spoke with the Chronicle <\/a>to detail his health journey since he underwent a successful bone marrow transplant on March 4. He is at home, using supplemental oxygen, but he\u2019s cancer-free and his oxygen needs have significantly decreased since both lungs collapsed during his nearly three-month stay at\u00a0UCSF Medical Center.<\/p>\nPapa was optimistic he could return to his KNBR show and work from his home studio as he did last year when he was undergoing two rounds of chemotherapy. Papa returned to the show, two months after he was diagnosed with leukemia, and remained on the air up until he began preparing for his bone marrow transplant.<\/p>\n
Papa\u2019s voice sounded strong throughout a two-hour phone interview last month. However, he acknowledged the preparation, energy, focus and travel required to return to the 49ers\u2019 booth was why it was uncertain he could continue his play-by-play career.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe radio show would be something that\u2019s obviously much easier to return to,\u201d Papa said. \u201cI could do it from my house. Doing a football game is a different challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m off the radio show, I don\u2019t get paid,\u201d Papa said. \u201cAnd then there\u2019s home care. There\u2019s ancillary expenses. The medication. There was one medication I just started taking that was $5,000 for a month\u2019s bottle. We were able to get it down to zero.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut cancer is unfair. And it affects you physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. And then it ultimately gets you financially.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silver, 27, joined Papa on KNBR\u2019s midday show after Lund, Papa\u2019s previous co-host, and Tom Tolbert were fired in November 2024. Silver joined the station on a part-time basis in April 2023. On Wednesday, Silver expressed appreciation for KNBR\u2019s John Dickinson and Bill Laskey, with whom he worked on Warriors and Giants postgame shows, respectively, before he was promoted. He was particularly grateful for his time with Papa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve gotten a lot better at not caring what people say and blocking out of some of the noise as a younger guy in this industry,\u201d Silver said. \u201cWhat truly allowed me to get there is that Greg Papa, who has been doing sports broadcasting over a decade beyond my life span, gave me trust and respect as a co-host.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s not the kind of the thing that would just happen. He wouldn\u2019t just hand that out for nothing. So to have that dynamic and to grow closer because of what he\u2019s dealt with medically, I can\u2019t express how much that means.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silver will be part of Cal football coverage this season. On Tuesday, Cal announced a 30-minute postgame show on NBC Sports Bay Area that Silver will co-host with Patrick Laird.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KNBR has laid off longtime Bay Area voice Greg Papa, 63, who was diagnosed with leukemia just over…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":983373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[43941,171,975,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-983372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-49ers","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117045638375635135","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=983372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/983373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=983372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=983372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=983372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}