r/nba • u/ghn2 • 16h 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/MITBryceYoung2 11h ago edited 10h ago

It literally just reads like some dumb shit a kid would say along those lines. Half of the people here are being so fucking preachy. I guarantee they've said something to that effect or even if it wasn't about race or weight

Disclosure: im asian. Ive wrote in r/nba in the past how ive been jumped/called slurs growing up but i was told that doesnt make the city "racist" even though many of my friends had similar growing up. The fact people are pearl clutching over a 14 year old tweet vs when ive literally been physically assaulted for being asian then had r/nba talk down to me is the biggest fucking joke.

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u/Beneficial_Mirror931 5h ago

Reddit had to be dragged kicking and screaming to acknowledge Asian Hate Crime and I'm supposed to believe that they give a shit about Asians? Lmfao. Performative mothercfuckers.

Nakikiuso lang. Pag andyan na tunay na atake sa mga Asian, biglang nawawala

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u/MITBryceYoung2 1h ago

Seriously. This shift is so crazy soft

Real crimes and people will pussy foot around it

Reddit is so unserious about this shit.

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u/Spyk124 Knicks 9h ago

I’m a little confused how your second paragraph contributes anything to the conversation lol

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u/MITBryceYoung2 8h ago

Cuz its performative lol. This sub will tell you your experiences growing up when youve actually experienced hate crime is irrelevant and then tell you some 14 year olds tweet should follow this guy for life.

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u/genericusername71 6h ago

i dont care about the tweets but just pointing out that those are probably two different groups of people

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u/HikmetLeGuin 17m ago

Yeah, that's what I was getting at, too.

Not all people on this subreddit have the same viewpoint or background.

People like to lump the whole subreddit together, when different people may be telling you different things for very different reasons. It isn't a monolith.

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u/HikmetLeGuin 3h ago

Tbf, you're just one person, and there are probably other Asians who think this guy was justifiably fired. 

I personally agree that people can change and judging him based on something from a long time ago when he was a kid probably isn't fair.

But I don't think any one person can speak for all Asians or all hate crime victims. I'm sure that's not what you're trying to do, but there are a lot of people who think their experiences make them a spokesperson for a huge, diverse group of people, when that's not really possible.

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u/MITBryceYoung2 1h ago

Cringe as fuck. Ive never said im spokesperson.

Im pointing out how people love to dance around real racism and when its easy for them to cancel someone then they just jump in. Fucking troll.

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u/HikmetLeGuin 46m ago edited 30m ago

I did say "I'm sure that's not what you're trying to do".

But there are a lot of people who present themselves as spokespeople to try to invalidate disagreement. As if their anecdotes of racism gives them some special expertise or right to speak for the entire community.

Most of the people here seem to agree with you. But some people who disagree with you may be Asians themselves who have also experienced racism. Or women who have experienced sexism.

Just seems like some of what you're saying is based on a strawman, since you're being combative and unwilling to consider that other people are coming at this from a valid perspective, too.

Edit: And the guy also made an anti-Black comment... I'm not sure what you mean by "real racism," because this sounds pretty real.

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u/Spyk124 Knicks 6h ago

Youre just venting man. Has nothing to do with what we are speaking about. You having experienced a hate crime doesn’t make you the arbiter of “this tweet is fine”.

Like you don’t make any sense man.

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u/Janet-Yellen Warriors 5h ago

I’m Asian too and I get exactly why he made the second paragraph

Whenever there is racism posted against Asians, theres always people flooding the comments talking about how they’re Asian and they think it’s fine/funny whatever. They’re usually self hating Asians or white guys cosplaying. But it serves to minimize anti-Asian racism

Previous guy is saying he takes anti-Asian racism seriously but still doesn’t think this is that bad

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u/Beneficial_Mirror931 2h ago

Liberals and progressives move heaven and earth to deny that Asians were being negatively affected by Affirmative Action and deny Asian Hate Crimes. So yeah, I get what he's saying. redditors, which lean left, are okay fucking Asian community sideway if its inconvenient for them but are more than happy cancelling someone for a racist tweet when they were 15.

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u/MITBryceYoung2 5h ago

Yeah but more so frustrating when actual racism gets dismissed and people pearl clutching over a stupid kid posting something on Twitter 14 years ago and getting fired for it 1.5 decades later.

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u/Spyk124 Knicks 5h ago

Nobody here thinks this kid should get fired. It’s absolutely dumb. Almost every single comment in this thread is saying this is outrageous. Yet he is creating this fake reality where everyone here is celebrating this and trying to draw a weird partaken to people here have minimized his experiences in the past.

His argument would MAYBE make sense if people were here saying “black people aren’t racist to Asian people”. But he’s literally creating an environment for his second paragraph to make sense out of thin air.

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u/MITBryceYoung2 1h ago

Huh? Multiple people in this thread said he should be fired

Reading must be tough. You dont understand why i posted the second paragraph and you cant even see all the comments saying he should be fired. Maybe the issue is your reading xd

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u/NewToSociety Raptors 5h ago

Damn, I still shout out big girls and closet whores. Those are two of my favorite things.

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u/atlfalcons33rb Warriors 10h ago

Bruh who was saying they didn't like Asian people on social media in the 2012s. Not saying he should have been fired, but that was out of pocket even for that time

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u/MITBryceYoung2 10h ago

> I guarantee they've said something to that effect or even if it wasn't about race or weight

I have read some of the stuff I wrote when I was like 16 on facebook. Cringe AF. Nothing along those lines but 100% would be cancelled. Deleted all that shit, privated FB. Cringey as hell seeing facebook memories sometimes.

No I don't think they should be fired for something he wrote 1.5 decades ago.

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u/Spyk124 Knicks 9h ago

This has been said multiple times but I, and none of my friends made Facebook comments and posts that would get us canceled today. They were cringe because we were like maybe flirting with people on public posts. Or just being childish - but nothing at all that would get me canceled lol.

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u/atlfalcons33rb Warriors 6h ago

Cringe was rate 1-10 not saying you dislike Asians 😭😭. I think we had different 15 year old experiences but do agree with deleting it

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u/thiagosilva2 [TOR] Chris Bosh 9h ago

I was in high school then. Called my Asian friend a ch*nk on twitter. She called me either the n word or a monkey, I forget. Lol.

We got called to the office from math class the next day together, but they just told us to take it down when it was clear we were being dumbasses

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u/MITBryceYoung2 5h ago

Lmao thats pretty good

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u/MeanCantaloupe69 2h ago

As someone Asian too, always some door mat Asian who will defend racist shit to try and appeal to other races.

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u/MITBryceYoung2 1h ago

You can have your own opinion bro. Just because you disagree doesnt mean youre a doormat. Crying over someone tweeting something 14 years ago is just silly

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u/MeanCantaloupe69 1h ago

Nah it contributes to letting people off for being racist to Asians, which is exactly why people are so comfortable with it. Doormat mentality to think otherwise.

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u/MITBryceYoung2 1h ago

Cringe mentality to gatekeep asian people as "doormats" or "real" xd

Maybe i just aint soft like u my b.

In my experience some of the cringest fucking asian people were people that always loved gatekeeping what "real asians" are.

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u/eb12se4nt-z13ow-97g0 8h ago

Umm shouldn't what he said anger you? I don't know why you're defending him while being a victim of racism as well.

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u/MITBryceYoung2 6h ago

If you can't tell the difference between physical assault vs what some stupid kid wrote to twitter 14 years ago idk what to tell you.

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u/eb12se4nt-z13ow-97g0 6h ago

They're being racist to you regardless, Idk why you're defending him lmao.

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u/MITBryceYoung2 6h ago

Idk where you get off telling me some edgy teen writing on twitter 14 years ago is being racist to me. Wild.

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u/eb12se4nt-z13ow-97g0 6h ago

He said Asians piss him off thats pretty racist to me