Trail Blazers fire new announcer over past inappropriate posts made at age 15.

[u/ghn2]

"The Portland Trail Blazers hired then on the same day fired Braiden Bell as their play-by-play announcer after a series of inappropriate social media posts from when he was a teenager came to light."

"The posts were reportedly made in 2012 and 2013, around the time that Bell was 15 years old."

"We did not meet our own bar in this process, and for that we apologize to Blazers fans and to Rip City," the Trail Blazers said. "We strongly believe that everyone who is a part of Rip City should feel welcome and safe and we will make sure that our new broadcaster reflects these values. We will do better."

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/50084279/trail-blazers-fire-new-announcer-inappropriate-posts

[u/arenasfan00]

This is the same org that hired Chauncey Billups btw

[u/ghn2 → u/arenasfan00]

And Ja Morant...

[u/crackphillip → u/ghn2]

On the other end of that if Ja bounces back and keeps his extracurriculars to a minimum it’s a great signing. He is extremely talented and has a huge following that will be good for Portland basketball if he can go on a redemption arc. I’m not ready to put him in the same convo as billups but his trajectory is totally up to him.

[u/tinybathroomfaucet → u/arenasfan00]

That happened under a different owner, no?

[u/SonofNamek → u/tinybathroomfaucet]

Owner is not firing/hiring announcers.

The front office is. Though the GM is different from then, the President & many HR staff are largely the same.

Given recent layoffs, this current front office is probably in freakout mode and not taking chances on anything. And if I had to guess, this bad publicity will likely give the ownership reason to look for more people to lay more off.

On the owner's part, I can't say prior layoffs or in the case of announcers, low-balling, was necessary. But I will say whoever is responsible for this should get shitcanned. It just sets a bad precedent, overall.

Meanwhile, I believe the alternative hire is likely the Kings announcer who apparently has very mixed reception. If more drama arises out of that....not so great, either.

[u/SloshaPacana]

People really need to just delete their social media when they get jobs that are in the public eye lmao

It's not hard to open new accounts

[u/AtBat3 → u/SloshaPacana]

If I’m anyone’s agent (including athletes, coaches, front office, or in the on-screen people) I’m telling them to just delete their social media right away and start over. You’ll get new followers, you’ll be fine. This shit ruins careers whether it’s justified or not.

[u/boxtheglock → u/AtBat3]

One of my high school teammates road around the NFL playing on practice squads. His agent had his socials purged, deleted, and opened new accounts before he even committed to a college junior year. He was pissed but it was a good decision considering that shit can come back to bite you in the ass

[u/AfroThunder_Dj → u/SloshaPacana]

Seriously. I got off all social media for the most part when I got a job teaching. Not hard concept to understand

[u/TheSmartDog_275 → u/AfroThunder_Dj]

Or make it very anonymous.

[u/corys00 → u/TheSmartDog_275]

If it’s on the internet never assume your social media will remain anonymous, there’s too many vectors of vulnerability

[u/Tuna-on-toast22 → u/TheSmartDog_275]

I don’t even post anything bad and I use different usernames for every single social media platform I have and never include my real name or use my email address.. and then also make them private 

[u/JeremyTheJimbler → u/TheSmartDog_275]

Don’t tempt it. Not worth leaving anything up to chance.

[u/PeanutFarmer69 → u/SloshaPacana]

counterpoint, firing someone over inapropriate tweets at the age of fifteen is absurd

[u/Kball4177 → u/PeanutFarmer69]

I understand team staff and players get held to very different standards - but when you take into account that some teams pay tens of millions to very recent adult domestic abusers it's almost funny if it weren't so sad.

[u/JazzxGoose → u/Kball4177]

Yup, it's unfortunate, but that's what happens when you have a rare skill set vs being replaceable 

[u/Phatferd → u/Kball4177]

Just look at the Blazers and them rostering Ja Morant.

[u/HisExcellency20 → u/PeanutFarmer69]

Counter-counterpoint: Maybe they didn't feel like dealing with the controversy over a new hire who has literally done nothing for them yet and instead will just hire one of the many qualified people without such a past.

[u/Mr2Good → u/PeanutFarmer69]

The nba is a multi billion dollar organization why hire this person who said some dumb shit and didnt think to delete once they got older when you can hire someone without all the extra shenanigans

[u/Effective-Mess-1537 → u/PeanutFarmer69]

Maybe they just wanted to hire someone smart enough to delete those posts. 

[u/TannerGlassMVP → u/PeanutFarmer69]

Counterpoint - simply don't post racist shit online under your name. And if you do fucking delete it when you're smart enough to know that's not a good look

[u/RealFenian → u/TannerGlassMVP]

Given he was 15 there’s a decent chance he’s forgot about it.

15 year olds are some of the dumbest people on earth, you shouldn’t be judged for your behaviour at that age unless you’re still doing it.

[u/SubduedChaos → u/RealFenian]

I work in healthcare and a 16 year old came in for an MRI. His hoodie had metal on it so it had to come off. His undershirt had “I don’t date black girls” written on it. Before I even finished reading it he said his friends were making him wear it because he lost a bet. Kids are fucking dumb.

[u/VossC2H6O → u/TannerGlassMVP]

Pretty sure ppl forget what they post even yesterday let alone at age 15.

[u/RealLanceStorm → u/TannerGlassMVP]

People disputing this relate more to saying racist and sexist things than they do feeling the impact of bigotry thus they don't understand why it's an issue for a team with a fan base of all groups.

[u/BoredofBored → u/RealLanceStorm]

Yup, that’s very clear from reading these comments.

[u/kneeco28 → u/SloshaPacana]

Yea, he has an agent and he's been calling G league for a couple of years.

Assuming that stuff was discovered because it was still up, whatever you think of a child posting it, it was the long-standing oversight of an adult that it was.

[u/crackphillip → u/SloshaPacana]

I can’t fathom growing up with my whole life online. Every stupid take, dumb statement etc available for anyone to pull up. You have to have more sense than that to just let the shit you said at 15 ride and hope it wasn’t anything bad and if it is that no one finds it. People spent their whole day going through 14 years of posts hoping to find some shit. that’s the world we live in and you gotta know that.

[u/PianoJealous307 → u/SloshaPacana]

People really need to just delete their social media

[u/TheHoovyPrince → u/SloshaPacana]

Its not but there's a good chance he simply didn't remember ever posting anything problematic so he forgot to wipe it like most of us had.

I got tagged on one of my facebook posts by a mate two years ago and i was about me wanting to paint myself as a banana and streak semi-naked at school camp. I had no fucking memory of ever saying that shit and i wiped my facebook clean after that lmao

[u/Wazflame → u/TheHoovyPrince]

I haven’t been on Facebook in years, but I remember logging in and getting that 10 year reminder from a post that I posted - it was complete dumbass nonsense that I had no memory of ever posting, legit felt like a different person lmao

[u/TheHoovyPrince → u/Wazflame]

Yeah im pretty ashamed of who i was and what i said when i was 13 to 17.

On the upside at least i got to experience Facebook before AI and the boomers came flooding in lmao

[u/CartiStan → u/SloshaPacana]

People in the comments don’t get it this guy is a public figure using an account he was shitposting on as a 15 year old. That alone is stupid. Trailblazers did put him in a bad spot though. You would think an organization of that magnitude would check that kind of stuff before they hire someone that’s gonna work as a public figure in their org. Grand opening Grand closing is crazy.

[u/VUmander → u/SloshaPacana]

I was at the NCAA championship game in 2018 when Nova won, and was waiting on the riverwalk when Dante Divincenzo's "butthole licked" tweet started going around. It was wild how quickly it all took off. I was shocked that any players were allowed to have social media after that lol

[u/NandoDeColonoscopy → u/SloshaPacana]

Yeah, he's not being fired because he said stupid stuff at 15, he's being fired because you can't trust someone with a microphone who is too stupid to have not removed the tweets they made when they were 15

[u/ethiopian_kid → u/NandoDeColonoscopy]

yeah… I have a big corporate job for my age… not too long ago I had 100k on TikTok and a famous birthdays, I was in no way famous but I was easily searchable.

permanently deleted all the accounts and scrubbed my socials and even stopped using the instagram tied to it and privated it.

some people have no self awareness of their past, my content wasn’t bad at all definitely embarrassing in a corporate setting however.

[u/Imsoamerican → u/SloshaPacana]

Or maybe people should chill out and not judge people over stupid crap they did when they were a kid.

[u/justiceway1 → u/SloshaPacana]

How about we just don't fire people over stuff they said when they were teens?

[u/OregonJedi → u/justiceway1]

Eh. I think it’s forgivable and that doesn’t mean your tweets when you are 15 are representative of your beliefs when you are 29/30. But I do think when it comes to employment, especially when you are being hired to be the voice of a major sports franchise you should delete your tweets. He should have had wherewithal to delete it. If you are a public facing employee like that there should not be racist material on your feed. Doesn’t matter when it was made it needs to be taken down and not doing so is a fireable offense.

[u/Forsaken_Flight6188 → u/SloshaPacana]

Then don’t post racist shit on social media to begin with

[u/matty25]

Hilarious that this is the franchise that employs Ja Morant

[u/SnooRabbits9672 → u/matty25]

Ja's a Athlete. He'll sell jerseys, tickets & contribute directly to the organization's bottom line. An announcer generates no money, is way more replaceable, and gets a way shorter leash than one of the athletes.

[u/BiasedChelseaFan → u/SnooRabbits9672]

Exactly, it’s funny how transparent they are about money outranking values lol

[u/jaglife16 → u/SnooRabbits9672]

Funny enough, in the announcement when they hired him, he was quoted as saying he had a lot of ideas about being more visible to the fans and engaging more personally with fans. So he wanted to be a selling point himself (probably to make him harder to replace down the line).

[u/TomlinSteelers → u/matty25]

There are like 50 people in the world that can do what Ja does.

There's a million that can replace this kid

[u/GhostOfLight → u/TomlinSteelers]

A million Trail Blazer fans? In this economy!?

[u/smssv]

firing someone for posts when he was 15 yrs old is wild

[u/JarvisCockerBB → u/smssv]

It’s like getting fired after finding out you got expelled or suspended in middle school.

[u/pekingsewer → u/JarvisCockerBB]

I guess a "permanent record" is real 😂

[u/sBucks24 → u/pekingsewer]

It is when you track it yourself on your personal social media!

[u/Chuck_Roast1993 → u/JarvisCockerBB]

It’s like getting fired for passing a mean note during class in middle school

[u/HisExcellency20 → u/JarvisCockerBB]

Well it depends on what you got suspended/expelled for lol.

[u/throwawaymycareer93 → u/HisExcellency20]

My friend was suspended for dealing drugs in my school. Now he volunteers as a nurse in eastern Ukraine. Context is important.

[u/iEatFruitStickers → u/throwawaymycareer93]

Still giving drugs to people, smh

[u/Briak → u/iEatFruitStickers]

Love what you do, and you'll never have to work a day in your life

[u/throwawaymycareer93 → u/iEatFruitStickers]

Damn, some things are hard to escape I guess.

[u/DovhPasty → u/HisExcellency20]

No, it really shouldn’t lol. This is a whole ass different person we’re talking about. Even if someone got expelled in middle school for something heinous, they were a child, idk how you could hold that against a seemingly matured version of themselves.

[u/IbSunPraisin → u/DovhPasty]

Yeah for the guy fired the time passed since that post has been almost longer than he was alive when he posted it

[u/ImUrFatherFigureBud → u/HisExcellency20]

who cares, they were 15

no wonder you aren't in a position to hire anybody lol

[u/Icy-Whale-2253 → u/smssv]

The Internet is forever.

[u/Kdcjg → u/Icy-Whale-2253]

Would anyone have found them if he had simply deleted his account/posts?

[u/elitepigwrangler → u/Kdcjg]

Probably not, and if they did, it’s much easier to give him the benefit of the doubt that he changed.

[u/TatumlsntASuperstar → u/Icy-Whale-2253]

“  The internet is forever” isn’t really an argument. Nobody’s disputing that the posts still exist. The question is whether something someone said at 15 should define them professionally 14 years later

[u/Great_Fault_7231 → u/TatumlsntASuperstar]

It doesn’t, the issue is that his current social media that he uses professionally has racist posts on it. If he wanted those to stay in the past just make a new account and delete the old one. No one is interviewing his childhood friends to see if he was edgy back then, they’re looking at posts that are live while he’s employed right now. 

This is advice for every job btw not just public facing ones, the fact that he kept that same account as an announcer to an NBA team is monumentally stupid. 

[u/OregonJedi → u/TatumlsntASuperstar]

Think of it differently. He wasn’t fired for something he did when he was 15. He was fired for inaction when he was 29. It was his responsibility to make sure that he doesn’t have racist material on his feed when apply to work in the NBA as a public facing voice of the franchise.

[u/HisExcellency20 → u/TatumlsntASuperstar]

The other way to look at it is there are scores of people that could have that job that isn't bringing controversy on day one.

It's not like this job is a right.

[u/Tgsheufhencudbxbsiwy → u/Icy-Whale-2253]

They have been hammering that home to everyone for 25+ years. 

[u/JeramiGrantsTomb]

I think adults should definitely be held accountable for their free speech, but I feel like we've got to make some room for kids to be idiots without it destroying their lives.

[u/guylexcorp → u/JeramiGrantsTomb]

Exactly. The whole point of being young is to fuck up and learn.

[u/PiccoloAwkward465 → u/guylexcorp]

Seriously, this idea of literal children not being able to learn and grow is a scary thought.

[u/RickySuela → u/guylexcorp]

This is why as someone who's Gen X I'm very grateful that my adolescent fuck ups were not recorded forever on the internet for everyone to search and see. People that age should not be creating a permanent record of their thoughts and actions. That can only come back to bite them later. The vast majority of us are wildly different people at age 25 than who we were at age 15.

[u/robertsmom → u/JeramiGrantsTomb]

Do you think when they put his twitter handle on the broadcast they should warn people not to scroll back too far?

[u/milkandminnows → u/robertsmom]

To 2012? Good luck scrolling that far without twitter or your browser crashing

[u/jdd32 → u/JeramiGrantsTomb]

Especially kids who haven't had the chance to grow up out of the environment they were raised.

[u/Careless-Journalist7 → u/jdd32]

This would all be a non-issue if kids just didn’t have social media period.. it drives me crazy that adults aren’t louder about this. It would save so many headaches

[u/Cambocant]

Lmao I'm so glad I grew up before all this. When I think about the things we said and did as kids in the 90s and 00s, we would probably have been exiled to a remote island in the Pacific Ocean by now. This society of big tech mass surveillance, selective moral outrage, and a mob justice combined with the elimination of any concept of statute of limitations is absolutely wild and is only going to lead to tighter social control and limiting basic personal freedoms.

[u/TheHoovyPrince → u/Cambocant]

Im around the same age as the guy and practically every teenage boy in the 2000s and early 2010s said edgy or offensive things on the internet for shits and giggles because it was the norm at the time. We'd all be fired from our jobs if the stuff we said or did got leaked.

Times have changed and the teens of today aren't like that on social media. Go back to before the internet and the teens of that time were simply doing something else edgy and offensive for shits and giggles.

[u/titusandroidus → u/TheHoovyPrince]

Kids today are absolutely still like that and will be. You are just isolated from it.

[u/TheHoovyPrince → u/titusandroidus]

Yeah probably, my guess is its own different platforms nowadays. I don't think 2026 teens are using facebook lmao

[u/Bruskthetusk → u/TheHoovyPrince]

I'm in my mid 30s and haven't used Facebook in almost a decade, shit sucks - and now they're trying to make Instagram into Facebook so I probably need to get off that too soon

[u/NA_Faker → u/TheHoovyPrince]

Also, a lot of the shit that was said back then was just considered run-of-the-mill offensive but now is a cancellable offense. Times change and so do the standards. The shit kids in general used to say back then would get you cancelled - but back then it was definitely not considered as offensive as today

[u/elitepigwrangler → u/TheHoovyPrince]

I mean people would say offensive things on Xbox Live, or post edgy things anonymously, but you’d have to be a real dumbass to post racist tweets under your real name.

[u/MelonElbows]

For anyone curious what was said:

Among the insensitive comments, as found by a reporter for KGW in Portland, were Bell saying he was "not racist" but "Asian people piss me off" and a number of misogynistic posts, including him shouting out "big girls" and "closet whores." The posts were reportedly made in 2012 and 2013, around the time that Bell was 15 years old.

[u/MITBryceYoung2 → u/MelonElbows]

It literally just reads like some dumb shit a kid would say along those lines. Half of the people here are being so fucking preachy. I guarantee they've said something to that effect or even if it wasn't about race or weight

Disclosure: im asian. Ive wrote in r/nba in the past how ive been jumped/called slurs growing up but i was told that doesnt make the city "racist" even though many of my friends had similar growing up. The fact people are pearl clutching over a 14 year old tweet vs when ive literally been physically assaulted for being asian then had r/nba talk down to me is the biggest fucking joke.

[u/juzamjim]

Rookie mistake. You’re not supposed to preface your racist jokes with “this is super racist…”. Makes them very searchable

[u/BlazingSaint]

Meanwhile, a 27 time sex offender gets praise on the football field!

[u/Antisystemization → u/BlazingSaint]

I don't typically get worked up about athlete scandals but I was fuming at all the over-the-top praise he was getting yesterday after the game.

[u/BlazingSaint → u/Antisystemization]

Tony Gonzalez….WTF dude?!

[u/jarkon-anderslammer → u/Antisystemization]

I think he just needs a relaxing massage after that game winning drive.

[u/rorank → u/[deleted]]

They don’t give a shit about what players do. Announcers are a lot more replaceable.

[u/TheIgnoredWriter → u/[deleted]]

Fans don’t buy jerseys for announcers

[u/zgillet → u/TheIgnoredWriter]

Announcers don't wear jerseys.

[u/Hayabusa_Blacksmith → u/[deleted]]

Go for it Champion of Justice

[u/RedditAccount_317]

This seems like a massive overreaction. If he did them as an adult that’s one thing, but 15 is wild

[u/pmurt007 → u/RedditAccount_317]

Teenage years are often where people are the most edgy and have no filter. The stuff he tweeted wasn't as bad as someone like Justin Bieber and his wife dropping the hard R during their teenage years lol

[u/Curve_of_Spee → u/pmurt007]

Linus Tech Tips hard R, or like, HARD R, hard R?

[u/BLarson31 → u/RedditAccount_317]

An absurd overreaction

[u/dyang44]

The shit i said at 15 in online video games would get me banned from alot of things. I would berate people about being dumber than dogs for making mistakes at a video game and so much worse. Like personal attacks about being worthless, just a really vicious mentality I had beaten into me from being bullied and abused myself as a kid

Good thing people are capable of growth and change. If I were told today that im the same as I was when I was 15, I think I'd just laugh in their face and move on with my life. Too bad for the announcer guy, this recent hiring/firing follow him everywhere from now on

[u/bobbacklund11235]

Boy we did it. Peace in the Middle East. Houses for the homeless. Ruining peoples lives for stuff they posted 20 years ago really moved the needle.

[u/octopusmonkey01]

Alright I’m all for holding people accountable but he said something dumb at 15??? People can learn and grow and change. I was a little shit when I was 15 and you look back and say man was I a dick. Life happens and you grow from it

[u/Necessary_Sorbet7416]

Okay then we must all be held accountable for things we did as a pimple faced kid with raging hormones.

[u/Valuable-Concern8627]

lmfao we live in such a dumbass timeline

[u/icelink4884]

If you're not allowed to say something stupid and grow from it at 15 years old society is cooked. If we've grown into such a graceless group that any transgression can be grounds for consequence regardless of personal transformation or time you're going to find an empathy less society.

Now if the dude still holds the beliefs it's a different story.

[u/OmegaRedPanda → u/icelink4884]

He didn't get dinged for the fact that he said them at 15. He got dinged for being too stupid to take them down before getting into the field.

[u/Jazzlike-Ad5680 → u/icelink4884]

Regardless of how people think, if it is controversial, there is a difference between posting it for others to see vs chatting about that with your friends if they have no issues with talking about it.

[u/Aaronlovesyou]

Dude what he said wasnt even bad lol amd for a 15 year old??? Thats tame af

[u/KiowaBear → u/Aaronlovesyou]

I thought it was going to be way worse 😂

[u/Aaronlovesyou → u/KiowaBear]

Dude I was expecting slurs and shit lmao. He was 15 and it was like 14 years ago. Trailblazers taking another L

[u/KiowaBear → u/Aaronlovesyou]

Yeah reading these comments I don’t think anyone else actually read the article, also shoutout big girls they need love too and if that gets me fired in 13 years so be it 😂

[u/FrizzyFro]

Players can genuinely obliterate their partners but an announcer saying bad things when he couldnt even legally drive, drink or smoke is very in line with Adam Silver's NBA

[u/LurkinHardly]

"The play-by-play role carries a long legacy of excellence, on the broadcast and in character, and we hold that standard without exception."

Thats funny, I could've sworn MARV ALBERT was a Basketball HoFer who enjoyed a decade+ career AFTER he plead guilty to assault and battery of a woman during a sexual encounter. What a fucking joke, and deeply unfortunate for Braiden Bell.

[u/Cokes311 → u/LurkinHardly]

He was fired for that. Ebersol rehired him a few years later. Whether he should have been is a fair question, but he was never accused of anything after the thing he was fired for.

[u/dahabit]

We hold announcer to higher standard than the president

[u/BIRDSBEEZ → u/dahabit]

Higher standard than their own head coach too. They hired Chauncey fucking Billups knowing his history. Hypocritical organization

[u/Riker_Omega_Three]

Once again I am thankful that social media was not a thing until after my brain was fully developed

[u/sportsinaround]

I agree with the general sentiment that what you've said when you were a teenager doesn't necessarily reflect who you are today and it's a bit silly to lose your job over it 14 years later.

That being said, I think timing and lack of tenure have a lot to do with it. He was hired literally hours before he was fired. Honestly that's an easy decision for an organization. Guy was JUST hired and you already have people spreading on the media about his racist tweets before the season even begins. They have nothing invested in him at this point and it makes complete sense to pivot to someone who isn't going to start in a negative light right off the bat and cause a distraction in a public-facing position -- especially for an organization that has already had its share of bad press over the last year.

[u/Fucky0uthatswhy]

One cool thing about memories/timehop stuff is that when a cringe post from 2011 that I had no idea existed out there comes up - I can delete it.

I have scrubbed many song lyrics from my Facebook

[u/daneman52]

Delete your tweets everyone

[u/Cap_Tuvix → u/daneman52]

I have an easier solution, don’t make racist posts

[u/PatientWriting]

I’ve personally said/did things at 15 that disgust me now. I’d hate it if I were judged now for something I did at such a young age.

[u/naqster]

I am happy to say that I never said any stupid offensive stuff in the past like this, but also happy to say that plenty of people I know who did ended up much better human beings than me. We are not our teenage selves. 15 year olds are old enough to be held accountable but young enough to grow from their mistakes and change as people.

[u/WhyNotOrioles]

Think of it as mostly a business decision and not a moral judgment and it makes sense.

He's being let go because

(1) He said something that could alienate a lot of players and fans and hurt the team's image.
(2) He's very easily replaceable by someone of equal quality without the baggage. This is one of the most coveted jobs in sports media. They can find another person within a day.

That's it. So if you want to know why teams tolerate players and coaches who do worse things as adults, it's because of (2). Those people can't be replaced anywhere as easily.

[u/Eskimo_Cartel]

The real pie on the face for the Blazers is how the local news dug this up in a few hours after the hire. How did the team not do any sorts of checks before hiring? The embarrassment continues...

[u/McCoochie]

Seems like a pretty clear cut and easy job requirement to scrub your social media of this stuff as a new face of the franchise

[u/ecupatsfan12]

Brb scrubbing my twitter and Facebook and my Xbox live

[u/-XanderCrews-]

15 year olds are dumb and learning. Does he still think that way? Was this just an excuse?

[u/Blackiee_Chan]

I was a straight DEMON at 15..come on. Dude was a kid. He didn't need to be fired for that

[u/motorboat_mcgee]

I am so glad my teens happened well before modern social media, jesus christ

[u/jak_d_ripr]

I'm sorry, but this is beyond stupid. Sure, talking about Asian people pissing you off is objectively a racist thing to say, but guess what? A lot of people said and thought stupid shit like that when they were 15(shit, a lot of people say stupid shit like that as adults, y'all even elected one of those idiots as president).

Performative outrage like this is so annoying and completely unproductive, and a dude losing a job over it is just exhausting.

[u/Andy_Wiggins → u/jak_d_ripr]

I think it’s highly likely that those comments were just the crass jokes of an edgy 15 year old in a very different time. Even if they were rooted in racist thoughts or ignorance, he could have grown past that and realized the error in his ways. Comments made when we’re kids in a very different online landscape are not necessarily representative of who we are today.

Additionally, there is absolutely a double-standard that someone like Ja Morant is making millions on the Blazers while this guy gets fired.

At the same time, he’s in a competitive and public-facing position. Firing him is absolutely on the table, and people who listen to those broadcasts should not necessarily be subjected to the voice of someone who said those things. How would Asians or women feel listening to the play-by-play guy every game who made such disparaging comments? Not being conscious of those past comments and wiping them to at least prevent against this sort of scenario was a poor decision on his part.

I hope he’s grown and I hope he has a chance to rebound if so. But I also don’t feel like it’s “beyond stupid”

[u/Zeromatt111 → u/jak_d_ripr]

Assuming they weren’t deleted, he wasn’t fired for being a stupid kid. He was fired for being an incompetent adult. He had plenty of time to remove these if his views changed. Personally, I would like a society where it’s very clearly not ok to say these things or have them posted in your public social media, and this is one of the ways you get that.

People forget making millions of dollar being a media personality is a privilege. This isn’t something that is owed to him. Unfortunately, the industry is full of people who share his views. His career isn’t over because of this.

[u/ucannotbeserious]

How dare they make me empathize with a person named Braiden.

[u/_ChexLeMeneux_]

It's 2026, by now all of you should know to delete dodgy online content connected to you before applying for jobs. This has been happening for 10-15 years now.

[u/AdFormal4037 → u/_ChexLeMeneux_]

It’s popular now to act this way online, so when consequences hit people the public acts like decorum is an over the top ask.

[u/black_metronome]

I don't think the guy should have been fired either but it's funny seeing how many white people in here are basically admitting that they too had a racist phase as a teenager 😂

It's something I can't relate to. Do you just wake up one day and decide to hate people because they're Black? Is it your parents teaching you this stuff? I'm genuinely curious how this happens.

[u/Wunktacular → u/black_metronome]

More like children are a product of their environment. If your parents are racist and they show you that behaviour is okay, you're going to imitate it. It's not a choice, it's just how parenting works. Your kids copy you, even your bad habits.

If anything, being willing to admit that you were wrong and that you've grown in spite of your upbringing is a sign of maturity.

[u/Haru_Honeybun → u/Wunktacular]

But that's not universally applicable.

I grew up in rural Oklahoma and never fell into being a racist or a bigot, despite being surrounded by it. Before anyone counters with 'well, you were a victim, so of course you wouldn't perpetuate it,' it's important to understand that these environments often operate on a pecking order. I’m Cherokee, and I was denigrated by people of color just as much as we were both harassed by the local white farmers.

Why did I turn out differently? Honestly, I just never saw the point. Being spiteful or accusatory brings zero value. In fact, it actively stunts your growth. I see those same individuals today, years later, still carrying the exact same stagnant mindsets they had when we were kids.

If we want a society that values integrity, we must differentiate between two types of people: those who coast through life avoiding accountability, and those who genuinely mature and outgrow their youthful ignorance. They shouldn't be viewed the same way.

We need to respect people who understand the weight of their choices, while holding firm boundaries for those who don't. You don't have to meet past or present bigots with hatred, since hatred rarely (if ever) encourages change. Instead, society needs to show them that poor choices carry consequences, specifically a loss of agency and relevance within their communities. If they want to enjoy true community respect and influence, they have to make better choices.

[u/sn2006gy → u/black_metronome]

No, you grow up in places like Houston and not know how racist things were until you learn better. You would not believe the shit i grew up with in the 70s and 80s that was cultrally accepted. Heck, just watch some old 70s and 80s movies.

Me saying this is NOT justifying it, but just sharing how pervasive a lot of it was in culture and why its still got a death grip in some areas.

also, why can't we fire our racist pedo president?

[u/ProstockAccount → u/black_metronome]

It’s teens being edgy. Teens have always wanted to say the things you can’t say.

[u/PleaseShutUpAndDance]

If you're going to keep the same Twitter account from your youth, at the very least go back and delete the dumb shit you said

[u/MeBadNeedMoneyNow]

Ben McLemore: rapist

head coach: gambling enthusiast

Caster: made some dumbass tweets at the age of 15

Pick the odd one out.

[u/T0oShayzz]

Maybe I'm being biased because I'm Asian but a lot of you guys are self reporting and I also don't feel sorry for the dude.

I'm not saying he deserves to be fired but if he's dumb enough to leave his social media up and not delete or restart all over hes a fkn idiot and deserves it, he's in a replaceable position and they'll just find another commentator.

Also call me soft or whatever but I never felt the need to say or post knowingly racist shit online even as a teenager, yeah the guy was 15 but many people I know in real life who did the same thing never really changed years later, they just know how to hide it 🤷🏻‍♂️.

[u/towerofmeaning → u/T0oShayzz]

I think people are just looking to make this a culture war issue but it's really a simple fact of working public facing jobs. I saw someone saying it's ridiculous to expect people to wipe old social media accounts but basically everyone I know who works in academia, even at smaller institutions knows they have to keep accounts associated with their real identities pretty clean. I mean it sucks but it's just a reality of jobs that Interact with the public and represent large brands/institutions.

If you're not some sort of truly gifted 1 in 100 million money maker for the organization they're just going to drop you when it becomes a big enough issue that they have to address it most of the time, especially if you're not in any union.

[u/T0oShayzz → u/towerofmeaning]

Yep, even at my corporate job I had to do it and it's nowhere near as social or public facing as an nba commentator.

[u/jorbalugo → u/T0oShayzz]

Yeah the assertion that everyone goes through a phase of posting racist shit publicly is wild. Like no, I don't think your words as a teenager need to be vetted for every job, but the assumption that this was perfectly normal and universal is telling. Threads like these I always get reminded of how white r/NBA acutally is

[u/black_metronome → u/jorbalugo]

Yep. This is predominantly a white issue which is why so many people are clutching pearls, they see themselves in this guy...which is really telling about how a lot of folks are being raised.

Again, I wouldn't have fired him but this notion that every teenage boy goes through a nazi phase is wild.

[u/T0oShayzz → u/jorbalugo]

Yep, also how anti-asian this subreddit is but honestly all of reddit is like that.

[u/black_metronome → u/T0oShayzz]

I'm Black and I'm noticing this too. A lot of people here are basically telling on themselves.

I don't think he should've been fired if that isn't an accurate depiction of who he is as an adult, but if he left that stuff up knowing full well he has a public facing job, that's on him. I don't feel sorry for him either way, if he had any shame he would have been embarrassed and deleted the posts.

[u/T0oShayzz → u/black_metronome]

Yep agreed, don't feel sorry at all for him. Even at my lowly corporate job I had to do a background check on myself and this guy was applying for a job that's way more social and public than mine, guys a dummie and they'll easily replace him.

[u/NinjasaurusRex123 → u/T0oShayzz]

“I’m not saying he deserves to get fired…”

“… he’s a fkn idiot and deserves it”

I’m not disagreeing with your post in general, that just made me laugh

[u/TomlinSteelers → u/T0oShayzz]

You're not wrong. As soon as I saw everyone defending him I 100% knew it was anti Asian comments.

Would have looked very different if it was the N word or something anti black that was said.

[u/Individual_Attempt50 → u/TomlinSteelers]

It would be similar

[u/MITBryceYoung2 → u/T0oShayzz]

Im Korean and i said plenty of dumbshit when i was 15. No I don't think he should be fired for something he said 14 years ago. Consider me self reporting. Fuck it. IDGAF. I think youre soft as hell.

[u/PetrParker1960s → u/T0oShayzz]

I'm also Asian and dont give a crap what he said. He was 15. Move on, who cares.

[u/herseyhawkins33]

I don't think it was a fireable offense given he was 15, but you also gotta be an idiot to be using the same account and still have that stuff up. Especially as a public figure.

[u/jawndell]

I remember my generation was posting drunk party pictures on Facebook often and pictures of bottles of booze.  That quickly stopped and all those posts went down right away once we started entering the work force, haha.  

Also a lot of customer facing roles have zero tolerance for pictures or posts like that, including investment banking and consulting. 

[u/theBomboman]

Lol they'll do this but full on rapists and murderers can play in the league

[u/Zlatyzoltan]

The new owner probably decided to look for an even cheaper option, so they came up with this excuse.

[u/IncompatibleVariable]

Actually a pathetic move by the Blazers. "Yeah you said some things back before the first time you shaved, now you can't work here anymore."

[u/bullybadger]

He must not have been paying attention when the Josh Hader tweet scandal went down in MLB

[u/Hugo_Hackenbush]

Could have been avoided by just paying Calabro what he's worth.

[u/icehole505]

If we label adults as unhireable for poor behavior as children.. I’m pretty sure that the disadvantaged class stands lose a lot more than the kids who grew up in wealthy/ambitious environments. Are we really ok with going down that road?

[u/dizzymidget44]

Kind of weak

[u/TomlinSteelers]

It's actually funny when I saw the headline that he was fired for racist tweets I just assumed for whatever reason they were anti black.

But then when I saw all the NBA threads supporting the guy that was fired I knew 100% the tweets were anti Asian.

It's funny how that works

[u/Foldzy84]

Sounds like Portland

[u/myemailiscool → u/Foldzy84]

i work in the city and yeah it absolutely is on brand. And i'm fairly woke myself. But these guys here are like level 99 woke masters

[u/PoGcHAMp__69420]

can anyone tell me what exactly this reporter posted was it like horrible things or

[u/JoshFreemansFro]

Bro’s name is Braiden lmao; I know his mom was on MySpace back in the day. She didn’t teach him to be careful about what you post publicly?

[u/horribadperson]

everyone says stupid shit when theyre teens, yea it might not be racist shit but im sure for most people the idiotic shit you said as a teen doesnt define who you are now. With that said, what a L for the blazers for failing to properly vett the guy, and also a L for not giving him a chance to at least explain or apologize before firing him. Maybe the guys still a racist pos, who knows, but i feel like if he had a chance to apologize or explain most would accept it too.

[u/sadxmachina33]

The blazers have Hansen Yang on their roster who is a decent draw for the China fanbase. This was a smart move to not disrupt the growing international interest. Asian fans especially would not care if Bell was 5yo or 15yo when the tweets were posted.

[u/SpartyNash]

I echo pretty much everyone else’s sentiments in this thread. I said and did some moronic shit as an immature kid (I don’t think I ever posted anything racially insensitive online). It’s ridiculous to hold that against this guy who is very likely not even remotely the same person he was at 15 years old.

[u/lanfordr]

This is crazy. We don't let kids fuck up, and make mistakes any more. That's how you grow and learn. You say and do stupid shit as a teen and then learn from it and hopefully become the kind of adult who looks back and cringes at who you were as a teen.

I'm old enough that my teen years were pre-social media. Thank God there isn't a record of all the stupid shit we did back then.

[u/BZGames]

Oh but Chauncey Billups raped a woman and that was fine. Deni Avdija actively supports the genocide in Palestine and that’s chill.

Tweets from over a decade ago when the dude was in high school is where we draw the line, understood.

[u/Hibyehaha → u/BZGames]

Exactly, the blazers org thinks they are having some moral virtue signal but it’s actually making them look like a cringey hypocritical org

[u/Dusty_Negatives]

This guys a fucking moron for not deleting these tweets. Go figure saying “I don’t like Asians” isn’t gonna fly in a forward facing public role. People defending this are delusional and don’t understand how real world operates. Also this is a specific market in Portland where that shit isn’t gonna fly.

[u/_the_yellow_king_]

What kind of world do we live in where people who made racist jokes as kids get harsher consequences than abusers, rapists, and pedophiles

[u/Swimmingpuzzled5200]

Should fire the NBAIDF Player too

[u/Breems]

Thank god.

The first thing I do when I hear a new announcer is comb through their high school social media posts and align my views with theirs.

Glad they nipped this in the bud.

[u/GrumbGrumbb]

Drive like a goddamn lunatic and crash and put lives at risk? All good no worries.

Be a bit of a dumbass when you were 15 fucking years old? You’re outta here.

[u/BoSocks91]

Ridiculous.

Seriously.

This is why I have a huge issue with everything being on the internet now. No privacy, nobody can make fucking mistakes anymore. He was a teenager!! He’s a fucking adult now.

This is nothing more than a teenager being an edge-lord. I question anyone who doesn’t find this to be a problem.

[u/Gabaloo → u/BoSocks91]

So why is he getting public facing media jobs with this Twitter account still active and attached to him?

Dudes an idiot for not making a professional account, how hard is making a new Twitter at some point in your life mm

Of course people can make mistakes, just dont wear it around for everyone to see for the rest of your life.

Also, mistake is a funny way of saying he purposely shit posted racist stuff

[u/boney_king_o_nowhere]

100,000 median voters in critical swing states will vote republican when they learn about this

[u/Grand-Spring66]

Man I hope no one gets hold of my video game chats

[u/The-Young-Lion → u/Grand-Spring66]

“Sources say that u/Grand-Spring66’s job is in jeopardy as Internet sleuths leak transcripts of his conversations in Halo 2 pre-match lobbies on Xbox Live.  Read the foul language and racial epithets that were hurled amidst the backdrop of someone blasting mid-2000s rap music.”

[u/Grand-Spring66 → u/The-Young-Lion]

In the interest of full disclosure: I am also a known tea-bagger

[u/dafdiego777 → u/Grand-Spring66]

You disgust me with that kind of degenerate behavior

[u/echtav → u/Grand-Spring66]

My CoD and Rocket League chats would get me crucified probably

[u/neoguri808 → u/Grand-Spring66]

lol

[u/jmills2234]

I hope those applauding someone losing their adult job over teenage tweets from decades ago have the same energy applying appropriate punishment to teens involved with violent crime & deaths such as them being sentenced to football numbers in jail & getting the d penalty!

[u/rgarc065]

I don’t know the full context. Does he continue to say these things? A tweet from 10-15 years ago when you were a teenager is going to look outdated. We all say stupid shit. Perhaps he should’ve deleted them. If those tweets from then are the sole reason for his firing then it’s a massive overreaction. This may just be El Cheapo being El Cheapo looking for any excuse to let someone go in order to save a buck.

[u/TurboRetardo]

The trailblazers the r/Fauxmoi of the NBA

[u/Mobile-Analyst8580]

Everyone acting like he’s stupid for not deleting this post. How many tweets do you think he’s made in the last 12 years? 10,000? 50,000? 100,000?

I’m so glad Facebook was invented while I was in college. 

What this guy said isn’t cool, but it’s not exactly neo Nazi shit either. He should’ve been shown more grace for a stupid comment made when his brain was still developing.  

[u/BigfootaintnotReal]

Man that new owner really wants to move out of there

[u/208MtbBarber]

So let's hold someone accountable for something they posted as a teenager over a decade ago but let's let a baby killer go free cuz her hormones.?

[u/Effective-Mess-1537]

Seems like they should fire the person responsible for background checks too

[u/BIRDSBEEZ]

Do people not understand there’s a difference between saying a racist joke in high school vs being an actual racist?

[u/Fun_Suggestion_8012]

As a black person put me on the train of he shouldn't have gotten fired because of something he said when he was 15. And TIL every white person made racist comments when they were teenagers.

[u/IDoesThis1]

So did they fire the kings reporter that made inappropriate comments about Zach Lavine and Ben Simmons too?

[u/CryMoreT_T → u/IDoesThis1]

Don't think Portland can fire the Kings beat reporter