A Royal Pain
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The Real Grant Napear

ByKeith Jouganatos|

My parents divorced when I was six years old, which wasn’t what my father ever had in mind. Dad had just bought a brand new house, and now he was being forced to pack up everything and move into a new apartment.

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To make matters worse? He didn’t have a clue about parenthood.

Sure he had another child with his first wife, but by the time they had gotten married she was nearly an adult and was off to college after they each had taken their vows.

My father was stuck between a rock and Shawn Kemp’s boxers. Here he was with me every weekend from the time I was seven trying to go through the ins and outs of parenthood, keep me occupied and somewhat happy, and trying to keep himself sane in the process. So dad did maybe the smartest thing he could’ve ever done for the both of us. He mixed what he specialized in to help get us through that rough spot in each of our lives.

He mixed parenthood with sports.

Trading in normal stories for tales of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain battling in the paint like two dinosaurs, the drive, and Reggie Jackson’s three home run World Series game. I didn’t go to the zoo, but instead, I went to Game 3 of the 2001 American League Division Series (Jeter’s behind the back throw to home game).

We didn’t listen to music in the car, because my father, who has been a Los Angeles Lakers fan dating back to when the team drafted Elgin Baylor out of the University of Seattle, was enamored with Grant Napear.

There’s no need for me to go on a long and non-informative paragraph on who Mr. Napear is. He’s been a main stay in the city as voice of the Kings and his own radio show on Sports 1140 KHTK.

Dad always told me if being a journalist was a career path that I wanted to choose, that I could learn a lot from him with an internship. He believed that I’d be perfectly fine.

Except I wasn’t liking the idea deep down inside.

Growing up, I constantly would hear him turn on callers in an instant. When I was little I imagined him being this fire breathing dragon that could turn the oven dial to 750 degrees on anybody at any time. I’d freak out thinking that maybe he wouldn’t like me as a person, wouldn’t qualify, couldn’t handle it (that last part was somewhat true).

And so last year, in my freshman year of College, I decided to interview for an internship with the encouragement of a friend. I got in unexpectedly only to find out it was due to someone pulling a string.

I hated how it happened deep down on the inside. I don’t like anything being handed to me, especially when it comes to the career I want to pursue. But it was done and I couldn’t back out now.

The first day I was due at the station, I was a complete and utter nervous wreck. From the moment I got up in the morning to the time that I got in my car to drive to the station, my head was full of questions.

“How do I introduce myself? Am I going to be allowed to introduce myself at all? What if I say something that makes him mad?”

The first hour I was so nervous that I stayed in the same seat in the same position with my right leg underneath my backside. And that’s when the unexpected came to realization:

“Keith? How you doing? My name is Grant pleasure to meet you” Grant said.

And that was the start of me finding out the real truth — That Grant Napear is truly a nice person.

Truth be told, big red is one of the nicest people I’ve met EVER so far in my life, and not just in the sports world. And in return I tried my best not to piss him off. I kept my head down and fed him information, and hurried to every spot that I needed to be.

Everyday he said hi to me walking in the hall, he joked about my Pittsburgh Penguins when his Rangers beat them in Game 7 of last year, he remembered my name, which is really a thing for me because people forget me most of the time.

And before my eyes that same fire breathing dragon turned into a regular, nice as can be guy with particularly red hair.

But the true realization came to me five months later, when a lot of things in my life had gone completely wrong.

Everything at 1140 had blown up the previous Summer when I unceremoniously left the station. I had just gotten hired at KingsScoop and was covering a preseason game against Toronto. I was walking towards the Press Room to go charge my phone, and in plain sight was Big Red walking down the hall. It had been just like all those times at the radio station, except now I was really nervous.

“We hadn’t spoken in nearly five months, how was he going to take this? Was he pissed about what had happened at 1140? Did he not care? Would he cuss me out?”

“Hey! How are you?” Grant asked me. It took me a minute to answer for the sudden surprise.

Here is a guy, who most certainly knows about everything that went down at 1140 over those past couple of months after I left. Obviously I’m looked at as a bad person to many, but yet he still has the ability to treat me like he did back when everything was going good, even if he still might have had an issue with me.

That’s what told me all I needed to know about Grant Napear.

He came equipped with this look on his face. Maybe at the time I was reading in between the lines too much, but it was this look of compassion.

Here was Grant Napear, who I’d known my whole life from hearing him on the radio as that same fire breathing dragon that killed people with his voice and information with a look of compassion. As if to tell me, “I know”.

Maybe he saw me as a young person that dealt with the problems I had faced early the wrong way and knew me better than that. In a time where I was and still struggle to deal with people critiquing me and judging me he was willing to for a brief moment asked me how I was.

For a lot of people that’s nothing, yet for me at the time that meant the world for someone to say that. Coming from him that made the moment even better.

And that’s what I loved about being around Grant Napear the most.

He made me feel like he cared.

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