Portland Trail Blazers fire broadcaster over posts he made at 15 years old—player Ja Morant was suspended by NBA for flashing firearm at strip club

The Portland Trail Blazers have fired their new play-by-play broadcaster, Braiden Bell, right after he was hired on, over social media posts that he made when he was just 15 years old. The posts were made in 2012 and 2013. 

Bell is now 29 years old. The posts that he got fired over had comments about "Asian people," and he used the terms "slut" and "wh*res" in reference to women. This is despite having a player on their squad who has been suspended over flashing what appeared to be a gun in a strip club, as the team claims to have "zero tolerance" for poor behavior. 

"The Portland Trail Blazers have zero tolerance for racist, sexist, or harmful comments," the team said in a post about Bell. "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 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 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 added.

However, the team has signed player Ja Morant, who brandished a gun in an Instagram Live at a strip club in 2023. He was suspended by the NBA for eight games without pay. Although police investigated, no charges were brought. Morant was brought on by the Trail Blazers in June of this year. 

The posts from Bell, however, were made over a decade ago. “I’m not racist at all.. But not gonna lie.. Asian people p*ss me off! Hahaha #Honest,” Bell wrote in a post on Dec. 9, 2012. A post that was made a few weeks earlier by him stated, “Gotta give a shoutout to all the big girls out there and those closet wh*res."

According to KGW, reporters reached out for comment about the posts before Bell was let go. Another post that the outlet cited was that Bell wrote in 2013, “We got a slut alert on aisle 10."

Bell graduated in 2019 from Arizona State and called basketball games for Cal Baptist as well as ASU on ESPN. He has not commented about the incident.

Devon Haskins, the reporter who originally broke the story after digging into Bell's decade-old posts, has been ridiculed over the story, with some pointing out that the reporter posted in November 2012, "It's Election Day!! The only day it's ok to see old ladies working the polls!! #vote." The post was likely a joke about seeing old women at polls instead of at strip club "poles."

Others pointed out that he posted, "My girls just vetoed my vote for #NFL football and instead wanted The Wiggles," and then used the hashtag #"toomuchestrogen" to describe his daughters' decision.

One user said that he was a "bigot" for the post about his daughters.