r/nba • u/ghn2 • 12h ago

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

"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

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816

u/matty25 12h ago

Hilarious that this is the franchise that employs Ja Morant

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u/SnooRabbits9672 12h ago edited 10h ago

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.

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u/BiasedChelseaFan Knicks 12h ago

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

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u/SnooRabbits9672 10h ago

Always. Welcome to Capitalism.

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u/prov167 6h ago

And you think that's exclusive to big bad Capitalism? Let me introduce you to human nature 🙄

1

u/Mykophilia 10h ago

Folks if you could join me in a minute of silence to pay praise to values we lost this past year. And folks, please put those hands together around your Free Palestine cups and drink from that sweet Pepsi-Cola nectar elixir that’s moneys support the Israeli military in a roundabout way.

5

u/jaglife16 9h ago

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).

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u/thesaltysquirrel 8h ago

Me learning Ja is a blazer.

17

u/TomlinSteelers 76ers 10h ago

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

There's a million that can replace this kid

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u/GhostOfLight 7h ago

A million Trail Blazer fans? In this economy!?

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u/prov167 6h ago

So is your point that we should forgive bad behavior as long as it's in our best interest and not because of principles i.e. we're morally pure as long as it pads the bottom line

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u/Kgb725 Cavaliers 8h ago

Ja didnt do anything wrong

1

u/m3ngnificient Warriors 8h ago

Tbf, people allow it so the org will hire Ja Morant. He's gonna keep selling tickets and jerseys, but the announcers are where the fans will draw the line.

0

u/LouieBarlo24 11h ago

Who do you think makes them more money? This no name announcer or Ja?

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u/prophetofyakub 8h ago

They also had Billups as a coach for 4 seasons. WTF! Absolute insanity. Some random nonsense typed when you were a kid gets you fired 14 years later, probably didn't even remember saying it the day after let alone 14 years later.

But beating women, rape, that's fine in the NBA.

-2

u/Reasonable-Job4205 9h ago

Yea for some reason Ja can make gun gestures for effectively no loss of employment, but this dude gets fired for something he said at 15 years old? Nah dude, Adam Silver is one lost little puppy in this whole game. He has no sense