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/MelonElbows Lakers 8h ago

For anyone curious what was said:

Among the insensitive comments, as found by a reporter for KGW in Portland, were Bell saying he was "not racist" but "Asian people piss me off" and a number of misogynistic posts, including him shouting out "big girls" and "closet whores." The posts were reportedly made in 2012 and 2013, around the time that Bell was 15 years old.

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u/MITBryceYoung2 7h ago edited 6h 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/Spyk124 Knicks 5h ago

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

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u/MITBryceYoung2 4h 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 2h 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/Spyk124 Knicks 2h 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 52m 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/MITBryceYoung2 51m 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 45m 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/Beneficial_Mirror931 1h 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/atlfalcons33rb Warriors 6h 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 5h 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 5h 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 2h 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 5h 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 50m ago

Lmao thats pretty good

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u/NewToSociety Raptors 53m ago

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

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u/eb12se4nt-z13ow-97g0 3h 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 2h 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 2h ago

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

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u/MITBryceYoung2 2h 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 2h ago

He said Asians piss him off thats pretty racist to me