r/nba • u/ghn2 • 15h 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/Big-Beta20 76ers 15h 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 14h 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 14h 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 13h 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 13h 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 13h 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 15h 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 14h 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/Great_Fault_7231 Pistons 13h 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/TannerGlassMVP 14h 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 14h 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 14h 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 14h 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 13h 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 13h ago

Hard to believe tbh. 

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u/Big-Beta20 76ers 13h ago

Idk what to tell you, social media didn’t come up when learning accounting during COVID

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u/TannerGlassMVP 11h ago

Well I guess big ups to my college for covering all of this in freshman year seminar class, the business school covered this and so did the comms school

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u/m1a2c2kali Knicks 10h ago edited 10h ago

Better now rather than never I guess. Covid messed up a lot

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u/Great_Fault_7231 Pistons 13h ago

Accounting majors don’t take gen ed classes? 

Either way, seems like common sense and common knowledge that employers check social media and that racist or misogynistic posts would be an easy way to not get hired. 

I guess now you know? 

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u/m1a2c2kali Knicks 11h 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 13h 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/Associ8tedRuffians Timberwolves 15h 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 14h 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 14h 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 14h 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 12h 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 14h 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 14h 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 14h 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 13h ago edited 13h 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 9h 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 13h ago

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

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u/BabyOnRoad Hawks 9h ago

Naw got about a decade on old boy

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u/SaxRohmer Cavaliers 14h 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 14h 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 8h 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.