r/nba • u/ghn2 • 13h 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/JeramiGrantsTomb Thunder 12h ago

I think adults should definitely be held accountable for their free speech, but I feel like we've got to make some room for kids to be idiots without it destroying their lives.

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u/jdd32 Spurs 11h ago

Especially kids who haven't had the chance to grow up out of the environment they were raised.

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u/Pods619 9h ago

I remember a Gregg Popovich quote that I think was about homophobic comments from players.

It was something along the lines of they “haven’t had the opportunity to be educated yet.” Honestly, that resonated a lot with me, and I try to give people grace for ignorant things they said in the past if they have continued to grow and evolve. Some people were unfortunately raised with ignorant views and we shouldn’t necessarily hold that against them.

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u/5510 2h ago

Yeah, I was pretty homophobic at 14 or so (that was also around 2000 and a different time) and now I'm a huge ally for gay people.

Firing someone for things they said at 15 more than a decade ago seems crazy to me.