Fired Blazers announcer makes plea to team after firing for racist tweets made as teen

Braiden Bell is begging for a second chance.On Monday, the 29-year-old play-by-play announcer asked the Portland Trail Blazers for another shot at being the voice behind their team ahead of the 2026-27 season.Last week, the team hired the Arizona State graduate, who worked his way up from college sports gigs to calling games for the WNBA’s Mercury and the Suns’ G League team.

That same day, the Blazers quickly let him go after misogynistic and racist social media posts from his past resurfaced.By Tuesday, the team responded and opted to stick to their initial decision.“We stand by our statement issued last week and have no further comment at this time.We wish Mr.

Bell the best,” the Blazers told The Athletic.The problematic posts date back to 2012 and 2013 when Bell was around 15 years old.

The posts contained comments about “Asian people” and used the terms “slut” and “wh–s” in reference to women.“I’m not racist at all..But not gonna lie..

Asian people piss me off! Hahaha #Honest,” Bell wrote in a post on Dec.9, 2012. “We got a slut alert on aisle 10,” Bell wrote on Feb.

13, 2013. Bell asked for his second chance in a statement through his counsel Arnie Herz.“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 read, per Awful Announcing.“Braiden is not asking anyone to excuse what he wrote,” Herz added.

“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, hardly anyone in any organization in America could meet it.Accountability means owning what you did and showing who you have become.

Braiden has done both.”A journalist at KGW in Portland spotted the posts and reached out to the team for comment before Bell’s firing.“The Portland Trail Blazers have zero tolerance for racist, sex...