You may have loved him, you may have hated him. Maybe you were terrified of him. Regardless of how you felt, the Sacramento Kings new mascot has been banished as quickly and as surprisingly as he arrived.
If you haven’t caught up on the Roy Al lore, we’ve got you covered. Here’s what’s transpired over the last few days.
Last week, on Thursday, the Beam Team unveiled their 2024-2025 Nike City Edition uniforms, and shared that players would debut these new jerseys at Saturday's game against the Utah Jazz.
(Each NBA team updates their Nike City Edition uniforms every year to pay homage to the city in which they play. In this case, the Kings opted to pay respects to a city it once played in, Cincinnati.)
But they also unveiled an extra surprise: A new mascot would be joining Slamson the Lion, who has represented the Kings since 1997.
“When the team wears these uniforms at Golden 1 Center, fans will meet a new mascot, Roy Al,” team officials said. “Inspired by the logo featured on the shorts, Roy Al brings to life the team’s newly reimagined symbol, a fresh take on the historic Cincinnati Royals logo. Alongside Slamson, Roy Al will be on hand during City Edition games to entertain fans and stir up some mischief.”
The mascot has a basketball as its head with what can only be described as a sinister looking smile on its face. A Sacramento Kings crown sits atop his California-shaped hair, and he wears the City Edition uniform on his body.
To put it lightly, Roy Al was not received well by fans. Some Redditors said he looked like “nightmare fuel” while Kings fans on X (formerly Twitter) likened his appearance to that of Mr. & Mrs. Met, the New York Mets mascots.
Even Kings Point Guard De’Aaron Fox said, “What the [expletive] is that?” when he saw it for the first time.
By Saturday night, Kings fans were buzzing with excitement to meet Roy Al face-to-face.
But during halftime, Slamson expressed deep unhappiness about having to share the spotlight.
And in a video played over the jumbotron, Slamson gave Roy Al a cold shoulder before placing him in a shipping crate with a Cincinnati destination. Slamson also appeared to have taken the uniform off of Roy Al.
And Roy Al never ended up coming out on court on Saturday after all. Just like that, he was banished.
The Kings have been doing a great job marketing the team over the past few years, winning NBA awards for the introduction of The Beam, a giant purple light which shoots into the sky after every win.
But why announce a new mascot if you’re going to get rid of him before his official introduction?
Assistant economics professor at Sacramento State Hannah Gabriel said the Kings organization is a business where the idea is to earn a profit and increase sales — both in merchandising and in tickets.
“From a marketing perspective [a new mascot] also is going to generate a lot of attention,” Gabriel said. “Not just locally. People nationally, sports fans, love talking about when other teams do something different, interesting, crazy, whatever you want to call it. So I know that it’s gotten NBA fans from around the country to talk about the Sacramento Kings.”
It's true: The crowd booed when Roy Al was shown, and they cheered when they found out that Slamson had shipped the mascot back to Cincinnati. And Roy Al dominated NBA discussions in the days before he was banished.
But Gabriel added she doesn’t think the mascot has completely been put to rest.
“I think that there is an opportunity there from a marketing perspective,” she said. “Because everybody talked about it, they’re going to talk about it probably again if he comes back, as long as they don’t do too much.”
Kate Wolffe contributed to this report.
