Boogie Cousins Waits Three Years, Gets Kings Analyst Fired

The television broadcaster of the Sacramento Kings for 32 years, Grant Napear, has officially resigned from the position after being placed on administrative leave earlier this week.

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The Kings say TV play-by-play announcer Grant Napear has resigned. “We thank him for his contributions to the team and wish him all the best.” Napear:
“I want to thank the fans for their overwhelming love and support. I will always remain a part of Kings nation in my heart.”

— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) June 2, 2020

Napear was placed on administrative leave by the Kings after this Twitter exchange with former King DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins.

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Kings play-by-play announcer Grant Napear has been placed on administrative leave after sending this tweet out last night, per @JandersonSacBee pic.twitter.com/nVffniicFB

— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) June 1, 2020

As an unabashed Vlade Divac STAN, I have watched more than my fair share of Sacramento Kings basketball despite being from Chicago and living there nearly my whole life so this is a rather sad end to a career which has spanned five different decades. The call, “If you don’t like that, you don’t like Sacramento Kings basketball” is one of my favorites and I always enjoyed Napear’s commentary and passion for the Kings while listening. However, if the implications of racism by former Kings players are indeed accurate then this departure is a long time coming.

While “all lives” certainly do matter, that’s not the point of the “Black Lives Matter” movement nor is it an appropriate response to it. For the most part, it’s used as a way of undermining the cause. Whether Napear was intentionally trying to undermine the movement or not is unclear, but former Kings players have come forward accusing the longtime broadcaster of racism. Cousins, Chris Webber, and Matt Barnes were all unsurprised by Napear’s response:

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Lol as expected.

— DeMarcus Cousins (@boogiecousins) June 1, 2020

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Demarcus we know and have known who grant is. The team knows as well. I’ve told them many times. They’ve seen it. They know who he is. 🤡🤡 https://t.co/4DI4f1DGUp

— Chris Webber (@realchriswebber) June 1, 2020

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Would expect nothing less from a closet racists

— Matt Barnes (@Matt_Barnes22) June 1, 2020

The intention of Cousins was clearly to bait Napear into saying exactly what he said, and this appears to be Cousins way of exacting the ultimate revenge on someone who’s he had beef with for a number of years. Cousins was barely out the door in 2017 when Napear ripped Cousins publicly after he was traded to the Pelicans.

Napear apologized for how he responded on Twitter and was supposedly sincere in a conversation with the Sacramento Bee’s Marcos Breton:

“I’m not as educated on BLM as I thought I was,” Napear said to me. “I had no idea that when I said ‘All Lives Matter’ that it was counter to what BLM was trying to get across.”

Napear was emotional on the phone and was sincere. And I believe that he didn’t know the political implications of the phrase he used.

“I’m in pain,” he said. “I’m 60 years old and I still have a lot learn.”

It’s very possible that Napear is sincere in that he didn’t know the implications behind his “All Lives Matter” response and he may have been able to survive as the Kings broadcaster if players had come to his defense and deemed it as “an unfortunate slip-up” or something along those terms. However, the lack of support from Kings players present and present made this too difficult of a situation for Napear to continue in this role.

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