Braiden Bell asks Blazers for second chance at play-by-play job
· Yahoo Sports
Play-by-play announcer Braiden Bell is asking for a second chance at becoming the voice of the Portland Trail Blazers.
Bell, 29, graduated from Arizona State in 2019 and quickly took on jobs as a broadcaster in college sports. From there, Bell worked his way up to calling games for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, as well as the Phoenix Suns’ G League team, and last week it was announced that he was set to take on the Blazers job.
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But shortly after his hiring was announced, Bell was let go by the team after problematic social media posts from his teenage years were resurfaced in a report by KGW’s Devon Haskins.
The team moved quickly, writing in a statement, “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.”
Bell shared an apology for his previous comments after the news of his firing.
“I am deeply sorry for the language that I used on Twitter. These tweets, while wrong, were written by me 14 years ago while I was only 15 years old and have no reflection of who I am today. I do not take lightly any harm it causes now. I regret this being the first impression to many of you online, but I can take solace in knowing that the people who truly know me understand that this is not the kind of person I am. Again, I’d like to apologize to anyone who was hurt by my words and will continue to always treat people with kindness and respect.”
Now, the broadcaster is formally asking the Blazers to give him another chance via a statement shared by his legal counsel on Monday night.
“Should the worst words a fifteen-year-old ever wrote decide the rest of his life? That is the question now before the Portland Trail Blazers,” the statement from Bell’s counsel Arnie Herz read.
“Braiden is not asking anyone to excuse what he wrote,” Herz said. “He has owned it, without excuses. What he is asking is whether a boy’s words from fourteen years ago should outweigh everything the man has done since. If that is the standard, there is hardly a person in any organization in America who could meet it. Accountability means owning what you did and showing who you have become. Braiden has done both.”
With the statement, Bell is putting the ball back in the Blazers’ court. There’s less than two weeks to go before the start of the NBA season, and there will definitely be someone calling games for Portland. Bell is hoping it can still be him.
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