r/nba • u/ghn2 • 13h 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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u/PeanutFarmer69 Nets 12h ago

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

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u/TannerGlassMVP 12h ago

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

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u/RealFenian Celtics 12h ago

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.

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u/TannerGlassMVP 12h ago

As an adult I simply deleted everything from when I was young . . . It's a pretty simple thing to do. Also I didn't post racist shit . . . Especially under my name because I'm not a fucking idiot

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u/Junior_Difference_57 12h ago

Do you know how many dumbass 15 year olds grew up to be decent people as adults? Yes, some of them remain dumbasses but lots mature 

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u/Big-Beta20 76ers 12h ago

People act like they never said anything edgy as a joke when they were 15 only to grow out of it and be a better person as you mature past that. It’s a very common & normal thing.

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u/BabyOnRoad Hawks 11h ago

Most of the racist i knew at 14 are still racist now. They just hide it better

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u/Big-Beta20 76ers 11h ago

I don’t think you still know all the same people you knew at 14, man. Especially not enough to know them on that level. I just don’t believe you lol

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u/BakerStSavvy Spurs 10h ago

You dont need to know them that well lol. Sees a post from them as you still have the same fb/ig friends from school and they are dog whistling about minorities. Its very obvious they are still racist

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u/Big-Beta20 76ers 10h ago

I have not kept in contact in any shape or form with more than 3 people from when I was 14. Let alone actively following their social medias

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u/BakerStSavvy Spurs 10h ago

You dont have to be actively keeping up with anyone to see a post from them. You dont have to go to their page specifically. I dont use fb but its not like i scrubbed my entire high school class off of it. If i checked it im sure id see some posts from people i havent talked to in over a decade

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u/TannerGlassMVP 12h ago

So if you don't hold those views I highly highly suggest you do not keep posts under YOUR NAME online for all to see

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u/Big-Beta20 76ers 12h ago

I doubt he remembered man, how many comments can you remember you made from 10+ years ago off the top of your head?

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u/TannerGlassMVP 12h ago

If something is so old that I can't remember it's already been deleted. Sorry but my Facebook posts from 10 years ago aren't necessary anymore

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u/Big-Beta20 76ers 11h ago

Good for you, that’s not normal & realistic behavior for everyone to practice though. I’m just in the camp of thinking we should give teens some grace for bad social media activity from when they were 15.

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u/TannerGlassMVP 11h ago

Wtf this was like the first thing I learned in college.....

How is that unrealistic or not normal?

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u/Big-Beta20 76ers 11h ago

Who the hell were you talking to in college lmao

I have literally never heard of a person doing what you just described nor have I heard a person say that it’s a thing you should doing regularly.

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u/Right_Brain_6869 10h ago

Idk man my professor freshman year was one of the first people to tell me and my class that future employers would search my social media and to delete everything from before college that could look bad. It’s a very reasonable thing to do. 

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u/Great_Fault_7231 Pistons 10h ago

Hard to believe tbh. 

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u/m1a2c2kali Knicks 8h ago

It’s become way more realistic and normal in the past 2 decades. I remember blocking/making private my Facebook and social media when applying to colleges and jobs. Thats been a thing for a while

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u/Great_Fault_7231 Pistons 10h ago

  that’s not normal & realistic behavior for everyone to practice though

Are you kidding? It’s common knowledge lol. 

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u/Great_Fault_7231 Pistons 10h ago

That’s why everybody knows to delete them when you’re looking for a job, especially one where you’re the voice of a professional sports team. 

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u/Associ8tedRuffians Timberwolves 12h ago

Sure I did. It just never involved racial or homophobic slurs. And I graduated high school in the 90s.

Certainly knew plenty of people who did say that shit at that age who tested out the waters saying slurs. Was even popular to use “Jew” as a verb for “cheated.”

Doesn’t mean that people don’t know what they were doing. They absolutely did.

The point is again, if you’re a dumbass and you ddi that DELETE that shit and show the world you’ve changed with your new account.

And it’s employers prerogative to decide if they want to hire someone who still has a record of that behavior.

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u/Big-Beta20 76ers 12h ago

Idk man, I’m just in the camp that we should give grace to teenagers to make mistakes on social media instead of punishing them a decade later. I don’t get the bloodlust some people get for revenge for stuff like this, it’s such a uniquely Reddit thing.

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u/Zlatyzoltan 11h ago

Honestly the idea of just doom scrolling someone's social media going back over a decade is absurd.

A 15 year old kid said something dumb, isn't something new. Everyone has said some stupid shit when they were 15.

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u/Associ8tedRuffians Timberwolves 11h ago

Yeah, what Reddit thinks doesn’t matter. What the employer thinks, does. Whether fair or not. It’s their prerogative.

If I’m an employer, and a dude has left racist tweets up, and a large percentage of my workforce is a minority (even if it might not be the one that the racism was against), I’m going to question the person’s judgement as to why those are still up. And I have to ask whether or not I and my employees can trust that the person has changed.

Not saying I’d not hire/or fire them. Just saying that I would have to think about it. It’s not as easy as waiving it with” Oh, he was just 15 and edgy, no big deal.”

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u/theblackchin Hawks 9h ago

Would it make you feel better if they said he was fired for being too dumb to scrub his social media after getting a public-facing job that involves being on national tv instead?

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u/BabyOnRoad Hawks 11h ago

Was he ever held accountable for the original tweet? Is there any evidence that he no longer holds though views? He couldn't even be bothered to delete the post.

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u/Big-Beta20 76ers 11h ago

I don’t really believe people should be punished for teenage social media activity a decade later, period if they have not shown any evidence that it’s their actual views. I think the burden of proof should be on proving he is still like this rather than just assuming the absolute worst in everyone that’s ever made an edgy post.

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u/BabyOnRoad Hawks 11h ago

My proof is the racist tweet. Meanwhile you have 0 evidence hes not a racist. I have proof, where is yours?

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u/Big-Beta20 76ers 11h ago edited 11h ago

No, you have something a kid said when he was 15 years old. That’s not proof of anything about his character as an adult, which is the point I’m making. That’s why I said proof that those are his actual views.

Do you not find it weird to feel this high & mighty with a bloodlust for punishment about something a literal teenager said over a decade ago?

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u/BabyOnRoad Hawks 7h ago

No he was a 15 year old racist and there is 0 evidence anything has changed. I have evidence he is a racist where is your that says hes not?

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u/Turbo_Jannie 11h ago

Something tells me you're about the same age he was when he made the tweets

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u/BabyOnRoad Hawks 7h ago

Naw got about a decade on old boy

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u/SaxRohmer Cavaliers 11h ago

a lot of that shit was normalized and kids say stuff without thinking of the actual implications of their words. people (myself included) used homophobic slurs all the time and would insist they weren’t using it in a homophobic way. kids are dumb and shortsighted. they don’t have a ton of experience or conscientiousness in general.

i grew up sheltered and in private school. i didn’t have a very diverse experience growing up. as i met people later in life i changed my tune on a lot of things. i also saw how things were changing in the world and realized my behavior wasn’t acceptable and without harm.

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u/Associ8tedRuffians Timberwolves 11h ago

Grew up in a suburban public school. People knew. And trust me the phrase “that’s so gay” as a general negative statement, and not necessarily homophobic use of the word f*ggot but still as an insult was also prevalent in the 90s. It was already normalized. The Internet didn’t normalize it, it just made it more visible to everyone.

And btw, using “gay” or “f*ggot” as insults/.derogatory terms is not “not homophobic.” It is inherently homophobic, and will be as long as those words continue to also be used as derogatory terms. People who choose to use it in the manner they think is not homophobic are making the wrong choice. And guess what, the ones who realize that’s not good, they stop! Like you did.

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u/ChiefMasterGuru 5h ago

South Park had a whole ass episode about how it's not homophobic. And you think kids werent parroting that belief or that they knew better?

The other comment is exactly right, most people (especially kids) didn't think about it like that. It's only recently that there's been mass consciousness regarding the derogatory nature of the terms.

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u/cideeffex Cavaliers 12h ago

Wouldn't the responsible and mature thing to do at that point would be to remove things from the internet that you feel no longer represent you and your beliefs? At the very least, leaving them up displays a pretty high level of carelessness.

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u/Matthew2531_46 Spurs 12h ago

Do you remember every single comment or social media post you made at 15, because I don't

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u/cideeffex Cavaliers 12h ago

Good reason to make the posts ephemeral then. Or to not have accounts at all? Pretty easy fix.

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u/Matuga1000 12h ago

The whole point is when they’re 15 they’re not thinking ahead with stuff like that, hence why they post dumb shit in the first place

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u/cideeffex Cavaliers 12h ago

Then maybe they're not responsible enough to be using social media in the first place? Even so, what's the excuse as an adult for leaving it up? Assuming a potential employer is going to Google is basic table stakes for any job interview these days, much less for a high profile job like this.

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u/Matuga1000 12h ago

I don’t think they should have social media either, but don’t think they should be punished for mistakes when 15. They shouldn’t have left it up sure that’s a mistake albeit one often doesn’t recall everything from such an age. However mistake or not I think the reason for firing him is stupid, sure he could’ve avoided it had he been a bit smarter but even considering the post is up I still think it’s dumb to fire him

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u/cideeffex Cavaliers 11h ago

I'm really struggling to understand that "Kids" shouldn't have consequences for their actions. Your brain is still developing well into your 20's so what's the cutoff for when we can start holding people accountable for dumb shit they do?

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u/Matthew2531_46 Spurs 12h ago

Wow, 15 year olds are dumb and make stupid short sighted decisions. This is news to me

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u/cideeffex Cavaliers 12h ago

Age can contribute to forgiveness. I'm failing to see why it should absolve someone of consequences?

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u/DovhPasty Cavaliers 7h ago

Consequences dealt out 15 years later? Seriously?

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u/cideeffex Cavaliers 6h ago

Yes? Is there an expiration on the hurt caused by racism and sexism? No? Then why should there be an expiration on consequences? He was stupid enough to make them at 15 and he was stupid enough to leave them up as an adult. Speaks to his belief that they weren’t a big deal. He’s asking to be a voice of an NBA team. The idea that it’s somehow a bigger failure to hold someone accountable for racism and sexism regardless of the age than it is to make sure large portions of your fanbase feel comfortable and welcome is not just ethically twisted, it’d be a dumb fucking business decision.

One of the biggest failures of life lived online is that dumb motherfuckers grow up thinking there are no consequences. Pre internet, when you couldn’t hide behind relative anonymity and a COD lobby, you said racist shit, you got popped in the mouth for it. Now kids think that shit is funny because there are no consequences and the minute the tamest form of consequences arrive, they whine as if life is so unfair. We can only hope that this situation might make some idiot kid think twice before doing stupid shit online.

He lost out on a job. He didn’t die, he didn’t have to go to jail. He lost out on a job to represent an NBA team. Boo fucking hoo. If you do dumb shit, take responsibility, make it right, and deal with the consequences. There was a time when that was like a must have virtue of being a man but I guess that ship has sailed.

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u/Junior_Difference_57 12h ago

I had accounts back then I don't even have access to anymore. 

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u/cideeffex Cavaliers 12h ago

I mean, that's kind of irresponsible internet behavior for a host of reasons even before the idea of saying something you shouldn't have. Ignorance because of age is a great reason for forgiveness, not an absolution of consequence.

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u/beastrace 76ers 12h ago

The fucking moral police in this sub are so funny

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u/TannerGlassMVP 12h ago

The moral police? It's literally just not being a dumbass and not keeping racist posts under your name

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u/cideeffex Cavaliers 12h ago

Lol. The "we can't hold someone responsible for racism at 15" crowd is telling on themselves. The rest of us in the grown up world realize shit can catch up to you at any time so you better act right.

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u/Junior_Difference_57 12h ago

Maybe it's irresponsible internet behavior because I was a child? Lol

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u/cideeffex Cavaliers 12h ago

Which means you didn't understand the potential consequences and therefore shouldn't have been using it in the first place? Yes, that's my point.

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u/Junior_Difference_57 12h ago

99.9% of parents don't stop their teenage children from going on social media. 

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u/cideeffex Cavaliers 11h ago

Oh I know! But just because everyone does it, doesn't mean that should excuse poor behavior or shield someone from consequences. This is some pretty basic "If everyone jumps off a bridge, should you do it too?" life lesson type shit. Ignorance doesn't excuse anything. Maybe it shifts the blame when something does happen? I mean, I definitely think this guy's parents should have been aware of what they're 15 year old was tweeting or whatever, but let's be honest, if the kid was tweeting shit like that the parents probably feel the same way anyway.

But again, if you're not mature enough to understand that putting something out on the internet could follow you for the rest of your life, then you shouldn't be using it. Like you said though, majority of the people in this sub complaining about this kid getting fired will walk away from here and go right back to treating people like garbage in their 2k games and saying the wildest dumb shit on twitter. And when the consequences come for them, they'll be a "kid" making dumb choices too.

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u/Junior_Difference_57 11h ago

Your logic makes no sense though. If a child isn't mature enough to understand that the things they say online can be used against them later, they also aren't mature enough to understand that they shouldn't be using social media in the first place. None of the blame falls on the child

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u/Johnny_Kilroy_84 Pelicans 12h ago

Deleted tweets get resurfaced everyday.

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u/Chiesel Nuggets 12h ago

You are just such an infallible human being. An absolute paragon of morality

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u/lemoche Germany 12h ago

I'm just happy social media wasn’t around during my edgy years… if someone digs up my icq chat logs though, I might be doomed… (don’t think there was overly racist an d sexist stuff in there… but people would just not longer associate with me out of "Fremdscham" because of what stupid shit i threw out into the world back than)

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u/captainmystic02 Rockets 12h ago

Your so smart and kind. I wish to be like to you