Trail Blazers fire new TV announcer after racist posts resurface hours after he was hired

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The Portland Trail Blazers fired new play-by-play television broadcaster Braiden Bell on Thursday when past inappropriate social media posts resurfaced just hours after the team announced his hiring.

“The Portland Trail Blazers have zero tolerance for racist, sexist, or harmful comments,” the team said in a statement Thursday night. “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 had been the play-by-play announcer for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and the G League’s Valley Suns before the Trail Blazers announced they had hired him on Thursday to replace longtime broadcaster Kevin Calabro.

Hours later, posts surfaced that were apparently made on X by an account with Bell’s name from 2012 and 2013. The posts were first reported by KGW-TV in Portland, which said they were made when the 29-year-old Bell was a teenager.

“We did not meet our own bar in this process, and for that we apologize to Blazers fans and to Rip City,” the team’s statement said. “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.”

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波特兰开拓者队周四解雇了新任电视解说员布雷登·贝尔，此前球队宣布聘用他几个小时后，他过去在社交媒体上发布的不当言论就被翻了出来。

波特兰开拓者队周四晚间发表声明称：“开拓者队对种族主义、性别歧视或有害言论零容忍。我们近期宣布的比赛解说员在社交媒体上发表的言论明显违反了球队和联盟的政策，也违背了我们的价值观和期望。因此，我们将终止与该解说员的合作。”

在开拓者队周四宣布聘请贝尔接替长期担任解说员的凯文·卡拉布罗之前，贝尔曾是WNBA菲尼克斯水星队和G联赛太阳队的现场解说员。

几个小时后，一些帖子浮出水面，这些帖子显然是由一个与贝尔同名的账户在 2012 年和 2013 年在 X 网站上发布的。波特兰的 KGW-TV 电视台率先报道了这些帖子，称这些帖子是在 29 岁的贝尔还是青少年时发布的。

“在这个过程中，我们没有达到自己设定的标准，为此我们向开拓者球迷和Rip City社区致歉，”球队声明中写道。“我们坚信，Rip City社区的每一位成员都应该感到受欢迎和安全，我们将确保新的转播商能够体现这些价值观。我们会做得更好。”