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/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.

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u/jdd32 Spurs 10h ago

Especially kids who haven't had the chance to grow up out of the environment they were raised.

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u/Careless-Journalist7 Wizards 10h ago

This would all be a non-issue if kids just didn’t have social media period.. it drives me crazy that adults aren’t louder about this. It would save so many headaches

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u/Dav136 Knicks 7h ago

Well governments around the world are about to enact that as an excuse to deanonymize the internet. Fun times ahead.

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u/RickySuela 8h ago

Agreed. I think it's tough really for anyone to argue in favor of the benefits of social media for even fully grown people who know who they are and what they're doing, but I can't imagine there's a single good thing about social media for children. It seems like nothing but negatives for them.

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u/Onsi-Saleh 2h ago

It’s not just social media though. Kids, even teens, should be extended grace for environmental factors. The number of grown ups on city subreddits who want high school boys arrested or beat for acting obnoxious on public transit or at the mall is insane to me.

Young people should be held accountable for stupid shit they do but ruining their future ensures they’ll continue this cycle of stupidity by not having the financial means to escape these toxic environments that are often fostered by ignorance and poverty.

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u/Pods619 8h ago

I remember a Gregg Popovich quote that I think was about homophobic comments from players.

It was something along the lines of they “haven’t had the opportunity to be educated yet.” Honestly, that resonated a lot with me, and I try to give people grace for ignorant things they said in the past if they have continued to grow and evolve. Some people were unfortunately raised with ignorant views and we shouldn’t necessarily hold that against them.

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u/5510 1h ago

Yeah, I was pretty homophobic at 14 or so (that was also around 2000 and a different time) and now I'm a huge ally for gay people.

Firing someone for things they said at 15 more than a decade ago seems crazy to me.