Portland Trail Blazers Fire Braden Bell Over Childhood Tweets

Craig Carton (0:01)

So if you want to be a play-by-play announcer in the NBA, you better be careful if you were an immature 12-year-old. No joke, the Portland Trail Blazers hired a new play-by-play announcer.

They were looking for a new announcer because the new owner of the Trail Blazers offered the longtime play-by-play announcer a 50% pay cut to continue on as the voice of Rip City. And he said, no, pass on that, thank you so much, it's offensive. So they put out a little net, try to find a new play-by-play guy or gal, and they hired a kid, a 29-year-old, whose name is Braden Bell. Braden Bell is on Phoenix Mercury Games, Braden Bell, I think, is on Arizona State Games. Braden Bell is like the in-house play-by-play guy of California Baptist School, and got the job, which is a great time, right? 29 years old. You're now the play-by-play broadcaster for an NBA team. What a dream come true, right?

And then a bad guy, who's a reporter for KGW out there in Portland, decides, let me see if I can find dirt on the new play-by-play guy. And that was his only goal. I'm trying to find dirt so I can effectively screw this kid out of a career. So, he goes to the kid's social media. I call him a kid. He's a 29-year-old adult.

Chris McMonigle (1:27)

Right.

Craig Carton (1:28)

And he goes to the Braden Bell's Twitter account. And he didn't go back this last 30 days. He decided to go back to when Braden Bell was a junior high school student.

No joke.

Chris McMonigle (1:42)

Right.

Craig Carton (1:42)

He went back to when he was 12, 13, 14 years old and started looking at the tweets of a child. And in that account, which obviously Braden Bell I'm sure had long since forgotten about, and why I warn everybody here, make sure that you know what's on your Twitter account because there's people out there trying to get you.

Chris McMonigle (2:05)

All right.

Craig Carton (2:06)

And in this case, it was KGW that tried to get him and ultimately did get him. So among the things that he treated out when he was 12 years old, 13 years old, 14 years old, etc.

were the following. And I want you to tell me, if you found out as an employer, that the new face or voice of your franchise, put these tweets out there when again, they were 12 or 13, 14 years old, would you fire the guy before he ever does his first broadcast? Okay?

Chris McMonigle (2:39)

Okay.

Craig Carton (2:40)

All right. So here's the, have you seen the tweets or not?

Chris McMonigle (2:43)

Yeah, I mean, I saw the two or three, yeah.

Craig Carton (2:46)

Okay, in one of them, he says, slut alert on aisle 10

He wrote that when he was 13 or 14 years old. He's in a supermarket or wherever my Walmart, wherever my be, sees a girl maybe dressed up a certain way and goes on Twitter, because that's what kids do. And he writes, slut alert. Oh my gosh, I can't believe a 14 year old wrote that. Can you believe that a 14 year old actually wrote that?

Right? Okay, the other things that he wrote over the course of a couple years now, when he was a teenager, and I'm trying to find it for you here. Okay, he wrote, I'm sorry, he wrote, now this one of course is absolutely objectionable. I'm not racist at all, but not gonna lie, Asian people piss me off, ha ha ha, hashtag honest. Okay, he was 15 years old, excuse me, when he wrote that. Objectionable, of course it's objectionable.

Chris McMonigle (3:45)

Yes.

Craig Carton (3:46)

He wrote it as a 15 year old.

Chris McMonigle (3:48)

Yeah.

Craig Carton (3:48)

Not funny.

Chris McMonigle (3:49)

No.

Craig Carton (3:50)

Objectionable.

Chris McMonigle (3:51)

Yes.

Craig Carton (3:52)

But he wrote it as a high school sophomore. Yeah. When we all said stupid things.

Chris McMonigle (3:56)

December of 2012, so 14 years ago.

Craig Carton (3:59)

Okay, here's the next one. Gotta give a shout out to all the big girls out there, and those closet whores.

Chris McMonigle (4:10)

Okay. Okay.

Craig Carton (4:13)

Yeah.

Chris McMonigle (4:13)

I mean, you know.

Craig Carton (4:14)

That was November 30th, 2012

Chris McMonigle (4:16)

It's a bit bold for someone as young as him to be...

Craig Carton (4:19)

15 years old. Yeah.

Chris McMonigle (4:20)

It's a, you know.

Craig Carton (4:21)

He likes clod. He likes...

Chris McMonigle (4:22)

He likes...

Craig Carton (4:23)

Big girls.

Chris McMonigle (4:24)