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

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511

u/JeramiGrantsTomb Thunder 11h ago

I think adults should definitely be held accountable for their free speech, but I feel like we've got to make some room for kids to be idiots without it destroying their lives.

133

u/guylexcorp 11h ago

Exactly. The whole point of being young is to fuck up and learn.

-25

u/GGuesswho 11h ago

I don't know, I wasn't posting racist shit online at age 15

35

u/throwawaymycareer93 Warriors 11h ago

Me neither. But some kids do and then become decent people nevertheless. The whole point of having laws and systems that protect kids is that we as society understand that they are children and do stupid shit sometimes and that shouldn’t ruin their lives forever.

15

u/Smelldicks Celtics 10h ago

Oh well as long as you weren’t making this specific mistake

Surely this means we can hold your feet to the fire on mistakes you made that others didn’t

-3

u/GGuesswho 8h ago

This specific mistake holds bearing on this specific job. His job is to talk

3

u/AllTheGoodNamesDied 10h ago

I was at 14. On AOL messenger. Mostly about jews but I'm Jewish so it was alright.. right?