Latest news with #GrantNapear
Fox News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Grant Napear opens up about 2020 firing on 'The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show'
Grant Napear, the former broadcaster for the Sacramento Kings fired for a post that said "All Lives Matter," joined "The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show" on Friday for an interview. As Dan Zaksheske wrote on Thursday, Napear has finally landed another radio broadcasting job. He will host his own show on FOX Sports Radio station in Sacramento that will air on weekdays from 3-6 PST, starting on September 2nd. Before this, he broadcast games for the Kings for 26 years, and was fired for this simple tweet he posted in 2020. Napear joined Travis and Sexton's show and talked about his experience of getting fired. He mentioned that many people in his circle and within the industry privately spoke with him and voiced their support. "Privately, people were outraged, they were blown away," Napear said. "I had some of the biggest names in the sportscasting industry reach out to me, talking about how they couldn't believe it. They were telling me they were going to be nervous about saying something they shouldn't or (that) it was going to be misconstrued." However, Napear said that he had no one come to his defense, because they were afraid of the repercussions of sticking up for someone who had said something deemed offensive. "But what was amazing is, every single one of them said, 'I would love to speak up for you publicly, but I can't.' They were too afraid. That's what it was like. People were too afraid to speak out and come to my defense," Napear said. While that must have been disheartening (on top of the five-year wait to get a job back in the industry), justice has smiled on Napear and restored him back to doing what he loves. It's good that this wrong - at least in part - has been rectified.
New York Post
5 days ago
- Sport
- New York Post
Sacramento shock jock, ex-Kings voice fired over ‘All Lives Matter' tweet finally has a new job — five years later
Five years after being fired by his radio station and resigning as the Kings' play-by-play announcer, Grant Napear is back on Sacramento's airwaves. The exiled broadcaster announced Wednesday that he would be taking over the weekday afternoon slot on Fox Sports' local station in California's capital city starting Sept. 2, marking his return to the city he called home for more than three decades. 'I'm competitive. I'm not only coming back to Sacramento. I'm coming back to win,' Napear said Wednesday on his YouTube show. 'I'm gonna put [Fox Sports Sacramento] on the map. I want people to know that I'm not doing this because I'm desperate. I'm doing this because I want to do it. It's been a void in my life. There is nothing like the community of Sacramento.' Advertisement 4 TV analyst Jerry Reynolds and Announcer Grant Napear look on prior to the game between the Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings on January 15, 2020. Napear is returning to the airwaves five years after his controversial firing. NBAE via Getty Images Napear, a graduate of Syosset High School on Long Island, was canned by KHTK 1140 after 32 years with the station after tweeting 'All Lives Matter…Every Single One!' in June 2020 in response to former Kings star DeMarcus Cousins, who asked for his view on the Black Lives Matter movement. Shortly after that, Napear resigned as the Kings' lead television announcer, a role he had been in since 1988. Advertisement The back and forth with Cousins came in the thick of the George Floyd protests and was met with significant backlash in Sacramento and the sports world beyond, including other former Kings players like Chris Webber and Matt Barnes. Others, like fellow radio personality Chris Russo, stuck up for Napear in the aftermath. Bonneville International, the parent company of KHTK, said 'the timing of Grant's tweet was particularly insensitive' after his firing. Advertisement 4 TV announcer Grant Napear of the Sacramento Kings during the game between the Los Angeles Clippers and Sacramento Kings on April 17, 2013 at Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, California. NBAE via Getty Images At the time, Napear told the Sacramento Bee he was 'not as educated on BLM as I thought. I had no idea that when I said 'All Lives Matter' that it was counter to what BLM is trying to get across.' In an interview with The Post on Thursday, Napear said he has few regrets for the controversial social media post that put his broadcasting career in tatters. 'I got caught up by being politically incorrect in a very turbulent time,' Napear said. 'I understand that, but I stick up for what I believe in. That's how I was raised and I still believe 'All Lives Matter' and I'm not ashamed to say it.' Advertisement 4 TV announcer Grant Napear of the Sacramento Kings during the game between the Los Angeles Clippers and Sacramento Kings on April 17, 2013 at Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, California. NBAE via Getty Images Napear said he's received 'hundreds and hundreds and hundreds' messages of congratulations since announcing the news less than 24 hours ago. Given his history, which included plenty of run-ins with fans and players even before his 'All Lives Matter' comment, he will no doubt have his critics, but that's far from the outspoken Napear's mind. 'Joe Buck has people who don't like him,' Napear said Thursday. 'Jim Nantz has people who don't like him. I don't worry about that. I don't worry about people that don't care for my work or don't want me back. I don't care about that. I care about my supporters and the people who have been with me through thick and thin.' Still, Napear is coming into his new job a different person, saying in a press release, 'I've listened, I've learned, and I've grown' in the half-decade away from the mic. 4 Grant Napear had been the Kings' play-by-play announcer since 1988. NBAE via Getty Images Napear, who has been hosting his own YouTube show and podcast for the past few years, said he was over the moon to get started. 'I can't wait for Sept. 2,' he said. 'If you would have asked me six months ago, nine months ago, a year or two years ago, I would have never thought this was possible,' he said. Advertisement Napear said the new program will be just like his self-titled show that aired before his firing in 2020, talking about the Kings, NFL and 'whatever [his] callers want to get into.' 'It's going to be exactly the same,' he said. 'I'm going to take phone calls. I'm going to have guests. I'm going to be opinionated.'
