{"id":921657,"date":"2026-10-05T15:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T15:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/921657\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T15:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T15:42:09","slug":"broadcast-turmoil-clouds-portland-trail-blazers-opener-at-moda-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/921657\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadcast turmoil clouds Portland Trail Blazers opener at Moda Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trail Blazers\u2019 season opener is less than three weeks away, \u201cleaving precious little time for the team to unravel its tangled broadcast mess\u201d after firing new TV play-by-play commentator Braiden Bell<\/a>, according to Joe Freeman of the Portland OREGONIAN. A source said that the Blazers viewed Bell as a \u201crising talent,\u201d and \u201cwere blindsided Thursday when offensive, years-old social media posts authored by the 29-year-old were uncovered.\u201d The discovery prompted the Blazers to \u201crescind their contract offer roughly eight hours after announcing Bell\u2019s hire.\u201d The Blazers \u201cseemingly have four routes they can navigate moving forward.\u201d Freeman wrote the Blazers could \u201ccompletely reopen their search and consider a new batch of candidates, which seems unlikely given how little time remains in the offseason.\u201d They could \u201cadd a temporary play-by-play commentator to call early-season games, freeing up more time to select a new, permanent broadcaster.\u201d Freeman noted the team could also \u201coffer the job\u201d to former Kings play-by-play broadcaster Kyle Draper, who was a finalist in the original search. Or they could \u201cslide Travis Demers — the team\u2019s radio play-by-play voice — over to television\u201d (Portland Oregonian, 10\/2<\/a>).<\/p>\n

HAD A GOOD ONE: In Portland, Bill Oram wrote \u201cwe cannot lose sight of the fact that the Portland Trail Blazers did this entirely to themselves.\u201d The team \u201cdid not need to hire a new play-by-play guy at all\u201d as the organization \u201chad a legendary broadcaster\u201d in Kevin Calabro. Oram wrote the fact that Calabro was \u201cimmediately scooped up\u201d by the T\u2019Wolves<\/a> should \u201ctell you how much he is admired, revered and, yes, valued.\u201d Oram: \u201cAt some point, you have to think that [Trail Blazers owner Tom] Dundon will learn that he gets what he pays for.\u201d Dundon is \u201cnot responsible for Bell\u2019s past statements,\u201d but \u201cwhen you prioritize savings at the cost of experience you assume the risk that comes with the inevitable dip in quality\u201d (Portland OREGONIAN, 10\/2<\/a>).<\/p>\n

MESSY JOB: Sportswriter John Canzano wrote the firing \u201camounts to a complete lack of oversight and due diligence by the Dundon-led Trail Blazers.\u201d Canzano asked, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t anyone at One Center Court bother to do a basic background check? Why didn\u2019t anyone poke around his social media accounts?\u201d (JOHNCANZANO.com, 10\/3<\/a>). THE ATHLETIC\u2019s Jason Quick wrote if \u201canything has defined Dundon\u2019s six-month tenure in Portland, it\u2019s this: Everything he touches turns to controversy.\u201d His fingerprints \u201caren\u2019t directly on the messy hire\u201d but the \u201ctact and tenor of the move — rash, harsh and hasty — was how this organization has operated under Dundon.\u201d Quick: \u201cPerhaps the poor vetting was a byproduct of reduced staff?\u201d (THE ATHLETIC, 10\/2<\/a>).<\/p>\n

BAD LOOK: THE DESK\u2019s Matthew Keys noted since the reporting from KGW-TV, the station has \u201cfaced immense criticism from its viewers, social media users and the broader sports and journalism communities over its handling of the story.\u201d What Bell tweeted \u201cwas inappropriate, hurtful and wrong. But he was also 15.\u201d Keys: \u201cThe bad actor is a television station whose journalists saw a scoop and went for it, without considering the ramifications that their actions might have — first on Bell, and later on their reputations.\u201d Many are questioning why KGW-TV News Dir John Tierney and reporter Devon Haskins \u201cfelt the need to dig so far back into Bell\u2019s social media accounts, and why the only evidence they turned up came from a time before Bell\u2019s brain and maturity levels were fully formed\u201d (THE DESK, 10\/2<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trail Blazers\u2019 season opener is less than three weeks away, \u201cleaving precious little time for the team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":921658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[461,49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-921657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}