Tom Dundon Got What He Paid For

Right at noon on Thursday, the Trail Blazers announced in a since-deleted press release that they had named Braiden Bell as their new television play-by-play announcer, replacing Kevin Calabro. The last line of the announcement read: "Fans will be able to meet Bell at Fan Fest, presented by Toyota, at Moda Center on Sunday, October 4."

Roughly seven hours later, a change of plans that's entirely predictable when the primary qualification for the job is a willingness to work cheap.

A reporter for KGW found some offensive tweets that the 29-year-old Bell sent in 2012 and 2013, when he was 15 years old. The station reached out to the Blazers, and the team told them that they'd parted ways with their brand-new play-by-play man, who had previously called games for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and the Suns' G League affiliate, the Valley Suns.

The team released a statement on Thursday afternoon:

The Portland Trail Blazers have zero tolerance for racist, sexist, or harmful comments. 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. We did not meet our own bar in this process, and for that we apologize to Blazers fans and to Rip City. We believe strongly that everyone who is a part of Rip City should feel welcome and safe and we will make sure that our new broadcaster reflects these values. We will do better.

Now, less than a week before they play their first preseason game, the Blazers are back to the drawing board in the search for a TV announcer that began when Calabro turned down Tom Dundon's contract offer that he called "subprime."

It's another embarrassing episode for a franchise that's had many of them over the past six months, since Dundon's ownership group officially took over.