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PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Portland Trail Blazers fired new play-by-play television broadcaster Braiden Bell on Thursday when inappropriate social media posts that he made as a teenager resurfaced just hours after the team announced his hiring.
"The Portland Trail Blazers have zero tolerance for racist, sexist, or harmful comments," the team said in a statement Thursday night. "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."
Bell had been the play-by-play announcer for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and the G League's Valley Suns before the Trail Blazers announced they had hired him on Thursday to replace longtime broadcaster Kevin Calabro.
Hours after the 29-year-old Bell was hired, posts surfaced that Bell made on his X account in 2012 and 2013, when the platform was known as Twitter. The posts were first reported by KGW-TV in Portland.
Bell apologized in a social media post Friday.
Pens player to honor father
CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP -- Pittsburgh Penguins forward Andrei Kuzmenko is changing his jersey number to 62 to honor his father Alexander, who died in a bear attack in Russia last week at age 62.
Andrei Kuzmenko returned to practice with the Penguins on Friday for the first time since returning from his father's funeral in Moscow.
The 30-year-old Kuzmenko, who signed a one-year, $5 million contract with Pittsburgh over the summer, also offered a brief statement outlining his understanding of what happened to his dad while on a fishing trip in the Tyva section of Siberia.
"My father go permit fishing with friends, and he stayed in the water," Andrei Kuzmenko said. "And bear (stand) behind him and attack. And my father fight (the) bear one hour, 10 minutes and he still lived after two days."
Kuzmenko, who used to wear No. 10, added that his father's death was a "big shock." Kuzmenko also noted that his mother was born in 1962.
Pittsburgh plays Montreal in its home opener on Saturday.
Grades are in on robot umps
NEW YORK -- Robot umpires overturned 54% of challenged calls in the first season of the Automated Ball-Strike System.
Catchers were more successful than batters. The Cincinnati Reds benefited the most from overturns, with a projected net gain of 16.8 runs, according to Baseball Savant. Houston's Jose Altuve topped batters with 5.6 projected runs gained.
Milwaukee's William Contreras led catchers with 5.2 projected runs prevented. Players have been more aggressive with challenges in late innings, knowing they lose the right to challenge after two incorrect appeals.
The success rate for video reviews has dropped slightly compared to previous years.
Elsewhere in sports:
– Arizona State has asked a former chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court to lead an independent review of the collapse of hockey player Matthew Mayich during an outdoor workout in August. The school said Scott Bales will review Arizona State's findings and information provided by attorneys representing the Mayich family and hockey team members, as well as by law enforcement. The 21-year-old Mayich collapsed during a workout on the first day the NCAA allows official activities. He suffered from exertional heat stroke that reduced flow of oxygen to his brain and is unlikely to recover, according to family attorney Rob Carey.