Sportscaster Hired and Fired Same Day Lawyers-Up

A sports broadcaster who lost a Portland Trail Blazers job before it began is asking the team to reconsider and has hired a lawyer to handle publicity on his behalf.

In a press release Monday, 29-year-old Braiden Bell renewed his apology for social media posts he made as a teenager, some of which contained racist and misogynistic language. He said the posts do not reflect who he is now and asked the franchise to weigh his record since then before closing the door on the role.

Bell’s lawyer said Bell is not asking anyone to excuse what he wrote and has owned the posts without excuses. The attorney argued that comments made about 14 years ago should be judged against the person Bell has become, and Bell offered to work with the team on community and educational programs, including outreach to Asian American and Pacific Islander groups and organizations that support women and girls in sports.

The request follows a same-day hiring and firing last week. The Trail Blazers announced Bell as their television play-by-play announcer Thursday, then said they would not move forward with him after old posts resurfaced. The team said the posts violated team and league policies and its standards, and that it has zero tolerance for racist, sexist or harmful comments.

The posts, reported by KGW-TV, dated to 2012 and 2013, when Bell was about 15. One from December 2012 read, “I’m not racist at all.. But not gonna lie.. Asian people piss me off! Hahaha #Honest.” Other posts included misogynistic language.

Bell apologized Friday on social media. “I am deeply sorry for the language that I used on Twitter,” he wrote. “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.”

Bell had been the play-by-play announcer for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and was hired to replace Kevin Calabro, who had called Blazers games for nine seasons. He was expected to begin work in Portland this week and had not called a game for the team.

The Trail Blazers also apologized to fans, saying the play-by-play role carries a standard of excellence “on the broadcast and in character” and that the organization “did not meet our own bar in this process.” The team has not indicated it plans to reverse the decision. Hiring a lawyer gives Bell a formal way to seek reinstatement; it does not mean he has filed a lawsuit.