The Sacramento Kings appear to have made a statement by firing an announcer who said, “all lives matter,” only to replace him by hiring someone who claimed that Donald Trump is a “white supremacist terrorist.”
Back in June, Kings announcer Grant Napear was pressured to resign from his 30-year broadcasting job after stirring vitriol from the left because he said that “all lives matter.” Napear, who had been with the team since 1988, later explained that he was not aware that “all lives matter” was somehow considered racist.
Napear also lost his job on KHTK radio over the incident.
Still, it seems clear that the Kings are not averse to their broadcasters acting inappropriately in public. We know this because of who they hired to replace Napear.
Early this month, the Kings announced that it is filling its play-by-play position with ESPN and ABC Sports broadcaster Mark Jones.
“We are delighted to welcome Mark to the Kings family and watch him partner with Doug to form a new, dynamic broadcast team for the franchise and its proud fans,” said Kings Owner and Chairman Vivek Ranadivé.
But along with his coverage of the NBA, Jones is also a well-known hater of the police, a race-baiter, and even laughed at an NFL player’s injury because the player was a supporter of Donald Trump.
Months before the Kings brought him on, Jones stirred controversy by claiming that the police are universally racist and a “danger” to the lives of all black people.
Saturday at my football game I’ll tell the police officer on duty to “protect” me he can just take the day off. Fr.
I’d rather not have the officer shoot me because he feared for his life because of my black skin or other dumb ish.
I’m not signing my own death certificate💯
— MarkJonesESPN (@MarkJonesESPN) September 24, 2020
Police never saved me.Never helped me.Never protected me.Never taken a bullet for me. (They’ve pulled guns on me)
Never kept me safe in a protest. Never stopped the racist from taking my Black Lives Matter flag off my house.
I could do without em. fr. #BreonnaTaylor. #Defund12— MarkJonesESPN (@MarkJonesESPN) September 23, 2020
Remember..the clowna$$ police shot up the wrong house. Killed #BreonnaTaylor.
Am I next ? My brother ? My cousin ? An NBA player without his jersey on ?
Louisville Laurel & Hardy police had the wrong house.
THE WRONG HOUSE
Lethally incompetent.
2 different amerikkkas— MarkJonesESPN (@MarkJonesESPN) September 23, 2020
On the latter, Jones lied. The police in Louisville did not get the “wrong house.” The warrant they were given had Taylor’s name and address on it and Taylor had been in recent contact with a known drug dealer that was arrested that same night at a different location.
Jones also posted a tweet in September in which he said that whites are racists:
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
-Lyndon B Johnson— MarkJonesESPN (@MarkJonesESPN) September 24, 2020
Outkick also found that Jones routinely replaced the “c” in America with “kkk.”
"Everytime @MarkJonesESPN has referred to America in the past couple of months, he has spelled 'America' with three k's, as in the KKK. This dude is an imbecile, alright?" –@ClayTravis pic.twitter.com/xQslEDC5fn
— OutKick (@Outkick) September 25, 2020
In another case, Jones liked a tweet that laughed at Nick Bosa’s injury because Bosa is a Trump voter:
@ClayTravis @WhitlockJason @burackbobby_ Mark Jones liked this tweet pic.twitter.com/GdgBNA9WNo
— Fred (@FredoCuom) September 24, 2020
Finally, Jones retweeted a post that called Trump a “white supremacist terrorist.”
So @MarkJonesESPN is calling the Army football game this weekend. Earlier this week he rt’ed that @realDonaldTrump was a white supremacist terrorist. Good move @espn. pic.twitter.com/lx00Hm62po
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 24, 2020
In fact, Jones’ Twitter feed is so filled with hate, he eventually had to set his account to protected so that just anyone can’t log on and see what he is posting. That is a pretty odd move for someone who is supposed to be making a living in the public sphere.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.
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