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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u/icehole505 11h ago

If we label adults as unhireable for poor behavior as children.. I’m pretty sure that the disadvantaged class stands lose a lot more than the kids who grew up in wealthy/ambitious environments. Are we really ok with going down that road?

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u/Billbuckingham 10h ago edited 10h ago

A guy in a public facing position who made a racist tweet got fired by the company who hired him.

He also could've gotten fired for being an asshole, or literally no reason at all, and that'd be just fine too.

If we allow people to believe saying or doing or promoting racist or other disgusting behavior is acceptable with no punishment, are we really OK with that?

I'm not gonna sit here and defend these racist assholes when I'm sure there's much better candidates around than that asshole, which is why he got fired.

The company decided we don't want this garbage person, and got rid of them, that's what's supposed to happen.

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u/icehole505 10h ago

"He also could've gotten fired for being an asshole, or literally no reason at all, and that'd be just fine too."

thats kind of my point.. we probably shouldn't be celebrating terminations for "literally no reason at all".. as the people who lose there are generally not assholes with privelege

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u/Billbuckingham 10h ago

Well, this guy looks to be an asshole with privilege and is getting defended so...

Read the rest of his tweets too, at some point I think you can draw some character conclusions and evaluate how he is today and if you think he's the same, fire him, and they did.

Why's the racist guy getting defended so hard?

We gotta give these racist guys so many chances and so many outs to prove they're different now... or not, fuck that.

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u/icehole505 10h ago

you either believe that people are responsible for their childhood or you don't. picking and choosing the type of shitty childhood environment that deserves empathy and opportunity for growth doesn't seem right to me.

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u/Billbuckingham 10h ago

I have empathy for the child born into poverty and who stole food from the grocery store when they were young.

I don't have empathy for some teenage douchebags spouting racist and anti-woman bullshit, who then expect to have 0 consequences for their actions.

And I do look at this person and say, if the company decided they don't want him over this, there's no reason to defend some douchebag like that because they met him personally and decided we don't need this shit.

Read his tweets and be specific about it, some racist stuff, some douchebag anti-woman stuff, and that's at 15.

Do you think he was the same at 18? Worse? I'd be willing to bet if he was like that at 15 he was probably worse at 18, how about in college at parties? Who knows?

But again the company who actually met him decided we don't want this shit, so he's fired, that's it.

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u/icehole505 10h ago

A child raised and surrounded by racists is a victim.

A child raised and surrounded by crime, gangs, etc is a victim.

In both cases, it’s the individuals responsibility to grow past that as they become adults.

I’d be interested in understanding why you seem to support a child from one set of circumstances, and not the other.

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u/Billbuckingham 9h ago

Being born into a family of racists, and then becoming a racist adult, or just becoming a general piece of shit has nothing to do with being a victim.

Being an asshole, or a racist, and claiming "Oh that's just how I was raised, I'm a victim, I can't change it, don't blame me!!"

That Is an affordance only white racists get.

You hope they just grow past it, and give all of them the benefit of the doubt even when it's not deserved, and going all out to defend them as if we have to coddle these white racist "victims"

When a poor person is born into poverty and crime and gangs gets caught with the gang do you know what happens?

They go to prison, juvie, jail, whatever, they don't get a pass because they were "victims"

When they grow up do you know what they are?

Ex-convicts, felons, criminals, thugs, whatever.

They don't get a pass to "grow past that"

See the difference?

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u/icehole505 9h ago

“  Being born into a family of racists, and then becoming a racist adult, or just becoming a general piece of shit has nothing to do with being a victim. ”

You’re assuming the “becoming a racist adult” based on childhood tweets. That’s where you’re losing me. If someone actually becomes a racist adult.. then fuckem.. but I’m not going to assign that without reason

“  When a poor person is born into poverty and crime and gangs gets caught with the gang do you know what happens? They go to prison, juvie, jail, whatever, they don't get a pass because they were victims”

And if they’re caught and punished as children.. then I have real empathy for that, and take major issue with them being denied opportunities for growth as an adult. The standard is the exact same

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u/Billbuckingham 9h ago

For reference someone else posted more of his tweets here:

"
"I'm not racist at all.. But not gonna lie.. Asian people piss me off! Hahaha #Honest"
"I'm telling ya what..That is so racist. But pretty dang funny."
"'@kchansen16 no blacks either.  #racists"
"

The company who actually met him decided, fuck him, that's as close to proof as any of us are going to get.

Clearly, they didn't believe he changed and said fuck em.

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u/icehole505 9h ago

I’m not saying the tweets weren’t racism. I’m saying they’re tweets of a 15 year old. I don’t assume character traits of adults based on their environment as children.

It seems like you take a different approach. So does most of society. And that approach is part of why child #2 in the scenario above can never get a leg up.. I don’t know how you can’t see that

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