On the other end of that if Ja bounces back and keeps his extracurriculars to a minimum it’s a great signing. He is extremely talented and has a huge following that will be good for Portland basketball if he can go on a redemption arc. I’m not ready to put him in the same convo as billups but his trajectory is totally up to him.

One of my high school teammates road around the NFL playing on practice squads. His agent had his socials purged, deleted, and opened new accounts before he even committed to a college junior year. He was pissed but it was a good decision considering that shit can come back to bite you in the ass

I don’t think a young play by play guy has an agent.

Or make it very anonymous.

I understand team staff and players get held to very different standards - but when you take into account that some teams pay tens of millions to very recent adult domestic abusers it’s almost funny if it weren’t so sad.

Counter-counterpoint: Maybe they didn’t feel like dealing with the controversy over a new hire who has literally done nothing for them yet and instead will just hire one of the many qualified people without such a past.

I just looked it up and the age requirement is 13? It should be 18 tbh.

Counterpoint - simply don’t post racist shit online under your name. And if you do fucking delete it when you’re smart enough to know that’s not a good look

Maybe they just wanted to hire someone smart enough to delete those posts.

The nba is a multi billion dollar organization why hire this person who said some dumb shit and didnt think to delete once they got older when you can hire someone without all the extra shenanigans

It’s actually super easy to not be a racist edgelord at 15

Counterpoint, being a racist is not simply a youthful indiscretion. Inappropriate tweets would be stuff like posting boobs or bad jokes. He wasn’t fired because he made inappropriate tweets. He was fired because they discovered that he’s a racist and racism has no place in modern society.

Why are you as a professional, especially a public facing one making a new account from your childhood one, or wiping the old one entirely if you are using the same one for some reason?

Also why do racialized kids have to endure a “racist phase” from their white peers and it be treated as normal or brushed aside as if it doesn’t matter?

It’s not that he at 15 made the comments, it’s that at age 29 he didn’t have the sense to delete them

Counterpoint: It’s really easy not to say racist things on the internet.

Counter-counterpoint, if you are working in media and don’t know you have to purge your social media accounts when you have a public facing job, you are a dumbass and not great at your job. I would have fired him because he is a dumbass and brought unnecessary attention.

no it isn’t

Counter-counterpoint

His racist tweets as a teen age edgelord clearly show that he was a moron.

His stupidity as an adult to not be smart enough to go back and delete the racist stuff he wrote before taking a public facing job, show that he is still in fact a moron.

Therefore, he’s was and still is a moron. Nothing of value was lost.

Just watching an episode of Slow Horses last night, and every time someone was shown on screen smoking, there was a little “Tobacco Causes Cancer” in the bottom right of the screen.

We live in a ridiculous world filled with complete fucking idiots.

Nah I was an incredibly stupid teen and I wasn’t a racist misogynist.

I get where you’re coming from, but regardless of the specific content of the dumb teenage post - if you don’t have the good sense to delete it before getting a job in media, maybe that poor judgement itself is a bit of a professional red flag?

Idk man. Depends on what was said

Yeah if you have a public facing job and aren’t savy enough to wipe your socials you deserve to get fired. We all say and do dumb shit when we’re 15 but by the time you’re 30 applying to be an announcer you better be smart enough to purge your socials lol

“Durr or you can just be a good fucking person!” - half this sub right now. Everyone wants to virtue signal how they’ve been perfect all their lives & have never said anything slightly controversial as a child.

They can fire him for whatever reason they want, racist tweets or just general bullshit or being an asshole.

Why’s the racist guy always getting defended on here?

Like, it feels like a bunch of closet racists scared they might get found out too so they gotta support their guy.

Who cares about this guy? Like, are there not better announcers who are less of an asshole?

He also had the choice to not be a racist, so I think thats where we should start.

I haven’t been on Facebook in years, but I remember logging in and getting that 10 year reminder from a post that I posted - it was complete dumbass nonsense that I had no memory of ever posting, legit felt like a different person lmao

He put the trailblazers in a bad spot

yeah… I have a big corporate job for my age… not too long ago I had 100k on TikTok and a famous birthdays, I was in no way famous but I was easily searchable.

permanently deleted all the accounts and scrubbed my socials and even stopped using the instagram tied to it and privated it.

some people have no self awareness of their past, my content wasn’t bad at all definitely embarrassing in a corporate setting however.

Do you honestly remember every single post and account of yours from over a decade ago?

Punishing people for their entire life for noncriminal stupid shit they did as children might be one of the stupidest takes of all time.

I wish I could see every dumb thing the people who say this did before the age of 18. Thankfully with the advent of AI, soon I’ll be able to.

But then how are you supposed to feel superior to these successful, public facing individuals?

What did you write on social media as a teenager? Sounds like people are telling themselves when defending this

Sure ppl have the capacity to change, but I’d rather ppl have a track record of said change they can point to à la Hardaway senior than just banking on the benefit of the doubt. Hell, Americas leadership rn kinda shows a ton of ppl believe their free speech covers the ability to say whatever they want without consequences. If a company in the public eye that focuses on a field with a TON of minorities chose to distance themselves from a PR hit of siding w someone who didn’t do the due diligence to purge their mistakes from their youth I get it 100%

Yeah , ‘chill out’… Deep reddit take here. Maybe the kid shouldn’t be talking about serious stuff like it’s a fun joke? At what point are you guys going to sincerely address the bigotry?

Why do racialized kids have to endure racist BS from their white peers where it’s brushed aside as “just being a phase”

Eh. I think it’s forgivable and that doesn’t mean your tweets when you are 15 are representative of your beliefs when you are ²⁹⁄₃₀. But I do think when it comes to employment, especially when you are being hired to be the voice of a major sports franchise you should delete your tweets. He should have had wherewithal to delete it. If you are a public facing employee like that there should not be racist material on your feed. Doesn’t matter when it was made it needs to be taken down and not doing so is a fireable offense.

Im sure he was fired for lieing in the interview fwiw

Said reporter has a few questionable tweets of his own.

This might not mean much to people, but there was a similar story with an England cricketer called Ollie Robinson who made his international debut at like 27 (having been a professional for like 10 years at that point)

By the end of his first day playing for England, racist tweets he posted as a teenager were discovered and it caused a huge media storm and he had to apologise (obviously) the evening he made his debut

It feels like once you hit a certain level of scrutiny there’s always going to be at least one person who trawls through your online presence nowadays

Exactly, it’s funny how transparent they are about money outranking values lol

I guess a “permanent record” is real 😂

It’s like getting fired for passing a mean note during class in middle school

Well it depends on what you got suspended/expelled for lol.

“

The internet is forever” isn’t really an argument. Nobody’s disputing that the posts still exist. The question is whether something someone said at 15 should define them professionally 14 years later

Would anyone have found them if he had simply deleted his account/posts?

They have been hammering that home to everyone for 25+ years.

So? Context isn’t.

Unless you’re macklemore and the internet hates the same group you were racist towards

Then why announce hiring him then firing him four hours later? This feels like when Shane Gillis got hired and fired from SNL.

Nope. Local news organization found the tweets and started working on a story about it. They emailed both the blazers and the guy for their comments. The blazers came back a few hours later and said he had been fired.

https://www.kgw.com/article/sports/nba/blazers/trail-blazers-fire-new-broadcaster-after-misogynistic-racist-comments-surface/283-8c6b0cd9-3db0-4aba-89ec-545f5cdc0b86

Huge influx of Asian fans with Yang on the roster vs guy with anti-Asian tweets from the past. I wonder what a company values more

[ Removed by Reddit ]

This is what people seem to not understand. There are 30 of these jobs. He’s not worth it. The 31st candidate will be just as good and you don’t have to involve HR

I disagree. I said loads of stupid shit when I was a teenager. I was an ass. I’ve apologized to people I ran into later for being an ass. I grew out of it. Thankfully social media wasn’t a think 25+ years ago

I don’t think most people would side with the latter, actually.

Most adult folks have said some shit in their teenage years they’re not proud of. Being punished for that 15 years after the fact, especially when you’ve matured, is a bit much IMO.

If the dude deleted the posts then he still has a job. The fact of the matter is that he’s the same person today regardless of whether or not those posts were deleted.

Most holier than thou Redditors maybe

Most people have plenty of stupid shit from they’re 15 that in no way reflect their current views and values

Yeah most people would definitely not agree with firing someone for the dumb shit they said as a 15 year old

Dude he was 15. If he was 25 when he posted that then he definitely deserved that.

At 15 you are just a child who is easily influenced by people with such views.

did you say stupid shit when you were 15?

Yes.. he was 15 ffs. Kids find dumb ways to be edgy

There’s literally an IDF solider on the team. Wonder what he thinks of mixing all the cultures together where he’s from?

Promoting them to who? His algebra classmates?

Yeah dumbass he was a child

Choosing not to fire him would not be promoting racist views.

Yes he definitely should’ve learned and deleted his racist posts, unfortunately he didn’t do so. This whole thing was very easily avoidable

I don’t know, I wasn’t posting racist shit online at age 15

This would all be a non-issue if kids just didn’t have social media period.. it drives me crazy that adults aren’t louder about this. It would save so many headaches

To 2012? Good luck scrolling that far without twitter or your browser crashing

I think a proportionate response would be to make him aware and have him delete it?

Kids today are absolutely still like that and will be. You are just isolated from it.

Also, a lot of the shit that was said back then was just considered run-of-the-mill offensive but now is a cancellable offense. Times change and so do the standards. The shit kids in general used to say back then would get you cancelled - but back then it was definitely not considered as offensive as today

I mean people would say offensive things on Xbox Live, or post edgy things anonymously, but you’d have to be a real dumbass to post racist tweets under your real name.

I was a teen during that time period and didn’t post anything racist online. I grew up in an almost all white suburb. I remember losing friends over me not being racist.

Nah bro just the shitheads. we weren’t all like that. It was certainly more normalized, I will give you that

The law does care though. If you are fired by an organization that is allowing other employees to get away with the thing they fired you for, they’re going to have a bad time in a legal proceeding. Selective enforcement is not viewed at all favorably in employment law.

You’re right. This dude was an idiot for his social media posts but I’m also not sure the proper reaction is to just immediately fire him either with the media forever branding him as some kind of horrible misogynist racist; I mean, his broadcasting career is essentially over now as he’s essentially been rendered unemployable (or at least on a very long pause) and that’s a lot shittier of a societal outcome than simply moving beyond the shitty things he said as a 15 yo

Announcers don’t wear jerseys.

Fans don’t “care” about announcers, which is a logical conclusion for some.

Which begs the question - why would he lose his job over these tweets? Is anyone besides the perpetually online or a goofy TV reporter going to see them?

The crime is not the tweet, but the inability to delete/hide them from the public. It’s hilarious logic.

I would buy one for the Charlottes one

Brian Scalabrine??????

I’d be desperate too if my team hadn’t won anything since Bill Walton’s goofy ass lol.

You’re right. Sports athletes can’t be held to the same standard because they’re good at putting a ball in a hoop. They’re simply better and more valuable than everyone else

Ah so making mistakes and being an idiot as a teenager is acceptable only if you can jump really high. Otherwise you are forever judged by your 15 year old self. Got it.

Fuck Orlando. Nothing but a losing history with those clowns lmao.

I was there, but I deleted those accounts and make sure that my real name isn’t associated with edgy posts because I’m an employed adult and not an idiot. You know you don’t have to keep using those accounts right?

Yeah the fact that it’s still up is moronic and on him but like cmon man he was a young kid who did something stupid

You are so delusional. To the point that you are projecting your own idea of my thoughts and beliefs and even what race I am. I will die on this hill, an adult should not have their livelihood taken away for a mistake they made as a child.

Bro be fucking fr lmao

How do you know he doesn’t still think and feel those things? Even if not through the mind of a 15-year old?

Thank you, first of all, for actually giving a nuanced response that wasn’t just pearl clutching and trying to feel smugly superior.

Now to actually respond to your point, you’re absolutely correct that in a public facing position, you need to be careful about the image you put of yourself online. I’m in a public facing position and when I was in college a lot of my professors made sure to drive that point home. I guess where I disagree with this action is in how long ago the comment was made. Firing a commentator for saying Westbrook was out of his “cotton picking mind”, fine, I have no qualms with that.

But firing a commentator for something said before he even started shaving just isn’t fair in my opinion. I said so much stupid shit when I was young, and I’m sure you did too as did most of us. I was merely lucky enough to grow up before social media, so most of it isn’t online. I don’t know…. maybe I’m being naive, but I’ve always disliked this form of insincere, performative outrage. Because like you mentioned, this is the exact same organization that traded for Ja Morant. At least give him a first strike before robbing him of his livelihood over a bloody tweet from 2013.

Additionally there’s a double standard with Ja cause one of the owners is selling tech to Russia so they can drone strike Ukranians

I appreciate the thought out comment, but to answer your rhetorical question, they should just get over it. People should not feel anything that an adult said some stupid shit when they were a teenager. Idk man they should just grow up.

Well, thank goodness Trump won and this guy checks notes still lost his job. At least he ended wars, lowered costs on groceries, housing, fuel, energy, and fulfilled every other promise he made.

Ur rill smrt.

That’s not why he won. He won because people don’t want to admit they were wrong

Trump won because America has a first grade understanding of the economy.

Huh seems like they’re vote for him has really stopped it. Another Trump success. 👍🏼

I feel like reddit turns into tough on crime conservatives when it comes to this stuff.

Its like how anti-progressive it is when people deny jobs to those that were at one point went through the juvenile justice system, and we arent talking about tweets here.

Good for you, unfortunately the fact of the matter is not everyone had the same perfect upbringing you had. I didn’t say it was okay to be racist if you’re 15, I said people make mistakes when they’re teenagers that’s why there’s an age limit on drinking, marriage and many other potentially life changing activities in most developed countries.

Yes, if a 15 year old came out and said these things they should absolutely be reprimanded and taught that this isn’t how to think. But this was 14 years ago, literally almost half the dude’s life, and I haven’t heard any reports to suggest he’s still that same idiotic 15 year old. So punishing him for it now, is purely performative and accomplishes nothing other than making the organization(which traded for Ja Morant by the way, a far more problematic individual, whose stupidity was as recent as two seasons ago) look like they’re actually making a difference.

I’m genuinely happy you were taught not to be racist at a young age, it’s a pity you weren’t also taught empathy and understanding.

Hm. Interesting take. Lots of hoops to jump through on your reply there. Glad to know you never made a crass joke as a teenager. You should look into being the Pope.

I mean I never really engaged in racism either. But you never said anything that people would scoff at? Maybe something about women, something political? Like I’ve mostly stayed off the internet, something like this happening to me has no chance because I don’t say it and I’m not online. But I definitely have said some sexist or offensive shit in my youth. And that’s kind of indistinguishable from online life for young kids.

How many fucking times are you gonna say the same shit?

I’m okay with a 15 year old being racist in an edgy way online and then learning from their mistakes. I know a lot of people, myself included, who would be ashamed by some of what they said/believed at 15. How quickly we forget.

Yep, even at my corporate job I had to do it and it’s nowhere near as social or public facing as an nba commentator.

Yep, also how anti-asian this subreddit is but honestly all of reddit is like that.

One of the Blazers owners is Asian too

Like I said in my comment, maybe firing him was harsh but he’s a dumbass for not deleting or scrubbing his social media, especially for a job as easily replaceable and public as an nba commentator. Even at my lowly corporate job I had to do it 🤷🏻‍♂️.

Almost no one remembers what they posted 10+ years ago. Let’s be for real. He for fired shit he said over a decade ago.

you sound like I would have hated you. you sound like a dick.

The peer pressure to act a certain way at 15 yrs old is immense. How often did you say or do things that were not really indicative of your own ethical codes at that age? The majority of people absolutely do change as they mature and find out who they really are and build a belief system based on their own agency.

“He also could’ve gotten fired for being an asshole, or literally no reason at all, and that’d be just fine too.”

thats kind of my point.. we probably shouldn’t be celebrating terminations for “literally no reason at all”.. as the people who lose there are generally not assholes with privelege

You can’t be serious, calling him a garbage person for stupid tweets from 15 years ago? Give him a chance to show his growth and rectify his past self, not just immediately lambast him for the sins of his child self.

He was 15.

I think you’re probably living in a bubble if you actually believe that. Supervision, education, etc are all benefits of privilege.. and they’re all disproportionately available to people who grew up in wealthy environments.

In the interest of full disclosure: I am also a known tea-bagger

We’re so fucked if virtue signaling now means “refraining from saying racist things on your public social media.”

Right, this is the thing that’s driving me crazy about this story

I get people’s inclination to say “Delete your history this isn’t hard” but everyone is supposed to know what dumb stuff they tweeted 14 years ago?

Like I understand what people are saying but also acting like this was some pressing matter he just refused to act on is also dumb imo, I’m sure if he was aware that those tweets were still up he would have deleted them

Also odd to me that somehow his presence of mind is what he deserves to get fired for, no one seemingly is supporting his firing over the basis of dumb tweets when he was 15, it’s the fact that he didn’t think to check everything he wrote at that age somehow means he’s not professional enough to do a commentary job is also baffling to me

It’s surprisingly hard to not be an idiot at 15 years old, who would’ve guessed?

This is truly the worst way to look at life. Give strangers grace to make mistakes, one day you’ll need the others’ grace when you find out you’re not as perfect as you think

if someone said something racist at age 15 should that bar them from all career paths ?

seek help. Youre not fighting racism dude. Youre not a good person for canceling someone over comments they made 13 years ago when they were 15 years old.

16 year old take.

this happened 13 years ago, are you serious? of fucking course we grade teenagers on a curve. its the reason why minors are treated differently in the court system. a lot of them quite literally dont know any better.

Kawhi should be banned from the NBA for circumventing the cap. He should know better being 30+ yrs old. How do you feel supporting a team with a thief on it? Cmon dude stop virtue signaling because you were such a good little boy at 15 lol.

You’re all over this thread campaigning to hold 15 year olds accountable almost 15 years later. Wow. You’re delusional.

It’s wild, by 15 I certainly understood how this shit affects people.

Had enough shame that all of the edgy garbage I said was in private with my friends.