The Philadelphia 76ers’ G.M. might find himself on shaky ground after a recent report.
Tuesday night was not a good one for Bryan Colangelo. The Ringer broke an impressive, well-thought-out, and incredibly in-depth story, coming to the conclusion that the Philadelphia 76ers’ President of Basketball Operations might be using five burner accounts on Twitter.
In a statement from the team, Colangelo has already claimed one of the accounts — @Phila1234567 — is his. He refutes the idea that the other accounts are also his, though.
To fully appreciate the magnitude and complexity of this story, you’ll have to read the original report. There’s no definitive proof that Colangelo is indeed behind all five accounts, but the evidence presented is equal parts concerning, hilarious and convincing.
Between the accounts, there is speculation of potentially-damanging information about certain players. Around the trade deadline in 2017, he (one the accounts) tweeted multiple times that Jahlil Okafor deals fell through due to a failed physical, which wasn’t reported at the time.
He also tweeted about Fultz’s shoulder fiasco, noting that Fultz and his trainer, Keith Williams, were the ones responsible for alterations in his shooting form. He also references “tapes” of Fultz shooting from chairs and on the ground, which we haven’t yet seen.
The accounts also call out Joel Embiid on multiple occasions, chastising his “ego” and claiming that Ben Simmons, not Embiid, is the face of the franchise. He also lambasted Embiid’s decision to dance on stage at a Meek Mill concert after injuring his knee last season.
One of his responses was conveniently directed at — you guessed it — The Sixer Sense.
alternative fact: Joel is not the future of the franchise, so who cares if he is not 100%, let's exploit him
— Eric jr (@AlVic40117560) February 11, 2017
If it turns out that Colangelo is indeed behind these tweets, he should be fired immediately — no questions asked. In the digital age, the G.M. of a professional basketball team can’t sit behind fake Twitter accounts and blast the team or leak damaging information. That’s ill-advised and flat-out dumb in just about every way.
The accounts also spend a considerable amount of time defending Colangelo and criticizing Sam Hinkie, claiming that B.C. “cleaned up” Hinkie’s mess. That would bring a whole new meaning to this Ringer piece from earlier in the season.
Of course, there’s always a chance that Colangelo isn’t behind these accounts. It seems pretty foolish for a high-ranking executive to tweet out such egregious comments on a regular basis. That said, the kind of comments made on the accounts — as well as the people those accounts follow — make it seem as if somebody close to Colangelo, at the very least, was responsible for putting this stuff out.
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That alone would be damaging to Colangelo’s reputation. It will be interesting to see how this storyline plays out over the coming weeks. Joel Embiid has already responded and started liking tweets from the supposed burner accounts.
Joel told me that @samhinkie IS BETTER AND SMARTER THAN YOU @AlVic40117560 #BurnerAccount
— Joel “Troel” Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) May 30, 2018
UPDATE: Colangelo has reportedly called Embiid to deny the story.
Sixers All-Star center Joel Embiid tells ESPN on Bryan Colangelo: “I talked to him and he said that he didn’t say that. He called me just to deny the story. Gotta believe him until proven otherwise. If true though, that would be really bad.”
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 30, 2018
We’ll have more on the situation in the coming days.