The Kings are honored for one aspect of the team that ‘has been without peer’

The NBA’s top-ranked team resides in Northern California.

No, we’re not talking about the team that recently clinched its fifth consecutive NBA Finals appearance. This is about excellence off the court.

The Kings top the list of NBA Twitter accounts, according to rankings released Thursday by Complex Sports. The website – which covers pop culture, music, sports and more – has been ranking the league’s social media accounts for the last five years.

Sacramento, which was fourth last year, unseats the Philadelphia 76ers at the champion. The Portland Trail Blazers were No. 1 on the first three lists.

“If NBA Twitter is all about being timely and self-aware, putting out fire content, and listening to the fan base, then Sacramento is, well, king,” Complex’s Kazeem Famuyide wrote. “For a team that’s been hovering around mediocre for the last several seasons, their Twitter game has been without peer. ... Now that they have one of the younger and more exciting teams in the league to watch and root for, let’s see if our new Twitter champs can hold on to this title as their team continues to rise.”

The Kings, who have 1.03 million Twitter followers, gave a “salute” to Complex in accepting the honor.

Complex listed a “fire tweet” for all 30 teams. The Kings entry was one that clapped back at rapper Ja Rule, who said the team “will NEVER WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP” before adding that Karl-Anthony Towns would leave the team in free agency. One problem: Towns has played his entire four-year career with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Kings’ simple response: “Hoop knowledge worse than Fyre Fest logistics.” The Feb. 26 tweet has more than 74,000 likes and 18,000 retweets.

Sacramento was No. 2 in 2016 and has been in the top four each year except for 2015, the first year of the rankings. The Kings were 18th in the inaugural list.

This story was originally published May 23, 2019 at 3:49 PM.