NBA Team Fires New Announcer After 8 Hours

Braiden Bell's TV career with the Portland Trail Blazers ended almost as quickly as it began. About eight hours after announcing the 29-year-old as their new play-by-play voice on Thursday, the team cut ties when old tweets surfaced showing him making racist and misogynistic remarks as a teenager, including comments about Asians. KGW says one of its reporters spotted the tweets and reached out to the team for comment. Hours later, the Blazers said Bell had been fired.

• "The Portland Trail Blazers have zero tolerance for racist, sexist or harmful comments," the team said in a statement. "Social media posts made by our recently announced play-by-play broadcaster are in clear violation of team and league policies, as well as our values and expectations. Therefore, we will not be moving forward with this broadcaster."

"The play-by-play role carries a long legacy of excellence, on the broadcast and in character, and we hold that standard without exception," the Blazers said, adding they "will do better" and apologizing to fans. The move leaves Portland again searching for a replacement for longtime broadcaster Kevin Calabro, who departed this summer and has since joined the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Oregonian reports. KGW reports that the offensive tweets were posted in 2012 and 2013 on the account Bell still uses, though access has now been limited to approved followers. KGW says the account focused almost entirely on sports after 2015 and Bell doesn't appear to have posted any racist or misogynistic remarks as an adult.