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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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