series cemented his place as the most important player in franchise history up to that point. The Royals' championship remains the only title in the history of the franchise that is now the Sacramento Kings — a fact that makes Davies and his teammates foundational figures in the franchise's historical identity.
Davies was a four-time All-Star and was named to the All-NBA First Team multiple times during his career. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970 — recognition that came as the sport began to properly catalog its founding generation of great players.
Why the Kings Retired #11
The Sacramento Kings retired Bob Davies' number 11 because without Davies, there is no Kings franchise history to speak of. He was the star of the team that won the only championship this franchise has ever claimed, and his decade of play in Rochester established the competitive identity and professional standards that the organization has carried through every subsequent city.
When #11 hangs in Golden 1 Center, it represents a connection to 1951 — to the Rochester Royals, to the NBA's founding era, and to a championship that is now more than 70 years old but remains the singular championship achievement in the franchise's history. Bob Davies is the reason that championship exists. The retired number is Sacramento's way of keeping him in the conversation, even across seven decades and three cities.
