CRCincinnati Royals

Franchise history

The Royals relocated from Rochester, New York to Cincinnati in April 1957, drawn by the city's strong college-basketball culture and the absence of NFL competition. The franchise's defining decision came in 1960, when it used a territorial pick to draft hometown University of Cincinnati star Oscar Robertson. Robertson became one of the greatest all-around players in NBA history, and in 1961-62 he averaged a triple-double for an entire season — 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 11.4 assists per game — a feat that stood alone in NBA record books for over fifty years until Russell Westbrook matched it in 2016-17.

Despite Robertson's brilliance and a run of playoff appearances in the mid-1960s, the Royals were consistently blocked by Bill Russell's Boston Celtics dynasty in the Eastern Division and never reached the NBA Finals during the Cincinnati era. Attendance and revenue struggled against the NFL's Bengals and MLB's Reds, and in March 1972 the franchise relocated again, splitting its games between Kansas City and Omaha as the Kansas City-Omaha Kings.

Sources

• Cincinnati Royals — Wikipedia
• Oscar Robertson — Wikipedia