The team's origins date back to the London YMCA Metros who entered the National Basketball League in 1973.

The Metros enjoyed several successful seasons and a variety of exotic names - due to sponsorship naming deals - throughout the 1970s, but in 1979, owner Malcolm Chamberlain uprooted the team and relocated them from London to the suburbs of Kingston upon Thames and to the Tolworth Recreation Centre, and rebranding as Kingston.

Rangers were League Champions in 1988–89, but were sold off after just one year and returned to Kingston,[2] where the franchise enjoyed their most glorious period.

[6] The league sold Kings' licence to a group headed by Robert Earl, Ed Simons and Harvey Goldsmith, who went on to establish the equally successful Leopards franchise.

Note: European matches and some high-profile domestic games for Kingston, and later Guildford, were often played at the larger Crystal Palace National Sports Centre venue.