Ex-Kings announcer loses appeal over firing for ‘All Lives Matter' tweet

A broadcasting company was entitled to fire a radio announcer who was also the play-by-play announcer for the Sacramento Kings of the NBA, after he tweeted "All Lives Matter" to a former Kings basketball player who asked him a question on the social media platform after the death of George Floyd, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

Grant Napear had been the Kings' announcer for 31 years and was also the host of a daily show on KTHK in Sacramento in May 2020, when Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis policeman who knelt on his neck and was later convicted of murder.

Napear claimed he was off work and following coverage of the protests when Demarcus Cousins , a former Kings player then with the Los Angeles Lakers who is Black, asked him on the platform (now known as X), "What's your take on BLM?," referring to the popular movement known as Black Lives Matter that began as a protest against racism and police brutality.

Napear responded with a tweet saying he was glad to hear from Cousins and that "ALL LIVES MATTER … EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!", wording often used by opponents of Black Lives Matter.

Bonneville International Corp., which employed Napear on his radio program and also as the Kings announcer, suspended him the next day and fired him a day later. He turned to podcasting for the next five years, but got a new broadcasting job last August as a daily host on Fox Sports Radio in Sacramento.

His lawsuit accused Bonneville of punishing him for private speech that was unrelated to his job. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Thursday that the broadcast company had acted legally to protect its own reputation.

"Napear was a public figure in his role as a radio-show host," and his contract "required him to maintain 'a high standard of care and level of responsibility' on social media, since it also affects the company's 'public image and reputation,'" the three-judge panel said , quoting the contract.

California law does not appear to "prevent employers from limiting employees' political expression undertaken within the scope of their employment such that it impacts the public reputation" of the employer, the court said, and Napear's use of his Twitter account "involved his celebrity persona such that his statement fell within the scope of his professional capacity."

The panel, drawn at random, consisted of Judges Bridget Bade, Danielle Forrest and Lawrence VanDyke, all appointed by President Donald Trump. They upheld a ruling by U.S. District Judge Dale Drozd of Sacramento, an appointee of President Barack Obama, dismissing Napear's suit without a trial.

Napear is not the first public figure to have been fired for his activities in social media, or the first sports broadcaster. One was Mike Bacsik, a former major league pitcher who was fired by a Dallas radio station in 2010 after a disparaging social-media posting about "Mexicans in San Antonio."

Napear's attorney, Matthew Ruggles, said he would ask the full appeals court for a new hearing before a larger panel, and, if that fails, seek review in the Supreme Court. He disputed the appeals court's conclusion that Napear's tweet was an "official" act related to his job.

"Grant Napear actually owned that Twitter account, had published approximately 38,500 tweets before he tweeted 'All Lives Matter…Every Single One,' and that tweet was not made on-air, during work, or as part of any radio show," Ruggles said. "It was Grant's personal expression, and that issue should be decided by a jury, not the court."