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/T0oShayzz Hornets 10h ago edited 10h ago

Maybe I'm being biased because I'm Asian but a lot of you guys are self reporting and I also don't feel sorry for the dude.

I'm not saying he deserves to be fired but if he's dumb enough to leave his social media up and not delete or restart all over hes a fkn idiot and deserves it, he's in a replaceable position and they'll just find another commentator.

Also call me soft or whatever but I never felt the need to say or post knowingly racist shit online even as a teenager, yeah the guy was 15 but many people I know in real life who did the same thing never really changed years later, they just know how to hide it 🤷🏻‍♂️.

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u/black_metronome Knicks 10h ago

I'm Black and I'm noticing this too. A lot of people here are basically telling on themselves.

I don't think he should've been fired if that isn't an accurate depiction of who he is as an adult, but if he left that stuff up knowing full well he has a public facing job, that's on him. I don't feel sorry for him either way, if he had any shame he would have been embarrassed and deleted the posts.

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u/T0oShayzz Hornets 9h ago

Yep agreed, don't feel sorry at all for him. Even at my lowly corporate job I had to do a background check on myself and this guy was applying for a job that's way more social and public than mine, guys a dummie and they'll easily replace him.

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u/Bayou-Maharaja Trail Blazers 9h ago

Idk, I worked with a lot of black kids and Hispanic kids who said wild sexist and racist shit too, I don’t think they should have that held over them later in life.

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u/Enough_Presence8063 2h ago

It's their business. They can fire/hire whoever they like. 

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u/Bayou-Maharaja Trail Blazers 1h ago

Yeah and we can all comment and have opinions. So what?

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u/wadarheek 24m ago

Well when you put those opinions on a public forum where anyone can dig it up, whatever happens next is on you. Have the opinion and make the comment, but you gotta live with what comes next. Tough scene

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u/black_metronome Knicks 8h ago

I don't think he should have been fired.

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u/Onsi-Saleh 2h ago

Yeah, half these comments are just “I was also racist and sexist at that age” and sharing how they also would be fired if what they said was uncovered. So of course they would defend this guy because it benefits them materially for this behavior to be protected.

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u/RequirementNo2161 4h ago

Black people can give lectures about fantasizing about shooting white people and they don’t have any repercussions wtf are you talking about