What The World Looked Like The Last Time The Sacramento Kings Clinched A Playoff Spot

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Nobody really expected much from the Sacramento Kings ahead of a season where most sportsbooks predicted the franchise would win around 35 games when everything was said and done.

That seemed like a pretty fair assessment when you consider the team had finished with a 30-52 record the previous year, hired a new head coach in the form of Mike Brown, and didn’t exactly boast of a ton of superstars on a roster that represented one of the lowest payrolls in the NBA.

Well, it’s safe to say the Kings firmly defined those expectations.

On Wednesday, the team earned the right to LIGHT! THE! BEAM! yet again after securing their 46th win of the season with a 120-80 thrashing of the Trail Blazers.

That victory meant the squad that currently occupies the third spot in the Western Conference standings has officially punched its ticket to the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

That year, the Kings had to wait until the middle of April to officially secure a spot in the postseason after successfully fending off the Jazz to secure the eighth seed (they’d ultimately lose to the Spurs in the first round).

It’s safe to say the world has changed a bit over the course of the 17-year drought that has now come to an end. Exactly how much? Well, here’s a look back at the state of affairs at the time.

  • Mike Bibby led the Kings in scoring with 21.1 points per game
  • NBA Twitter didn’t react to the Kings making the playoffs because no one had heard of a platform that had launched just a few weeks before 
  • “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter and “Temperature” by Sean Paul were battling for the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100
  • Ice Age: The Meltdown was about to be unseated by Scary Movie 4 at the weekly box office
  • Guy Fieri was around a week away from being named the winner of the second season of The Next Food Network Star
  • The iPhone didn’t exist
  • Pluto was still a planet

Wow. We really have come a loooooong way.

Connor Toole avatar and headshot for BroBible
Connor Toole is the Deputy Editor at BroBible. He is a New England native who went to Boston College and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. Frequently described as "freakishly tall," he once used his 6'10" frame to sneak in the NBA Draft and convince people he was a member of the Utah Jazz.