Braiden Bell, a 29-year-old broadcaster, was fired by the Portland Trail Blazers hours after they hired him to call play-by-play. The reason? A local news station dug up racist and sexist tweets Bell posted when he was just 15 years old. Yeah, you read that right: a professional was canned for something he said 14 years ago, as a minor, well before he ever stepped foot near an NBA microphone.
The Blazers Dropped the Ball, Big Time
The initial chatter has been all about whether Bell’s punishment fit the “crime” which, let’s be clear, wasn’t actually a crime at all. People can tweet what they want in this country, but everyone knows there are consequences for what you put out there. However, the real story here isn’t Bell’s old tweets, it’s the Portland Trail Blazers’ massive screw-up and the double standard in their hiring process. If checking social media isn’t a priority *before* you make a hire, how in the world does old social media become an issue that warrants firing someone *after* the fact? That’s the part of this whole mess that makes absolutely no sense.
This isn’t some corner pizzeria; this is a multi-billion-dollar NBA franchise. The standards for a role with an NBA team should be higher than for a line cook. Every team has to investigate added layers of data before making a hire. Social media is free, easy to access, and packed with info, especially from young adults back in 2012 when Twitter was blowing up with 200 million monthly users. Bell wasn’t the first 15-year-old to post something controversial, racist, or sexist, and he won’t be the last. What he posted was wrong, no doubt, but it clearly didn’t stop him from climbing the professional ladder. He had roles with Blaze Radio 1330 AM in Phoenix in 2017, a stint with the Pac-12 Network, five years calling games for California Baptist University, and opportunities with Arizona State, the Valley Suns, and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury. None of those employers seemed to have an issue with the tweets of a 15-year-old.
A Double Standard That’s Hard to Ignore
Did those other organizations look into his social media background? Probably not. Did the Portland Trail Blazers? Obviously not! They announced his hiring with a press release and social media posts, a huge moment for an aspiring broadcaster. Then, after someone else did the job they should have done during the hiring process, the Trail Blazers played “moral police” and dropped the hammer.
The Portland Trail Blazers can’t have it both ways. No employer should. You simply can’t identify, recruit, interview, hire, and announce someone as the new voice of your franchise, and then fire them when a glaring hole in your hiring process gets exposed. To then claim Bell’s past tweets violated team and league policies after you didn’t even bother to do the legwork yourself? That’s just a joke. It’s a complete lack of accountability, and it makes you wonder what else they’re missing.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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