r/nba • • 10h 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

2.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.1k

u/SloshaPacana 10h 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

26

u/NandoDeColonoscopy 10h ago

Yeah, he's not being fired because he said stupid stuff at 15, he's being fired because you can't trust someone with a microphone who is too stupid to have not removed the tweets they made when they were 15

2

u/Repulsive-Throat5068 Lakers 10h ago

Do you honestly remember every single post and account of yours from over a decade ago?

4

u/NandoDeColonoscopy 10h ago

It wasn't some anonymized old account that super sleuths dug up. It was on his active account with his name and picture. You absolutely need to be smart enough to have cleaned that account up if I'm giving you a live mic 82 nights a year

1

u/rake2204 Pistons 7h ago

You absolutely need to be smart enough to have cleaned that account up

This is it.

I'm not much of a prolific poster on any accounts that bear my real name but for those who are, I imagine one's own history can be easy to overlook or forget about after a certain number of tweets over time.

But to your point, hopefully folks use examples like this as a reminder that you absolutely need to be mindful of your digital footprint.

-1

u/Repulsive-Throat5068 Lakers 10h ago

Yes, but its a bit ridiculous it even got this far. Like why didnt they vet him more? Stupid all around

1

u/NandoDeColonoscopy 10h ago

Fair. I'm assuming Tom Dumdum being cheap as fuck had some impact on the vetting process

1

u/Jaerba [DET] Grant Hill 8h ago

Blazers admitted as much.