The Sacramento Kings and NBA Sports Bay Area announced that Kyle Draper has been hired as the team’s alternate play-by-play announcer. Draper will fill in when Mark Jones is fulfilling commitments to ESPN.
The announcement also included the detail that Draper will also serve as host of Kings Pregame Live and Kings Postgame Live on NBC Sports California, so Draper will be a fixture on Kings broadcasts even when he isn’t doing play-by-play. As noted in the press release, Draper has worked for NBC Sports Boston as host of Celtics Pregame Live and Celtics Postgame Live and as the fill-in play-by-play announcer for the network’s live-game coverage of the Celtics since 2009. He’s also been a fill-in play-by-play announcer for the Chicago Bulls on occasion.
The release also included a statement from Kings Chairman Vivek Ranadive:
We are excited to welcome Kyle to the Kings family and add his engaging presence to our talented broadcast team of Mark Jones and Doug Christie, said Kings Owner and Chairman Vivek Ranadive. His significant experience in the media industry will greatly add to the telecasts, and we look forward to watching him work his magic in Sacramento.
Kyle’s deep passion and knowledge of the NBA will further complement our expert Kings coverage all season long, added NBC Sports Bay Area/California Senior Vice President and General Manager Matt Murphy. “With the recent addition of Mark joining Doug for the majority of our Kings telecasts, we are thrilled to be able to showcase Kyle’s exceptional talents as both a play-by-play broadcaster and studio host beginning next month.
It remains to be seen how many games Draper will need to serve as a fill-in for Jones.
Great!(?)
(The question mark is because I have no knowledge of his work, so this must be a good move … I hope!)
Well, he’s no Jim Gray or Bill Walton!
Ok!
Shut up Otis!
(That just felt good. It’s been a while. 😉 )
By the way, are we starting up fantasy soon? Maybe we need to get our keepers set. Sorry if you’ve already addressed this in emails and I just missed it.
I haven’t. Life keeps getting in the way.
I’ll send out an email today as we need to agree on some details.
Understood. Thanks for running things, I’ve tried doing that with football and it’s way more time consuming than people realize. Can’t even imagine with all the keepers and trades we have in our league…
Let me know if there’s anything I can do. I’ll look for the email. Thanks again!
This is the stuff I’ve been waiting for.
Dear god, please let him have a harsh Boston accent.
“Fahx brings it upcawt, passes to Bahnes, handoff to Mahvin, back to Fawx who tees up a jumpah. SCOWAH!”
How about a Springfield/East Boston Kennedy accent?
That would be perfectly acceptable. Now we just need G1C to add clam chowder to the concessions.
Kings put out a pretty good compilation today. No Boston accent, but he seems solid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvr7zt8w8D4
Finally, we took something from Ainge!
“Ainge was close to a deal, but ultimately did not pull it off”…How many times have we heard that about Ainge???
I did like Koz, sounds like he has moved on.
Koz is the best. If he’s been bounced, I hope that he lands something that he loves. He’s definitely one of the good ones when it comes to media, and just in general.
Bounced he was !
What happened to Kozimor? I liked him in his role. Ham, Gerould, Mason next on the chopping block?
Agreed. I’m bummed to hear this. Really like Koz.
Koz was moved not by his choice ! Vivek purge continues !
He should purge himself
Welcome to Sacramento Kyle! He’s going to be shocked at the difference between the fan bases when he gets here.
The thumbnail picture of Mr. Draper looks like his head is cropped. Random observation.
Not to be offensive, and if I’m out of line hopefully the mods can simply delete but..
i already consider Vivek over reaching in involving the Kings in liberal politics
Mark Jones is talented if I disagree with Napear’s firing, but now a lot of folks on twitter and other kings sites saw no reason for Kozimor to be replaced..
i already want Vivek gone personally, and Draper seems talented for sure. Maybe Koz is looking for something else?
Badge Legend