Trail Blazers have ‘set themselves up to fail’ by firing Braiden Bell over teenage tweets, attorney says

Firing a grown man over social media posts he wrote as a 15-year-old kid has put the Portland Trail Blazers in hot water.

Newly hired play-by-play announcer Braiden Bell was ousted shortly after taking the job when a local news report surfaced crude posts from 2012 and 2013.

While Bell has navigated the situation with grace and issued an immediate public apology for his teenage posts, getting back into the Blazers’ good graces remains a steep battle. Now, Bell’s attorney, Arnie Herz, is pushing back against the franchise’s approach.

Speaking with OutKick, Herz addressed the societal shift toward retroactively punishing individuals for online posts.

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“What we’ve become as a society is very much a gotcha and a teardown mindset,” Herz explained. “If everything came to light of your most insensitive comments, your worst behaviors, you wouldn’t be able to sustain this zero tolerance.”

Herz added that if the organization strictly enforced such a policy across the board, “I don’t think there would be a single player, single member in the front office, a single coach, or a single fan who would be able to participate.”

Herz pointed out the utter absurdity of holding anyone to such a standard.

“The only possible person who could be the play-by-play announcer based on a zero-tolerance standard is Mother Teresa,” Herz added. “But there’s three problems with that. One, she’s not alive. Two, she knew nothing about basketball. And three, I don’t think she’d want the job. So, that’s it. There’s no Saints, except in New Orleans, in football, and obviously, that’s just the name.”

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While morals clauses are common in sports, Herz argued applying them to teenage posts stretches the rule past common sense.

“I’m a big fan of a morals clause,” Herz noted. “I totally understand a team that has someone on their personnel who does something egregious, like being charged with a felony, making horrific comments as a grown-up in the course of their employment. … But having a morals clause that’s so broad that it is going to ensnare comments made by a teenage boy in early teenage years, 15, is immoral.”

A view of the center court logo before the Emirates NBA Cup game between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Minnesota Timberwolves at Moda Center in Portland, Ore., on Nov. 12, 2024. (Getty Images)

“A morals clause properly drafted serves a very valuable moral purpose,” Herz added. “And a morals clause overly broad becomes itself immoral. I think that’s what we have here.”

Herz argued Portland’s unyielding stance clashes directly with its own past.

“Not only do they have no precedence, there’s very few organizations in the world of sports that have shown greater leniency to giving second, third, fourth, and fifth chances than the Blazer organization,” Herz stated. “This is an organization that’s had significant issues in the past and have members on their staff on the court and off the court who have done far, far, far worse than what Mr. Bell did.”

He added that on-court value changes the rules entirely.

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“When you’re a big star, you make a lot of money, the team very much depends on you, the league depends on you, you get more slack,” Herz admitted. “That’s just the reality. If Braiden could hit a three and defend players like the starting five, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

Herz warned that the franchise’s stance sets a troublesome precedent for future hires.

“If I’m legal counsel for the Blazers, I’m saying to the Blazers: ‘You have to reinstate this guy. If you’re gonna fire him for this, every single person on social media is gonna be scrutinizing every hire you make, every player you have on your roster, and it’s going to consume you,'” Herz advised. “You’ve set yourself up to fail. Back off.”

Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks dribbles on the Portland Trail Blazers center court logo during the third quarter at Moda Center on Jan. 31, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (Getty Images)

Herz urged both sides to acknowledge their mistakes and resolve the matter constructively.

“Just like Braiden made a mistake, the Blazers made a mistake,” Herz concluded. “Take responsibility, take accountability, let’s move forward. Our goal is really to use this as a learning experience for everyone so that everyone could win.”

Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela