This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — When the 2022-23 NBA season started, the Sacramento Kings entered the season with the longest playoff drought in major professional sports in the U.S.

After hiring Mike Brown as head coach and making multiple acquisitions in the free agent and trade market, the Kings went under a resurgence and will compete in the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

When the Kings last made the playoffs in the 2005-06 season, Sacramento was eliminated in the first round 4-2 by the San Antonio Spurs. That loss ended an eight-season streak of playoff appearances. 

Since the last Kings’ playoff game on May 5, 2006 at Arco Arena, here is how American culture has shifted.

14 iPhone versions have been launched

A year after the Kings’ last playoff game, the first-generation iPhone officially hit the U.S. market on June 29, 2007. 

The first iPhone was announced in January 2007 as a “revolutionary mobile” device and a “breakthrough internet communicator,” according to Verizon.

The iPhone 14 is Apple’s current model of its smartphone. A dozen iPhone generations have been discontinued, and the Kings have yet to make the playoffs.

Twitter, Instagram and TikTok did not exist

The landscape of social media was much different in the mid-2000s compared to how we know it now.

Social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram didn’t become popular until the 2010s. The first tweet was sent on March 21, 2006 and was officially released to the public later that July, two months after the Kings’ last playoff game.

Instagram was founded in 2010 and became acquired by Facebook two years later.

Popular video platform app TikTok also wasn’t around as it was internationally released in 2017. 

Vine, a platform where users posted six-second videos, came and went during the Kings’ playoff drought.

Facebook was only available to college students and MySpace was still at its peak. 

Blockbuster stores were still around

When the Kings last made the playoffs, movie-watching consisted of physically going to a store and picking out a DVD or VHS tape, then going back home and watching it on a player.

According to a YouTube video from V1 Analytics, there were over 5,490 Blockbuster locations across the country in May 2006.

As the rise of Netflix and other streaming companies happened, Blockbusters closed down. The world’s last remaining Blockbuster store is in Bend, Oregon, which has been the only location since 2018.

Culture of sports at the time

The world of sports was much different when the Kings last played in the postseason. 

The late Kobe Bryant still wore No. 8 for the Lakers as he officially changed his jersey number for the 2006-07 season. Bryant won his first scoring following the 2005-06 campaign.

San Francisco Giants legend Barry Bonds was still playing, as his last official year in the majors was in 2007. 

As for the Giants franchise, players such as Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, and Brandon Crawford did not yet make their MLB debut, as those players became catalysts of World Series championship teams in the early 2010s. 

Seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady, who is considered to be the greatest quarterback of all time, only had three championship rings at the time of the Kings’ last playoff run.