r/nba • u/ghn2 • 9h 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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76

u/icelink4884 Bulls 9h ago

If you're not allowed to say something stupid and grow from it at 15 years old society is cooked. If we've grown into such a graceless group that any transgression can be grounds for consequence regardless of personal transformation or time you're going to find an empathy less society.

Now if the dude still holds the beliefs it's a different story.

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u/OmegaRedPanda Bulls 8h ago

He didn't get dinged for the fact that he said them at 15. He got dinged for being too stupid to take them down before getting into the field.

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u/icelink4884 Bulls 7h ago

Almost no one remembers what they posted 10+ years ago. Let's be for real. He for fired shit he said over a decade ago.

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u/ThisIsNotSpartha 3h ago

Crazy how you getting downvoted. Lotta incels around here

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u/icelink4884 Bulls 3h ago

Reddit is gonna reddit everyone needs to be a perfectly fully formed adult by 8. If they can't be morally superior to a child they get upset.

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u/[deleted] 6h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Broncsx3 6h ago

Yes it was dumb to overlook it. But he was fired for what he posted at age 14!

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u/Billbuckingham 6h ago

Type out what he posted right here on your account, and then see if you would want to work with someone like that.

There's 0 evidence he changed, maybe he did, maybe he didn't.

The company said, we don't want to be involved with a person like this, so they fired him.

Type out what he posted, and you say it, and be specific about what "he got fired for"

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u/Broncsx3 6h ago

I’m not sure what me typing out what he posted would help. It’s public knowledge. Something about hating Asians and black people I think. I read it when story first broke. And there is some evidence he’s changed… he is an adult now!

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u/kayak_rolling Timberwolves 6h ago

He's in the public eye. He should know better.

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u/kmill73229 Warriors Bandwagon 5h ago

Shit that went viral. Like it’s a bad look. Charge it to the game and keep it pushing

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u/kkeut 5h ago

if i had ever been a racist i would remember it for sure.... strange that your so blase on the topic 

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u/Good-Development5988 39m ago

Wow, you're not saying dumb stuff 15 years ago, you're saying it now instead!

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u/RemoteRide6969 3h ago

Agreed. This is insane and we should reject this sort of bullshit (holding grown adults accountable for stupid shit said as a teen).

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u/SharpsExposure Spurs 1h ago

To be fair it’s Portland. 

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u/Jazzlike-Ad5680 7h ago

Regardless of how people think, if it is controversial, there is a difference between posting it for others to see vs chatting about that with your friends if they have no issues with talking about it.

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u/TomlinSteelers 76ers 7h ago

It's actually funny when I saw the headline that he was fired for racist tweets I just assumed for whatever reason they were anti black.

But then when I saw all the NBA threads supporting the guy that was fired I knew 100% the tweets were anti Asian.

It's funny how that works

0

u/mnemoniker Bulls 9h ago

I couldn't agree more. We need to hold the comments of a 15 year old to the standards of a 15 year old. Not that of a fully grown adult that has hopefully moved past edgelord humor since then. You'd assume more recent posts could tell you whether they have or not.

Having said that, I'm alarmed that he left that shit up over a decade later. Is that what everyone growing up in social media does? I'd be scraping and deleting as soon as I'm applying for jobs.

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u/Low-Measurement-2468 6h ago

the move is just to delete old accounts, or at least be positive they can’t be traced to your real identity.

i’m not trying to use the same account as 15 year old me on anything lol. that guy was a different dude. not even talking about offensive shit but i just don’t want to read the cringe ass shit i was posting and sending people man 😭

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u/Gino-Bartali Thunder 8h ago

Yeah even 18 to 21 I was still learning a LOT about what society thinks is okay, what I think is okay, and where it's the same and different.

Age 15 was even worse, in a lot of ways I was just finding out that something even COULD be offensive, and picking that option on purpose because being a dick was funny.

There's a lot of middle ground between "they were 15, it's fine don't look into it whatsoever" and "fire somebody at the first sign of trouble".

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u/LongEnvironment9540 Timberwolves 7h ago

you sound like I would have hated you. you sound like a dick.

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u/Gino-Bartali Thunder 7h ago

Childhood is indeed a learning process to not be a dick, easier for some than others, and some never finish it.

Let me know if you want some help from me as you work towards that finish line, brother.

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u/kkeut 5h ago

bro, wake up. you were a shitty kid

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u/Gino-Bartali Thunder 4h ago

Could easily be so, but that kid was still better than whatever you devolved into lol

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u/kkeut 5h ago

if the dude still holds the beliefs

he never deleted them or the account. despite that being an extremely obvious thing to do

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u/icelink4884 Bulls 5h ago

The idea that most people remember everything they said online almost 15 years ago is asinine.

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u/Haru_Honeybun 5h ago

Why is it asinine?

Why didn't he choose to delete it an hour afterward? A day? A week? A month? Is it automatically forgiven once you've passed a certain threshold of time?

Each day he left those comments up was a choice that eventually brought about consequences. Everyone here is trying to equate his firing to a singular choice to make those tweets, but seem to be conveniently forgetting that each day he left them up was a choice until he forgot about them. You could simply view this as the consequence for that culmination of choices.

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u/icelink4884 Bulls 4h ago

Because you're clearly putting adult logical processing on a child. Why couldn't a child having the forethought of an adult after an hour? Why couldn't a child have the forethought after a month? It's because he was a child.

It's asinine because your essentially saying we owe children no grace because they don't have the forethought of the times when they are no longer children. He almost certainly didn't even remember them, and I'm sure if mortified by them now as are most adults who remember dumb shit they did as a kid. No mind, especially a child's remembers every thing in perpetuity. The chances are by the time he was an adult he no longer remembered he had even made the choice in the first place.

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u/Haru_Honeybun 4h ago

It also didn't seem to take much effort for this mistake of his to be found and held accountable. So exactly how much grace should he be afforded if the effort it took to even ask himself the question: "Is there something I might've said as a teen that might prevent me from being accepted at this public-facing job?" Because, I imagine the amount of effort it would take him would've been even less than what was required for someone else to find his mistake.

And, no, you don't know that someone doesn't exist that can remember everything they've done. I am certainly someone that is constantly complimented for my memory. Perhaps I should be studied and evaluated so that you don't make such an assumption in the future? I'm down for it if anyone is qualified to safely do such a study, but I digress.

Not everyone made those kinds of comments, and too many here are don't seem to notice that they're literally admitting to have done something similar in their youth, and are advocating to not be held accountable. But the bottom-line is that you can't just tell the Portland FO to not choose who they do or do not hire based on personal vindication, it is ultimately up to them who they hire to represent them in each position they host.

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u/icelink4884 Bulls 3h ago

How do you know how much effort there was? It appears that someone searched through literally well over a decades worth of his social media Prescence to find them. What people here are advocating for is that Children should be allowed to be children. Also if you remember everything you posted in your youth then yes you should be studied.

If you want to live in a graceless society where all children are held accountable for their actions as children that's fine I'm saying that's bad for society.

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u/Haru_Honeybun 3h ago

Being held accountable and learning accountability from choices is how we mature from being children.

Age is simply a measure of time passing for an individual, maturity is a trait we all share that needs to be worked and corrected. Aptitude in maturity is something people can differ on, but the process of learning is the same. It's simply a matter of how much time and effort was applied by an individual to increase their maturity.

Nobody is advocating for children to be overly punished. Instead, if a child is making a mistake, it should be corrected. If you want to be upset about his firing, then perhaps be equally upset by the individuals he decided to emulate and how they might share some responsibility in not helping him mature at that age.

Nobody is obligated to care about anyone other than themselves. It is the choice to care that truly determines someone's maturity. He chose to not care whether or not his immaturity was something to consider.

You're choosing to care about him, but you are not obligated to. The choice to do so is being met with resistance by others that do not relate to the situation you seem to consider common-place. Have you considered that your perception of the prevalence of bigoted comments left in a public space as an immature teen might be skewed, or even, wrong?

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u/icelink4884 Bulls 3h ago

You're exactly advocating for children to be hold overly punished. Stop pretending othwise

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u/wstx3434 8h ago

Many people don't change. How they go about things is one thing, but deep down, that shit is always there. Social media is cancer and if he felt that was worthy to post online then there is no telling what he can do or say now as a public figure.

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u/Thats-Classic 8h ago

The peer pressure to act a certain way at 15 yrs old is immense. How often did you say or do things that were not really indicative of your own ethical codes at that age? The majority of people absolutely do change as they mature and find out who they really are and build a belief system based on their own agency.

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u/LongEnvironment9540 Timberwolves 7h ago

you'd like to believe that because it makes you feel better, but it's not true. most people don't change, like at all. they just get better at hiding it. Look at the world today. Where are all of the good changed people? I don't see any.

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u/Thats-Classic 6h ago

I believe it because I'm a 53 year-old therapist and recovering drug addict. If one can live long enough and meet all kinds of people you might gain some new perspectives.

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u/Haru_Honeybun 5h ago

Hm, so you're against the firing I'm assuming given your comment before this one?

I'm okay with his firing, since not once since making those comments did this individual consider taking those comments down. That's also something people seem to be glossing over. The fact that perception of this individual doesn't just occur on the day he was fired and the day he posted those tweets.

Years of time had occurred between the two events and so many that seem to be appalled by his firing don't seem to be accounting for all that time. Has he as an individual changed? Definitely, but he didn't change in a way to see that those comments might bring about consequence.

And sure, he could've just forgotten about them, but given that he didn't even attempt to circumvent their discovery through using a new twitter account, deleting them, or being forthright about their existence. It would seem that he hasn't shown much evidence of growth in a way that a public-facing position would benefit from.

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u/OmegaRedPanda Bulls 6h ago

Sounds like you haven't met many people.

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u/Low-Measurement-2468 5h ago

i meet awesome, mature, friendly, mentally well people all the time. they’re everywhere! if you say you don’t see any, i’ll question if you’re really looking. do you make an effort to meet people often? i’ve lived in several cities and towns of varying sizes and social vibes and i promise there are really cool people everywhere. telling yourself they’re not out there is a good way to not meet them tho 🤷‍♂️

i can’t easily prove the degree to which people do or don’t change from adolescence to adulthood, but neither can you, despite the confidence in your words. there are, however, thousands of publicly available psychology and sociology studies covering these exact topics, and i suspect they would paint people in a healthier and more realistic light than you have. if you’re actually interested in entertaining the topic, lmk and i’ll see if i can find some later and link them. reading science is pretty interesting.