Official: the Sacramento Kings will miss the post season for the sixteenth straight year with tonight’s loss. Prior to this season, Sacramento was tied with the Los Angeles Clippers in franchise droughts.

Surely we didn’t expect to end up here, did we? This season was built up to be one of great success that was sold to the Kingdom during training camp. Morale was at an all-time high and the roster hadn’t felt stale. Head Coach Luke Walton was holding the clipboard in Sacramento’s abysmal start, and it wasn’t his exit that really changed much in the win/loss column. The Kings could not get it together from the jump – whether that be from De’Aaron Fox’s lackluster start to the blockbuster trade sending Tyrese Haliburton to the Indiana Pacers.

A lot happened in this season for Sacramento, playoffs was not one of those things. It would be a little easier to digest if they had even scraped the bottom of the Western Conference barrel to make the 10th seed for the newly instated play-in tournament. The chance to dance felt coveted by many in the early moments of the 2021-22 season, although on a technicality, they still wouldn’t have snapped the playoff drought. However, loss after loss creeped into the column and before they knew it, a comfortable 12-13th seed was going to have their name on it.

In the lifetime that is has been since Sacramento saw a post-season, this franchise was promised change. The front office has their work cut out for them this season as the Kings really don’t have anything to play for the remainder of this month.