The saga of the Portland Trail Blazers and disgraced play-by-play broadcaster Braiden Bell continued onward through another surprise twist today. The Blazers hired Bell four days ago, then fired him the same day after old tweets were discovered with racist and misogynist themes. The tweets came from the time Bell was 15 years old. The Blazers parted ways with their new hire immediately.
Now NBA media member Chris Haynes is reporting that Bell has hired a lawyer and is asking to be reinstated. Bell’s
counsel maintains that the statements came from Bell’s youth and that, if held to the standards used in the dismissal, “hardly a person in an organization in America…could meet it”. The statement also tabs the Blazers as an organization with faith in “people’s capacity to grow”.
Per local media member Sean Highkin, the Blazers have issued the following statement in response:
We stand by our statement issued last week and have no further comment at this time. We wish Mr. Bell the best.
The prior statement they referenced read as follows:
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 play-by-play role carries a long legacy for 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 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.
We’ll have more on this story as it develops.
