The Portland Trail Blazers hired Braiden Bell as their lead television play-by-play announcer on Thursday and fired him hours later, before he had even called a game.
Bell, 29, came from the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury to replace Kevin Calabro and would have been the NBA's youngest primary broadcaster.
Why did he get fired? Because over a decade ago, beginning at the ripe old age of 15, Bell posted some pretty offensive things on social media.
In December 2012, he wrote, "I'm not racist at all.. But not gonna lie.. Asian people piss me off! Hahaha #Honest."
The next summer he added, "No blacks either. #racist."
Other posts targeted women: "Gotta give a shoutout to all the big girls out there and those closet whores," and "We got a slut alert on aisle 10."
Granted, this is a prime example of why you should advise your kids to be careful what they say on the interwebs, but digging that far into his closet is a bit ridiculous.
But that's exactly what super-sleuth reporters at Portland station KGW did. And look, they're offensive. They're dumb. Do they reflect who this man is as an adult? Probably not. KGW found no comparable posts once Bell was an adult; from 2015 on, the same account was almost entirely sports.
If the technology existed back then to record every comment uttered by those of us in the over-29 crowd, we'd probably all be screwed. Let's be real.
Should his career be incinerated for the public to see because of the dopey thoughts that came out of his typing fingers 14 years ago? No. The Trail Blazers don't agree, however.
"The Portland Trail Blazers have zero tolerance for racist, sexist, or harmful comments. Social media posts made by our recently announced play-by-play broadcaster are in clear violation of team and league policies, as well as our values and expectations. Therefore, we will not be moving forward with this broadcaster," a statement reads.
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) October 2, 2026
Man, you have to admire all the buzzwords in there, designed to convince you of the Portland organization's virtuous nature.
The "long legacy of excellence" they discuss, which involves not having won a championship since 1977.
The "standards," their "own bar," and the guidance they follow when promoting their supposed "values."
*Gag*
Also of interest, their nickname, "Rip City."
You know why that's interesting? Because anyone who watched basketball in the 1990s and early 2000s knew them by a different nickname — the "Jail Blazers."
Holy shit. Could you possibly be a bigger group of absolute losers? The @trailblazers should have laughed it off and ignored it when your reporters came to them, but they're run by blithering idiots as well.
— Rusty (@Rusty_Weiss) October 2, 2026
A brief review of that era shows the Trail Blazers lacked "standards" and "values." And that's putting things kindly.
Six-time All-Star Shawn Kemp arrived and ended his first season in Portland in drug rehab. By then, he was already known to have fathered at least seven children with six different women. At least.
Rasheed Wallace was a perpetual suspension machine, getting into numerous on-court fights and being so heavily involved with marijuana that people started calling him "Ra-weed."
But those are small potatoes.
The most controversial acquisition for Portland came in 2001, when they signed Ruben Patterson, a registered sex offender. You read that right — the team harping about "standards" signed a registered sex offender.
Patterson had entered a modified guilty plea to attempted rape after being accused of forcing his family’s nanny to perform oral sex. He was sentenced to a year in jail with all but 15 days suspended. A year later, Patterson faced a felony domestic-assault charge involving his wife, Shannon. She dropped the case, and the couple divorced.
We have to stop firing people for tweets sent when they were minors. If this guy had robbed a store as a minor, his juvenile record would be sealed forever. If we don't hold people accountable for crimes as minors, holding people accountable for Tweets is beyond absurd. https://t.co/xb3xtWzkAP
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) October 2, 2026
Oh, and if you're thinking, 'Well, that's old news,' remember that Portland's coach last season, Chauncey Billups, was arrested by the FBI in connection with an alleged role in a federal gambling case.
Prosecutors charged him with wire fraud and money laundering, alleging he was a “face card” in rigged poker games tied to New York organized-crime families. He is accused of working with the mafia!
But values ... or something.
A minor can have their criminal record sealed, but a teenager’s asinine tweets can still cost him a job more than a decade later. Portland is an embarrassment.
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