Blazers Fire Broadcaster Braiden Bell After Past Racist, Sexist Social Media Posts Surface

A play-by-play broadcaster officially hired Thursday by the Portland Trail Blazers was dismissed the same day after previous racist and sexist posts were found on his social media account.

The Trail Blazers announced the news in a statement stating the team has "zero tolerance for racist, sexist, or harmful comments."

The Trail Blazers announced earlier Thursday that Bell had been hired to call Blazers games alongside analyst Lamar Hurd.

Bell, 29, had previously called games for the Phoenix Mercury and the G League's Valley Suns.

The social media posts, first shared KGW's Devon Haskins, were published in 2012 and 2013, according to KGW .

KGW reached out to the Blazers for comment on Bell's old social media posts and received a response hours later stating Bell had been fired.

Bell was set to join a veteran team alongside Hurd, who has served in his role for the Blazers for 11 seasons alongside courtside reporter Brooke Olzendam, per KATU .

Veteran play-by-play broadcaster Kevin Calabro, who spent 22 years with the Seattle SuperSonics before joining the Trail Blazers in 2016, had his contract expire this summer, per The Athletic's Jason Quick .

Calabro told Quick he had decided not to return to the organization because he had received a contract offer he described as "not worth my time."

The Trail Blazers' sale to a group led by Tom Dundon, who also owns the Carolina Hurricanes, was approved by the NBA in March.

Dundon began his ownership of the Hurricanes in 2018 by firing the team's long-tenured radio broadcast team after Chuck Kaiton declined to take a significant pay cut, per Forbes' Maury Brown .

The Trail Blazers' new ownership group seemingly followed a similar playbook by dismissing multiple radio and television broadcasters.

The Blazers will now have to identify a new television play-by-play announcer with just five days to go until preseason and less than three weeks before the regular season begins Oct. 21 against the Phoenix Suns.