Blazers stand by Braiden Bell firing after request for reinstatement

The Trail Blazers have their answer for Braiden Bell: They aren’t bringing him back.

“We stand by our statement issued last week and have no further comment at this time,” the team told Jason Quick of The Athletic⁠. “We wish Mr. Bell the best.”

That response came after Bell, through attorney Arnie Herz, asked Portland to reinstate him⁠. The Blazers announced the 29-year-old as their new television play-by-play voice on Oct. 1, then fired him that evening after racist and sexist posts he wrote as a teenager resurfaced.

Herz said Bell accepts responsibility for the posts and has proposed working with the team on educational and community outreach. His argument is that words written when Bell was about 15 should not outweigh everything he has done since.

There’s another part of Quick’s report that deserves attention. Herz asked for the backlash against the KGW-TV reporters who uncovered the posts to stop. He invited them to join a broader discussion about how to judge things people wrote as children.

“If we are asking for grace for Braiden, we have to extend it to everyone,” Herz said.

The Blazers, though, appear finished with the discussion about who will call their games.