You Can't Teach Stupid
Braiden Bell is the new face of "nothing ever leaves the internet".
He was hired by the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA to be the lead play by play voice for their television broadcasts yesterday. He was fired a few hours later when posts he stupidly left on his "X" account from when he was in high school were easily discovered by those that go out of their way to find this stuff.
According to Jack Baer of Yahoo Sports, Blazers president of business operations Dewayne Hankins was quoted in a release as saying Bell was "a great fit for where we're headed and an important voice for the next chapter of Trail Blazers basketball." The team also teased an appearance by the new hire at their upcoming Fan Fest this weekend.
A few hours later, this appeared. 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.
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.
Shortly after they posted the above this appeared on the "X" page under "the readers add context." The Portland Trailblazers have a history of employing players who used racial slurs while employed by them and have hired players with previous violent felony sex convictions.
They do not have zero tolerance for racist or sexist comments.
Friends, there is a messed up organization, and an idiot who tried to get a job there and instead destroyed his career.
If you were in high school ten years ago then you grew up with social media and know anything you post will be found by someone eventually. And if you have chosen broadcasting as your life's work then you really should have known to get rid of anything stupid you posted while in high school. This is inexcusable.
As for the team, they have to have someone in their organization that knows how to look stuff up on "X" and could have saved themselves a ton of embarrassment and grief by doing a basic check on his social media accounts to make sure he wasn't some lunatic, or as in this case, an idiot.
Here is Baer's story in full for you to read for yourselves.
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