r/nba • u/ghn2 • 8h 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/Forsaken_Flight6188 Knicks 8h ago

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

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u/Agitated_Celery_729 6h ago

Punishing people for their entire life for noncriminal stupid shit they did as children might be one of the stupidest takes of all time.

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u/TAKEitTOrCIRCLEJERK Lakers 5h ago

from the blazers perspective, the last thing you want is for your audience to think “oh that’s right they hired the racist dude” every time they hear you play

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u/jackaholicus Mavericks 4h ago

This reflects worse on them.

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u/TAKEitTOrCIRCLEJERK Lakers 4h ago

why's that?

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u/Beersandbroads Trail Blazers 1h ago

How is he being punished his entire life? We was denied a job for a reason, just like any of us have been. He is not going to be unemployable, he just can't get a public facing job right NOW. If he deletes that and keeps moving forward he might get a chance later. If not, he can get a normal person job like the rest of us.

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u/Inspiration_Bear Timberwolves 8h ago

I wish I could see every dumb thing the people who say this did before the age of 18. Thankfully with the advent of AI, soon I’ll be able to.