{"id":267898,"date":"2026-04-14T20:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T20:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/267898\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T20:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T20:59:09","slug":"kyle-draper-leaving-sacramento-kings-tv-broadcast-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/267898\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Draper leaving Sacramento Kings TV broadcast team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyle Draper will not return next season as a member of the Sacramento Kings television broadcast team on NBC Sports California.<\/p>\n

Draper spent six seasons in Sacramento as a studio host and substitute play-by-play announcer. He announced his departure on social media Tuesday, saying his contract was not renewed and Sunday\u2019s season-ending loss to the Portland Trail Blazers was his final game with the Kings.<\/p>\n

The news came days after primary Kings play-by-play announcer Mark Jones announced he was leaving ESPN, potentially clearing the way for him to call Kings games on a full-time basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cSunday was my last game as Sacramento Kings play by play announcer,\u201d Draper tweeted. \u201cAfter 6 seasons on the job, my contract is not being renewed. I want to thank all the Kings fans and the people of Sacramento for making me feel welcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour passion and love for your team was felt every night I walked into Golden 1 Center. And I\u2019ll always hold the love you showed me close to my (heart emoji). Sacramento became home for me and I hope you could feel I was 100% invested. I was with you every step of the way. As far as what\u2019s next?? Stay tuned. Whatever is next, I\u2019m going to bring the same passion and love for the community I showed here in Sacramento!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kings hired Draper and Jones in November 2020 following the departure of longtime play-by-play announcer Grant Napear. Draper handled play-by-play duties when Jones was away on assignment for ESPN. When he wasn\u2019t doing play-by-play, Draper hosted pregame and postgame shows on NBC Sports California.<\/p>\n

Before coming to Sacramento, Draper had worked for NBC Sports Boston since 2009, serving as host of \u201cCeltics Pregame Live\u201d and \u201cCeltics Postgame Live.\u201d He has also served as a substitute play-by-play announcer for Celtics and Chicago Bulls games.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Jason Anderson<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

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":"Kyle Draper will not return next season as a member of the Sacramento Kings television broadcast team on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-267898","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\/267898","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=267898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}