The Portland Trail Blazers moved fast to undo a hire that had barely lasted a day.
Braiden Bell, who was announced as the team’s new play-by-play broadcaster and was set to become the youngest in that role at 29 years old, has been fired after racist tweets from 2012 and 2013 resurfaced online. The posts were uncovered after the Blazers revealed the hiring on social media.
The team issued a statement making clear it was ending the relationship immediately: "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," the statement read.
"The play-by-play role carries a long legacy of excellence on the broadcast and in character, and we hold that standard without exception. We did not meet our own bar in this process, and for that, we apologize to Blazers fans and to Rip City.
"We believe strongly that everyone who is 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."
The tweets that triggered the backlash were written when Bell was a teenager. On Dec. 9, 2012, he posted, "I'm not racist at all..
But not gonna lie.. Asian people piss me off!
Hahaha #Honest." That tweet has since been deleted.
Another post came on Nov. 30, 2012: "Gotta give a shoutout to all the big girls out there and those closet w--res."
Two more controversial tweets followed in 2013. On Feb.
13, Bell wrote, "We got a sl-t alert on aisle 10," and on Feb. 24 he posted, "Girls these nights... Smh.
#ThirstyForTheD."
A KGW 8 reporter found the tweets and reached out to the Blazers after they resurfaced.
Now Portland has to restart its search for a replacement for Kevin Calabro, who declined to return after being offered a pay cut that he called a "subprime" contract. Calabro later took a job earlier in the offseason with the Minnesota Timberwolves as their play-by-play broadcaster.
The Blazers open their preseason Wednesday against the Golden State Warriors. Tip-off is set for 7 pm PT at the Moda Center in Portland.
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