There is something for everyone who likes professional sports in Cincinnati. The beloved (and sometimes hated) Bengals, the historic Reds, the exciting FC Cincinnati, and even a hockey team with the underrated Cyclones. We have something to scratch everyone’s itch. Except for professional basketball. It wasn’t like this before, however.
The Cincinnati Royals existed between 1957 to 1972 and played at the Cincinnati Gardens for 15 seasons before moving to Kansas City and becoming the Kansas City-Omaha Kings. Today, the team is in Sacramento known as the Sacramento Kings.
In this short run in the Queen City, the team had a total of 0 Championships. The same amount as the Cincinnati Bengals, actually. There’s always next year. Not for basketball, though.
Although the Royals did not win the big game, they had numerous runs deep in the playoffs, thanks to big names like Oscar Robertson (who has a College Basketball trophy named for him), Jack Twyman, and Jerry Lucas. Robertson or “The Big O” as everyone calls him won the Most Valuable Player or MVP award in 1964, beating out legends like San Francisco Warrior Wilt Chamberlain, Boston Celtic Bill Russel (who won the previous 3 years in a row and in 1965, a year later.), and Los Angeles Laker Jerry West, who is famously the NBA logo. It is also important to note that Jerry Lucas won Rookie of The Year in 1964. An important year for this outlier in the era of “dynasties.”
The Beginning
To understand why the Royals left Cincinnati, it is important to understand that this wasn’t their first home. Originally from 1923 to 1957, they were in Rochester, New York, as the Rochester Royals. The Harrison Brothers, Les and Jack, (probably not related to William Henry Harrison or Ms. Evanson) moved to Cincinnati in 1957 and decided to bring their NBA team with them. This is because players Jack Twyman and Dave Piontek suggested it, wanting a familiar scenery as they lived in Cincinnati all their lives.
At the time, basketball culture in Cincinnati was off the charts because of the University of Cincinnati (still is, kind of, Go Bearcats!) and no NFL team to compete with, as the Cincinnati Bengals were not founded until 1968. It was a perfect move.
The Very Short Rise and Peak
It didn’t last very long–the Cincinnati Royals being good, that is. In 1960, the Royals got Oscar Robertson in the draft, via a now defunct rule called a “territorial pick.” This rule makes it so the team can draft anyone within a 50-mile radius. With the Big O going to college at the University of Cincinnati, the Royals got the first chance at him. They, obviously, jumped at that opportunity. He was a game changer. Before the selection, the Royals were okay. They weren’t exactly the worst, but not the best.
The team skyrocketed to immediate title contenders, thanks to Robertson, who averaged 30 points a game in the 10 years of playing with the Royals.
Unfortunately, the trophy shelf is empty. That is because there was internal conflict on the team.
The Final Nail in The Coffin
Ownership is something the owners of the Royals did not have. Multiple owning changes in quick succession from each other. It was a fast torch being chucked down. According to WCPO 9, they had 8 owners within 15 years. Owner Louis M. Jacobs (from 1963 to 1969) made a brainless and asinine decision to rent out Cincinnati Gardens to a parade DURING the Royals playoff run against the dominant Boston Celtics. The home games had to be played at Xavier University’s Schmidt Field House.
If you don’t understand why this is a bad move, imagine being at home before an exam. You have a great routine that you’re used to. Imagine being forced to move to your creepy uncle’s house right before a final exam. You’re suddenly in a different environment and different routine right before it matters most. Now you are 20 times less likely to pass the exam.
This is an unbelievably stupid decision, considering you’re in the middle of the playoffs. I can’t believe this. You could have just, I don’t know, waited until AFTER the playoffs to put a parade in home turf? We could have had a championship to our name. Maybe we could still have an NBA team here. But nope.
If you thought this was the lowest point of Jacobs’s decisions, you’d be sorely mistaken.
The Royals did not have a home anymore. They played home games in Cleveland (until the Cavaliers were created in 1970), Dayton, and Columbus. Imagine having to go all the way to Cleveland to watch a basketball game for a “Cincinnati” team. For what reason? Jacobs kept renting the stadium to others. Um, did you want to own a basketball team or what? If you wanted to be in real estate, you should have stayed there.
It gets worse. Imagine trading Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase. And then they win the Super Bowl. That’s exactly what happened with Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas. Robertson was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in 1970 and immediately won a championship.
Fans were not happy, obviously. Attendance lowered and lowered. The NBA board of Governors voted 16-1 in favor of the Royals transferring to Kansas City.
The Bittersweet End (For Now…)
The last home game ended in a win for the Cincinnati Royals at Cincinnati Gardens. They won 132-114 against the Baltimore Bullets on March 24th, a day after the vote took place. Two nights later on March 26th, they won against the Cleveland Cavaliers 135-122 with 10,289 people in attendance as the last time an NBA team would represent Cincinnati.
Is this the last time for Cincinnati professional basketball? Probably. For now, at least. The NBA wants to focus on expanding to bigger basketball cities like Seattle and Las Vegas, with Seattle losing the Supersonics in 2008.
The chances are low. Reasons being that Cincinnati Gardens hasn’t been renovated since 1997. Especially since Cincinnati is experiencing a boom in population. We’ve gained around 5,000 people since 2020 and counting.
The Queen City is clearly aching for basketball. College is a good remedy, but the empty space is still there. With Miami University currently being undefeated (30-0), and the University of Cincinnati historically being awesome, we aren’t in desperate need of basketball, thankfully.
What would a theoretical Cincinnati NBA Team look like today?
If the NBA decided that right here, right now that Cincinnati would be getting a team, what would happen? The fans would flock immediately to Cincinnati Gardens, given that the Bengals mostly only play on Sunday, the fans would have nothing to do the rest of the week. Reds fans have nothing to watch until March anyway. Okay, the fans aspect is taken care of immediately. What about a mascot?
The Bengals have Who Dey, The Reds have Mr. Red, Rosie Red, Mr. Redlegs, and Gapper, FC Cincinnati has Gary the Lion, the University of Cincinnati has the Bearcat, and the Cyclones have Twister and Puckchop. If we wanted to keep the prevalent feline theming, which the NBA has a surprising amount of none, we could really do anything we wanted to if we were lazy. But we aren’t lazy. So, no Lions, Tigers, or Bear(cat)s, oh my!
Some examples of cats we could use would be Leopards, Cougars, Panthers, or Cheetahs. But there is way more. Of the four, I’d immediately remove Cheetah as an option. We could easily be made fun of for being the “cheating cheetahs.” I’d also get rid of the Panthers, as a lot of sports use the panthers name already. So, between Leopards and Cougars, I’d personally choose the Cougars just because of the initialism. CC looks better than CL. Imagine seeing CC with a cougar on a hat or something. Or a CinC. That’d look cool on a hat!
We don’t have to take the cat approach though. We can take a simple path and just add some human features to a basketball and make a family out of it like the Reds did.
But who said we had to match another team in the area? This is theoretical, after all.
What do you think about when you think of Cincinnati? Definitely chili, the Flying Pig, maybe. We could be the Cincinnati Skyliners with a 3-way with a face as the mascot. That just makes me hungry. The logo could be the city skyline, similar to that of the Golden State Warrior’s logo.
Another option could be about Oktober Fest. We could be the Cincinnati Festgoers. Very intimidating… Maybe not. But it’d fit with NBA teams. Is a Spur really threatening? Or a Laker? Not really. We’d fit right in.
How do you feel about the NBA coming to Cincinnati? Would you want an NBA team, or would you rather just stick with what we have in the form of college basketball?
