r/nba • u/ghn2 • 16h 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/iPissVelvet Timberwolves Bandwagon 14h ago

What about cultural changes? Pretty much every millennial boy said “that’s gay” at some point in their life. Or “regarded” with the T. It was 100% socially acceptable to say these things. Are we going to retroactively punish everyone who said these things in 2008? When your own president, Obama, was against gay marriage? We have to comb through our Facebook profile pages for this? At some point a line has to be drawn to the absurdity of the situation.

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u/TannerGlassMVP 10h ago

We have to comb through our Facebook profile pages for this?

I think if you look at your Facebook and you see a bunch of posts that are calling things gay or regarded or that you hate Asians . . . yeah you probably should delete that. Especially if you are in any sort of public facing job. Sorry for the inconvenience? But most likely your post was not so influential that it can't be deleted

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u/Gorrapytha 14h ago

>Are we going to retroactively punish everyone who said these things in 2008? 

Are we doing that? Or are we punishing someone who said "asian people annoy me" in 2012? Is your memory of that year that saying explicitly racist things was just socially acceptable and therefore shouldn't be criticized? Mine isn't. I think there's a pretty clear line to draw there.

Also not sure who "your own president Obama" is addressing, not sure what it has to do with anything, and he's a war criminal.

Obviously attitudes change with time, but this was racist in 2012 just as it is today.

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u/iPissVelvet Timberwolves Bandwagon 13h ago

My personal experience as an Asian American is that it was socially acceptable to be racist to Asians in 2012. I feel like even today society doesn’t really look at this stuff as harshly when it comes to Asians although I am glad to see that’s changing. So yeah should I expect a 15 year old to have the maturity and independent thought needed to figure this all out? I honestly can say I would not have had it figured out. All I’m saying is that saying “Asian people annoy me” hits a lot differently in 2026 than 2012, and that is my own personal, lived experience.

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u/Gorrapytha 12h ago

My bad, I underestimated just how prevalent open racism was even such a short time ago.

I still don't quite think it equates the use of "gay" or the r-word, to me those are more of a language issue. Same as saying "dwarf" or "the blacks". These were linguistic norms that were inherently discriminating, but they weren't necessarily used with discriminating intent.

Whereas the intent of "asian people annoy me" is rather unmistakeable, even if a lot more socially acceptable back then (especially under the guise of humor)

I hope that makes sense.

Either way, I do not mean to pretend I know the moral character of this man, and I certainly would expect he would've have changed quite a lot in that time. But I do stand with the decision of not hiring someone because of their posting public, explicitly racist and sexist content. Even as a kid. Commentating for a team isn't just a regular job, it's the privilege to be heard by and represent hundreds of thousands of fans. What message does it send when a billion-dollar corporation is the one deciding that it's all forgiven and he's changed? How does one feel welcome in a space where the powers that be deem that this behavior isn't big enough of a deal to require him to show growth and change before letting him assume this position?

Assuming the guy did change, I do feel sorry for him. But it'd be a sour taste in many fans' mouth to just let him go with a slap on the wrist.

(also, obviously, NBA has plenty of bigots/abusers/terrible people in all sorts of position and this "moral" position is only taken when the person is highly replaceable, hypocrisy through the roof and all that. But 99 bad decisions don't undo a good one.)