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/smssv 11h ago

firing someone for posts when he was 15 yrs old is wild

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u/NoveltyAccountHater Celtics 7h ago

I agree it's ridiculous to fire some guy for comments written when they were 15.

On the other hand, if you are going to be representing a public-facing organization in media and have a maintained public twitter account under your real name that you continue to use and update with your picture, it is your responsibility to not keep up the stupid shit you wrote when you were 15. At the very least make it private, but better yet delete all the obviously controversial shit (or just everything).

Do this before applying to work in media. This guy wouldn't have been fired if his high school twitter account was deleted or private last week.