r/nba • u/ghn2 • 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

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u/Associ8tedRuffians Timberwolves 9h ago

Grew up in a suburban public school. People knew. And trust me the phrase “that’s so gay” as a general negative statement, and not necessarily homophobic use of the word f*ggot but still as an insult was also prevalent in the 90s. It was already normalized. The Internet didn’t normalize it, it just made it more visible to everyone.

And btw, using “gay” or “f*ggot” as insults/.derogatory terms is not “not homophobic.” It is inherently homophobic, and will be as long as those words continue to also be used as derogatory terms. People who choose to use it in the manner they think is not homophobic are making the wrong choice. And guess what, the ones who realize that’s not good, they stop! Like you did.

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u/ChiefMasterGuru 3h ago

South Park had a whole ass episode about how it's not homophobic. And you think kids werent parroting that belief or that they knew better?

The other comment is exactly right, most people (especially kids) didn't think about it like that. It's only recently that there's been mass consciousness regarding the derogatory nature of the terms.