I will miss you Grant!

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Grant was a good play by play guy. But I think it was time for a change. Maybe doing a radio show in the same town you are the team game commentator is not the best recipe for success. Grant alienated a lot of people. Otherwise I think he would have probably been given the benefit of doubt (IMO). I hope he finds a new home. I'm sure he will.
 
pdxKingsFan said:
I think a Kingsfans appropriate response for my feelings is that Grant is a good play by play guy and I will miss his famous catchphrase which was a huge part of being a Kings fan the last ~30 years.
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He enhanced the entertainment value of the game for many. Period. Don't know the man, never really cared to. I've been pretty good at being able to respect a person for their talent/art since learning first hand what they mean by never meet your heroes. haha. I enjoyed his basketball commentary. His personal opinions, views, and attitudes never made it into my world and that was just fine by me. Although I can certainly understand how odd his existence may have been around the players considering his radio gig and what it entailed.
 
I'm a long time KINGS fan that goes back to the days before GN was announcing for the team. I say that because I saw his career grow up from an outside vantage point.

I stated this portion in another thread, but I'll re-state it here.

My first interaction with GN was back during the late 80's when my family held season tickets in section 101 row Z of the 2nd ARCO arena. Our row was the last row of the section thus we were right in front of GN -- who worked for, then, KRBK Channel 31.

He would do live in-game reports right from the station's suite. My father and I used to converse with him now and then about how nervous he always looked just before he'd go on air but then turn on the switch where you'd never know it. And we sometimes discussed other things.

When he suddenly became the PbP guy, we were a little excited about it because of the interaction we had over so many games. I always felt a certain connection because of it, even though I never really knew the guy. I suppose the main point is that I rooted for him to succeed. And enjoyed his work.

When 1140 took over KINGS radio broadcasts from KFBK1530 and GN got his own show, I listened to it religiously throughout my 20's. I worked in an environment where I could turn on the radio and listen to 1140 all day, every day.

Imus in the Morning, Don and Mike, Jim Rome, GN and 1-on-1 sports with Bob Kemp. That was the lineup for much of the mid-to-late 90's. Here in SAC, we didn't have a lot of locally based radio shows. Much of it was Nat'l re-broadcasts.

GN was the only locally based program on the list above. Later on other locally based sports programs started to pop up, such as Koz and the Rise Guys, but GN basically pioneered the road here in SAC.

So, if it's not evident enough already, I grew up with GN. While he often angered me over the years, I still enjoyed listening to his program. Part of me wants to defend him. But I really can't. Because I feel the end result was consequence of his own doing.

A lot of the events have been laid out. His public spats and behavior toward CWebb, BoJax, MattB and Boogie Cousins. His behavior toward his radio show callers that didn't deserve it (some of the obvious trolls certainly did, can you say Stanley???). And his turncoat behavior during the early stages of the Maloof relocation saga. Now we're hearing about ill behavior behind the scenes of those that worked at the radio station, such as Damien Barling.

So, in the end, I don't believe it is accurate to say that his departure from KHTK and the KINGS was solely due to the comment he made on Twitter. It surely became a large factor, but there was much more to it. There's was an accumulation of events and this apparently was the final straw. That's how I see it, anyway.

It's a bittersweet situation for me because I really see and understand both sides of it.

Since this is a farewell to GN thread, I'd also like to thank him for the decades of sports talk and for his PbP of exciting, memorable KINGS games. In many ways I will surely miss hearing him on air. He developed his own unique style and was recognized from coast to coast, even filling in on Nat'l programs such as the Jim Rome Show.

In SAC, he was a media big fish in what's considered a small pond compared to the likes of NY, LA and CHI. I'm guessing an overwhelming majority of this board grew up with him. We even cried with him and Jerry on live TV. He'll surely be missed.

At some point things will settle down and he'll rebound from this. I have little doubt.
 
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KingsFanSince85 said:
GN was the only locally based program on the list above. Later on other locally based sports programs started to pop up, such as Koz and the Rise Guys, but GN basically pioneered the road here in SAC.

So, if it's not evident enough already, I grew up with GN. While he often angered me over the years, I still enjoyed listening to his program. Part of me wants to defend him. But I really can't. Because I feel the end result was consequence of his own doing.

A lot of the events have been laid out. His public spats and behavior toward CWebb, BoJax, MattB and Boogie Cousins. His behavior toward his radio show callers that didn't deserve it (some of the obvious trolls certainly did, can you say Stanley???). And his turncoat behavior during the early stages of the Maloof relocation saga. Now we're hearing about ill behavior behind the scenes of those that worked at the radio station, such as Damien Barling.

So, in the end, I don't believe it is accurate to say that his departure from KHTK and the KINGS was solely due to the comment he made on Twitter. It surely became a large factor, but there was much more to it. There's was an accumulation of events and this apparently was the final straw. That's how I see it, anyway.

It's a bittersweet situation for me because I really see and understand both sides of it.

Since this is a farewell to GN thread, I'd also like to thank him for the decades of sports talk and for his PbP of exciting, memorable KINGS games. In many ways I will surely miss hearing him on air. He developed his own unique style and was recognized from coast to coast, even filling in on Nat'l programs such as the Jim Rome Show.

In SAC, he was a media big fish in what's considered a small pond compared to the likes of NY, LA and CHI. I'm guessing an overwhelming majority of this board grew up with him. We even cried with him and Jerry on live TV. He'll surely be missed.

At some point things will settle down and he'll rebound from this. I have little doubt.
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My thoughts exactly (though I’m not quite sure about your last sentence at this point in time). I grew up listening to Grant (mostly because he was like the only afternoon local sports guy on the radio for a huge part of my youth) and for better or worse he and his many idiosyncrasies are a huge part of my Kings fandom but times change and he certainly didn’t and it finally came back to bite him in the ass. But just as it was weird hearing Kings games without Jerry, it’ll be odd hearing Kings games without Grant, Hopefully we’ve still got decades and decades worth of Games (and championships) left with the G-Man before the broadcast team of our youths fades into the static of history for good.
 
Tetsujin said:
My thoughts exactly (though I’m not quite sure about your last sentence at this point in time)..
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Well, I was trying to be hopeful and end on a positive note ;)

While I believe everything I stated, I never like to see anyone lose their livelihood — unless they commit extremely egregious acts upon others. So while I understand why it ended as it has and felt it was a long time coming, I do hope he is able to learn from all of the experiences and bounce back.
 
Good luck, Grant.

I enjoyed his play by play and to a lesser extent, his show. He knew his sports outside of hoops. But he also catered to the Kings, which often required an extra layer of criticism whenever he spoke of the Kings.

That said, I understand both sides. The pendulum swings. Sometimes too far, sometimes not enough.
 
For people that are really sports fans the commentators matter. They are familiar, they know the team, they are usually very enthusiastic about watching their teams play. We learn to accept them warts and all. I wish Napear nothing but success where ever he ends up.
 
I loved listening to Grant and Jerry call games. And I admire what Grant has done in our community. Hopefully soon, he will realize why he needed to be fired and can change some minds with his realization.
 
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