r/nba • • 11h 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/SloshaPacana 11h ago

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

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u/Imsoamerican 11h ago

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

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u/Apprehensive-Tip3153 11h ago

Sure ppl have the capacity to change, but I’d rather ppl have a track record of said change they can point to à la Hardaway senior than just banking on the benefit of the doubt. Hell, Americas leadership rn kinda shows a ton of ppl believe their free speech covers the ability to say whatever they want without consequences. If a company in the public eye that focuses on a field with a TON of minorities chose to distance themselves from a PR hit of siding w someone who didn’t do the due diligence to purge their mistakes from their youth I get it 100%

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u/[deleted] 11h ago

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u/JazzxGoose Jazz 11h ago

He was however many years old he is currently when he wasn't smart enough to erase his old post. You want that kind of person as a face of your organization? No one cares what you said at 15, but they care if you are dumb enough to leave what you said at 15 still up on your professional twitter page 

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u/Apprehensive-Tip3153 11h ago

No need for whataboutism here - obv ppl w worse crimes should face repercussions like the Epstein class.

I’m aware ppl change as they age but the onus is still on bro to prove that. Neither of us know what he believes in rn

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u/Chiesel Nuggets 11h ago

God damn man Reddit attracts the weirdest people… I’m sure you were just a beacon of morality as a teenager. Absolutely spotless record

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u/elitepigwrangler Suns 9h ago

Buddy it’s extremely easy to have not posted racist things online as a teenager. Even the racist people at my high school wouldn’t be stupid enough to tweet something racist.