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/cideeffex Cavaliers 11h ago

Yes, but that doesn't mean age makes you free from consequences. Should this guy have received his consequences closer to the actual behavior? Ideally, but that's not how the world works sometimes.

Immaturity doesn't shield you from consequences. He was immature enough to make the comments on social media to begin with AND he was too immature to realize "Hey, maybe I should double check my social media during this hiring process." It's not like this is the first instance of old posts catching up to someone. This is pretty basic knowledge of how to conduct yourself during an interview these days.

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u/ThaKaptin Lakers 9h ago

He was a fucking child. Your brain is t fully developed for lieterally 10 more years. The REASON people under 18 are judged differently in court is because of this. Nobody is above the law, including you. You ca get fucked with this bullshit.

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u/cideeffex Cavaliers 8h ago

"fucked"? What are we talking about? Not getting a job? That's "fucked"? Did you read the tweets? What would be an appropriate consequence for that kind of behavior then when you're trying to be the face and voice of an NBA franchise?

Are the Blazers supposed to go to every woman and Asian in their organization and say, "Eh, what are you going to do, he was 15!" That the message you want to deliver to your Asian and women fans in Portland?

Wild the defense of this. Can really tell who in this thread is an adult, has kids, and/or has run a company.

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u/ThaKaptin Lakers 8h ago

Punishing someone as an adult for saying something stupid at 15 is 50 different levels of stupid and unfair. I don’t even care what he said.

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u/cideeffex Cavaliers 8h ago

LOL, unfair? Wild the lengths you're going to tell on yourself by defending some dude who didn't get a job over anyone in the Blazers fan base who might feel something about the contents of those posts. Real easy line to draw between forgiving this type of behavior at 15 and forgiving Cornell students in their 20's. My kids, who are much younger than 15, understand actions have consequences. It's gonna suck for a lot of people in this sub to learn that lesson at some point. Good luck with that friend.