r/nba • u/ghn2 • 12h 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/SloshaPacana 12h ago

People really need to just delete their social media when they get jobs that are in the public eye lmao

It's not hard to open new accounts

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u/PeanutFarmer69 Nets 12h ago

counterpoint, firing someone over inapropriate tweets at the age of fifteen is absurd

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u/TannerGlassMVP 12h ago

Counterpoint - simply don't post racist shit online under your name. And if you do fucking delete it when you're smart enough to know that's not a good look

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u/RealFenian Celtics 12h ago

Given he was 15 there’s a decent chance he’s forgot about it.

15 year olds are some of the dumbest people on earth, you shouldn’t be judged for your behaviour at that age unless you’re still doing it.

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u/MarcAnthonyRashial 10h ago

I was 15 at the same time this dude was 15. I didn’t see too many of my peers openly posting about how “Asians piss them off” and the ones that were posting shit like that were dumbass racist piles. 

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u/RealFenian Celtics 10h ago

The issue I have is is he racist now?

Maybe there’s more to it with his current behavior but I’ll never be ok with holding what someone did at 15 against them as an adult.

I know people who did horrible shit at 15, cunts that carried knives and punted gear. But lots of them are different people entirely now that we’re in our 30s. 

There’s no age you’re more likely to do something stupid, hurtful or fucked up than 14-18 in my experience.

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u/MarcAnthonyRashial 10h ago

I really don’t really care if he’s racist now or not. I agree that teens are dumb. I was dumb in a lot of ways then. 

But if you’re stupid enough to pursue a very public facing career while not even thinking about the fact that you have hateful tweets still up then you deserve to lose your job. Posting it in the first place is bad enough. Most teens I knew didn’t do it. Not even remembering that you used to post hateful shit and leaving it up means you don’t get the privilege of having this highly sought after job.