Just hours after announcing the hire of a new play-by-play broadcaster, the Portland Blazers announced that he had been fired, with the team pointing to old tweets he had made many years ago that it claimed were racist and sexist. Many conservatives took the news to mean that cancel culture, thought to be somewhat dead and buried, is back.
For reference, the Portland Blazers announced on Thursday that Braiden Bell would be its new television play-by-play broadcaster.“We’re excited to welcome Braiden to Rip City,” said Dewayne Hankins, President of Business Operations for the Blazers.
Hankins continued, “What stood out throughout this process was his energy and passion. He understands that great play-by-play is about being authentic and bringing our fans closer to the team. He’s a great fit for where we’re headed and an important voice for the next chapter of Trail Blazers basketball.”
Bell, for his part, said, “Rip City, thank you for giving me the chance to call games for the best fans in the league. As we get to know each other, my goal is to connect you with the action on the court. My guarantee to you is that you’ll be able to hear my excitement and love for this game night in and night out. I’m truly honored to join this amazing community.”
Then, just hours later, the team announced that the recently-hired Bell had been fired over very old tweets. Particularly, two tweets surfaced from when he was just 15 years old. In one such post, he wrote, “I’m not racist at all.. But not gonna lie.. Asian people piss me off! Hahaha #Honest.” In another, he said, “Gotta give a shoutout to all the big girls out there and those closet whores.”
The Blazers fired him for the old, mean tweets, and announced the move in a post on X. In that post, the team said, “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.”
Continuing, the team apologized for hiring a broadcaster who once posted two mean things on social media, saying, “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.”
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Concluding, the team breathlessly insisted that it would ensure that those who attend its games feel “safe”, as if decade-old Twitter posts could harm them, saying, “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.”
The team was savaged by conservatives on X for the news. One wrote, “If we are firing people for comments they made as teenagers in high school, your entire trash team would be out of a job.” Another said, “Imagine signing a guy that was flashing guns in strip clubs and later in his car after being repremanded on instagram. Threatening a kid with a gun. THAT guy is getting $42 MILLION from the organization this year. But you fired this dude for tweets when he was 15. 🤡”
“He was 15. You’re actually horrible, intolerant and unforgiving people but that’s on brand for Portland,” wrote another. “High school kids are not allowed to make bad tweets or very minor mistakes without being fired? Go f*ck yourself and the joke of a league you’re apart of,” said yet another.
Featured image credit: Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons