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The Portland Trail Blazers fired play-by-play announcer Braiden Bell the same day they announced his hire after a local reporter uncovered insensitive tweets from 2012 and 2013, when he was a teenager.
Devon Haskins, a reporter for Portland NBC affiliate KGW, found tweets from when Bell was about 15 years old. “I’m not racist at all.. But not gonna lie.. Asian people piss me off! Hahaha #Honest,” Bell wrote in one of the tweets. In another, he wrote, “Gotta give a shoutout to all the big girls out there and those closet whores.”
The Blazers fired the announcer after the reporter reached out to the organization for comment.
“The Portland Trail Blazers have zero tolerance for racist, sexist, or harmful comments,” the team said in a statement posted on X/Twitter. “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.”
Bell’s agency didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 29-year-old Bell was hired to the job on the Blazers’ Rip City network after calling games for the Valley Suns in the G League, and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury. KGW did not find any problematic tweets from when he was an adult.
Bell replaced Kevin Calabro, who had been Portland’s play-by-play broadcaster for the past decade. Calabro recently joined a rotation of announcers for the Timberwolves that also includes Michael Grady and Jon “Boog” Sciambi.
“The play-by-play role carries a long legacy of excellence, on the broadcast and in character, and we hold that standard without exception,” the Blazers’ statement continued. “We did not meet our own bar in this process, and for that we apologize to Blazers fans and to Rip City. We strongly believe 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 Blazers’ regular season kicks off on Oct. 21 with a home game against the Suns.
