{"id":262066,"date":"2026-04-11T02:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T02:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/262066\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T02:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T02:24:08","slug":"mark-jones-leaving-espn-but-what-about-sacramento-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/262066\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Jones leaving ESPN, but what about Sacramento Kings?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran sportscaster Mark Jones is leaving ESPN after 36 years, but he isn\u2019t leaving Sacramento.<\/p>\n<p>Jones told The Sacramento Bee he will return next season as the primary television play-by-play voice of the Kings on NBC Sports California, a job he has held since 2020 while continuing to work an exhaustive schedule for ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy plan is to be here for a long, long time,\u201d Jones said prior to Friday\u2019s game against the Golden State Warriors at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. \u201cI love it here and I\u2019ve been warmly received by the Kings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jones, 64, started his broadcasting career at The Sports Network in Canada before ESPN hired him to host \u201cNBA Today.\u201d He has served as a play-by-play announcer for NBA, WNBA and college football, utilizing an extensive vocabulary and his unmistakable style to describe the action for fans from coast to coast.<\/p>\n<p>Jones will call his final game for ESPN on Sunday when the Orlando Magic visits the Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n<p>The Kings hired Jones to replace Grant Napear as their primary play-by-play announcer in November 2020. He initially worked alongside Kings coach Doug Christie, who served as the team\u2019s TV color analyst before joining the coaching staff. Jones now partners with Kayte Christensen, the team\u2019s current color commentator.<\/p>\n<p>The Kings broadcast team also features Kyle Draper, who serves as a studio host and substitute play-by-play announcer when Jones is away on assignment for ESPN. Jones said he couldn\u2019t comment when asked if he will call Kings games on a full-time basis next season.<\/p>\n<p>        Related Stories from  Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/221350135\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SAC_Jason_Anderson_Author_Mug.JPG\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Jason Anderson\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/221350135\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jason Anderson<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>            Jason Anderson is The Sacramento Bee\u2019s Kings beat writer. He is a Sacramento native and a graduate of Fresno State, where he studied journalism and college basketball under the late Jerry Tarkanian.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran sportscaster Mark Jones is leaving ESPN after 36 years, but he isn\u2019t leaving Sacramento. Jones told The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-262066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}