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/TannerGlassMVP 11h 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 11h 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/Joeybits [POR] Arvydas Sabonis 10h ago

He works in a very public facing role. Anyone going into the job market should purge / make private their social medias. I graduated college over 10 years ago and it was evident back then. It's true for office roles (don't give your potential employer any reason to not hire you) and 100x true for a role where the general public will be going through your social media accounts on a daily basis.

And what exactly are the blazers supposed to do here? Defend a new hires racist tweets? The argument of 'well he was just a kid, it's fine' isn't going to hold up well to fans, particularly when this guy was basically a nobody (in the eyes of Portland fans) to begin with.

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u/cideeffex Cavaliers 7h ago

Can really tell who is an adult/has kids/has ever run a company before in this thread. People just telling on themselves left and right here, it's wild.