Grant Napear’s return to Sacramento radio has ended after just eight months.
The former Sacramento Kings broadcaster announced Monday on social media that his weekday afternoon show on Fox Sports Radio Sacramento has been canceled. The program had been airing from 3 to 6 p.m. on iHeartMedia’s Fox Sports Sacramento since launching in September 2025, marking his first return to the Sacramento airwaves since losing both his jobs in the span of 48 hours back in June 2020.
Napear had been the television voice of the Sacramento Kings since 1988, and a dominant presence in the Sacramento radio market on KHTK before a June 2020 Twitter exchange with former Kings player DeMarcus Cousins ended both careers almost simultaneously. Cousins had asked Napear for his thoughts on Black Lives Matter, and Napear responded by tweeting “ALL LIVES MATTER…EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!”
In the ensuing backlash, former Kings players — including Chris Webber and Matt Barnes — publicly called him out, NBC Sports California distanced itself from his comments, the Kings announced his resignation, and KHTK announced on air that he had been fired. Napear was unapologetic about the substance of his tweet, and a subsequent discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit against KHTK was dismissed.
For years before 2020, Napear’s afternoon show on KHTK had dominated the Sacramento market, and his 32 years as the television voice of the Kings made him one of the most recognizable sports media personalities in the city. He came back to Fox Sports Sacramento, promising to win the afternoons again, and told the Sacramento Bee he was competitive and wanted to talk to Sacramento fans again. The station was a newer entry competing directly against KHTK, and as we noted when Napear launched the show, it’s tough for secondary sports stations in small markets to survive, especially without broadcast rights to major pro or college teams. The show did not survive long enough to mount the kind of challenge Napear had promised.
Since his 2020 firing, Napear had been hosting a Sacramento Kings podcast with longtime broadcast partner Jerry Reynolds. Based on his send-off message to listeners Monday, his YouTube and X show is where he will continue from here·
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.