The Philadelphia 76ers need to cut ties with their GM as quickly as possible.
At this point, there’s no good reason for Bryan Colangelo to still be employed by the Philadelphia 76ers organization. The burner scandal has trashed his league-wide credibility, regardless of how much direct input he actually had. The Sixers have no good path forward with Colangelo at the helm.
In many ways, you feel bad for the guy — assuming his wife is indeed the one behind the tweets, getting fired for somebody else’s inability to exercise common sense is unfair. But this market is unfair, and Colangelo’s breach of trust extends well beyond the front office, to the coaching staff, players and those outside the organization.
Those tweets, detailed in The Ringer’s bombshell report earlier this week, criticized Embiid with regularity, dropped sensitive information about Jahlil Okafor, mentioned tapes of Markelle Fultz changing his shot and called Nerlens Noel a vulture.
Why would anybody on the team want to play for him? Why would any free agent want to meet with him? Why would any agent want their draft prospect working out for him?
Those are all questions that the Sixers’ ownership group needs to answer when making their decision. Once you answer those questions, the choice is easy.
To make matters worse, the Sixers’ primary free agent target has already taken notice. Here’s LeBron James taking a jab at Colangelo during his press conference Saturday afternoon.
https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1003018432613404677?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Fphiladelphia-76ers
If anything, this is a prime example of the fact that free agents will not let this blow over. Players need to trust the man in charge of personnel. As things currently stand, that will never be the case with Colangelo manning the front office.
We’ve already covered the ins and outs of this ordeal, so further detail is unnecessary. There is virtually no way for Colangelo to emerge from this scandal with his reputation in tact. And, in a league where general manager jobs are scarce, there’s no reason to risk future embarrassment by sticking with the man currently in charge.
The Sixers have already dragged this out too long. The draft is under three weeks away, meaning prospect evaluation needs to kick up in the coming days. Free agency starts soon after, and this could be the Sixers’ best chance to add a championship-caliber piece to the roster.
It could be their only chance to add the best player of all-time to their roster. It’s not every day that Philadelphia is the favorite to sign a player like LeBron. That’s not an opportunity you can screw up by keeping Colangelo around.
Next: 5 options for the 10th overall pick
The Sixers, who are known to fire people on Fridays, missed Friday. Now they missed Saturday. This thing can’t slip past Sunday — it’s a bad look for the organization, especially up top.