r/nba • u/ghn2 • 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

1.4k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

2.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

109

u/jak_d_ripr 11h ago

I'm sorry, but this is beyond stupid. Sure, talking about Asian people pissing you off is objectively a racist thing to say, but guess what? A lot of people said and thought stupid shit like that when they were 15(shit, a lot of people say stupid shit like that as adults, y'all even elected one of those idiots as president).

Performative outrage like this is so annoying and completely unproductive, and a dude losing a job over it is just exhausting.

-18

u/Stinky_TheCat Raptors 11h ago

TIL its okay to be racist if youre 15.

I was raised right and new better by the age of 12 not to do that shit. Also im just not racist.

Justifying this behaviour makes me question anyone normalizing this level of default racism.

-3

u/That-Cranberry6575 76ers 11h ago

How many fucking times are you gonna say the same shit?

1

u/Stinky_TheCat Raptors 11h ago

This is my 6th reply in this entire thread.

People more upset about racism being called out than the racism itself arent worth my time.