SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — It’s been four and a half months since legendary sportscaster Grant Napear left both KHTK and the Sacramento Kings broadcasts.
Napear had tweeted at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement that “ALL LIVES MATTER…EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!”
Following the tweet, KHTK announced Napear was placed on administrative leave then let go. He resigned as announcer for the Kings shortly after.
Although he never got a chance at the time to publicly speak about the incident, Napear has started a new podcast and does not live in Sacramento anymore.
“And I said ‘all lives matter, every single one’, because I meant it. Do the lives of Black people matter? Hell yeah, the lives of Black people matter,” Napear told FOX40. “I’m for equality for all, that’s how I was raised. That’s how my dad brought up my brother and I.”
Napear’s tweet was in response to a question posed by player DeMarcus Cousins, asking the announcer “what’s your take on BLM?”
“I know a lot of people are making it about DeMarcus because of the friction we had. And I mean this, I don’t have anything against DeMarcus. He’s got a lot of good qualities. He’s also got some bad qualities, again, but he’s got a pretty good heart,” Napear continued.
Napear was a Sacramento mainstay since 1987. He had his own talk show on KHTK Radio and was the play-by-play voice of the Sacramento Kings TV broadcasts.
Love him or not, Napear always speaks his mind.
“Do I make mistakes? Yeah, I make mistakes and if I make a mistake, I try to say that I’m sorry. But I’m not sorry for saying ‘all lives matter, every single one,’” he said. “I’m not sorry because I believe that every life is important. I’m not sorry because I believe in equality for all. I’m not sorry because I try to treat everyone, regardless of the color of their skin, the same.”
Now, at age 61, Napear and his wife have moved to Miami temporarily.
He’s started a new podcast, appropriately titled “If You Don’t Like That With Grant Napear.”
“I’m going to do this podcast. I’m going to have fun with it, and then we’ll see where we are at six months or 12 months down the road. I could see myself back in Sacramento, you just never know,” Napear said.
And there is no question that Napear wants to get back to doing games.
“I would love to get back into announcing, whether it’s the NBA or the NHL or the NFL, whatever. I think that is what I do the best,” he told FOX40. “But I would need someone that would want me as their announcer. So yes, I am keeping all options open.”
Napear added that since he resigned from both KHTK and the Kings, that door is also open. He said he has received a ton of support since the incident at the start of the summer, but he’s also lost some friends too.
It was a trying time for Napear and his family but he insists he’s happy and in a great spot now.
“Whether it’s fair or not I will let my viewers, I’ll let my fans weigh in on that,” he said. “I could be bitter, I could be vindictive but what good is that going to do me, Mark?”
Napear’s podcast can be found on all major platforms.
