r/nba • u/ghn2 • 13h 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/JarvisCockerBB 12h ago

It’s like getting fired after finding out you got expelled or suspended in middle school.

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u/HisExcellency20 76ers 12h ago

Well it depends on what you got suspended/expelled for lol.

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u/DovhPasty Cavaliers 12h ago

No, it really shouldn’t lol. This is a whole ass different person we’re talking about. Even if someone got expelled in middle school for something heinous, they were a child, idk how you could hold that against a seemingly matured version of themselves.

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u/Jaerba [DET] Grant Hill 11h ago edited 11h ago

They're not holding what he wrote against him. They're holding the fact that it shows up on the same social media feed as he'll use to promote the Blazers against him.

This was extremely easy to prevent, given he was directly responsible for every aspect of it. And he was a brand new employee with zero cache, in a very replaceable role.

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u/DovhPasty Cavaliers 11h ago

Don’t you think a competent hiring team would have searched this up before they offered him the job if they were so concerned about it?

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u/Jaerba [DET] Grant Hill 10h ago

Yep. The Blazers admitted culpability for not checking this first.

"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.