Portland’s new broadcast hire lasted only hours: the Trail Blazers announced Braiden Bell as their television play-by-play voice on Thursday, Oct. 1, then reversed course later that day after old social-media posts surfaced. The abrupt turn leaves the team searching again for a replacement for longtime broadcaster Kevin Calabro—and puts Portland’s hiring process in the spotlight as the 2026-27 season approaches.
The posts, reported by KGW, dated to 2012 and 2013, when Bell was about 15, and included racist remarks about Asian people and derogatory comments about women. Portland said it would not move forward with Bell, stating that the posts violated team and league policies and the organization’s values. The club also acknowledged a failure in its own process, apologized to fans and said it would do better.
Bell, now 29, apologized on social media Friday, Oct. 2. He called the language wrong, noted that he wrote the posts as a teenager and said they did not reflect who he is today. He also expressed regret that the posts became many people’s first impression of him. Before Portland hired him, Bell had called games for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and the G League’s Valley Suns.
The episode leaves Portland facing two connected questions: how thoroughly it vets a public-facing hire before announcing the choice, and how employers should weigh harmful posts from someone’s adolescence. The team’s statement addressed its screening failure; Bell’s apology asked people to consider the distance between those posts and his adult life. The immediate consequence is clear: Portland must continue its search for a broadcast voice, with its vetting standards now part of the story.