Meet Braiden Bell: The Blazers announcer fired over old tweets who is now apologizing for the posts that cost him his NBA job

Braiden Bell. Image via: Portland Trail Blazers

Braiden Bell spent less than a day as the Portland Trail Blazers' new TV play-by-play voice. The team announced the hire Thursday morning, then cut ties that same night after a local reporter surfaced offensive posts from the broadcaster's teenage years.

The Blazers called the tweets a clear breach of team and league policy.Now the 29-year-old has answered publicly. Bell posted a written apology on X on Friday, calling the language wrong and saying it does not reflect who Bell is today. The firing has since set off a wider argument online.

Braiden Bell was introduced as the Trail Blazers' new television play-by-play broadcaster on Thursday morning. Most NBA fans probably had never heard the name before then.By evening, the Blazers had fired the new hire. KGW reporter Devon Haskins first reported the old tweets, which date to 2012 and 2013. The examples that surfaced include one from 2012 that opened with a denial of being racist before taking a swipe at Asian people, plus two others that used crude, demeaning language about women. KGW asked the Blazers for comment before publishing, and the answer came quickly.The team said it has "zero tolerance for racist, sexist, or harmful comments."

It called the posts a clear violation of team and league policy, said they clash with its values, and announced it would not move forward with the broadcaster. Bell has since set the X account to private, though screenshots were already saved.

Bell responded on Friday with a written message on X, the same platform where the old tweets lived. The 29-year-old said he was 15 when the posts went up, roughly 14 years ago, and that they "have no reflection of who I am today.""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," Bell wrote on X.

Bell did not dispute what the tweets said. The message calls them wrong outright. It also says it stings that the tweets are now many people's first look at the broadcaster, though those who know Bell well understand the posts do not match the person.

It closed with an apology to anyone hurt by the words and a promise to treat people with kindness and respect.

The Blazers did not stop at the firing. The team also acknowledged that its hiring process fell short of its own standard, apologized to fans and promised to do better. The hire had been public for only a matter of hours when the apology came.Outside the arena, the story quickly became a debate. Social media filled with arguments about what standards people should face for things they posted years ago, especially as teenagers. Bell's apology arrived in the middle of that conversation, a day after the team's statement.