Philadelphia 76ers: The 10 craziest episodes in franchise history

June 7,2018: Sixers GM resigns when discovered wife used fake Twitter accounts to defend him 

Bryan Colangelo never was really accepted by 76ers fandom when he replaced Sam Hinkie as president of basketball operations in April 2016.

The Hinkieites were furious their guy had been shoved aside before he could complete ‘The Process’. Other fans disliked his standoffish manner. Colangelo rarely held press conferences and gave little insight when he did.

The fact his daddy was in charge of the club when he was hired also really ticked some people off, with charges of nepotism.

The fact his trade and drafts with the 76ers were basically awful did not endear him to a lot of  people either.

However, despite no one really liking him, Colangelo was safe in his position. After all, the Sixers had gone from winning 10 games in a season to 52 in just a couple of years under his watch.

Then came May 29, 2018 and the World of the Sixers would change forever.

Working off an anonymous tip, The Ringer came out with a story listing a bunch of burner Twitter accounts that had information only a real insider could know. The accounts all vociferously defended Colangelo’s actions while having negative comments on some of the top players.

As you can imagine, that did not go over well.

Sixers ownership (who were a bit upset Colangelo knew of the story a week before it was published and never told them) hired an outside law firm to investigate the matter.

If Colangelo had a reservoir of goodwill to draw upon he might have survived this. But all he had was a barren desert filled with people who could not stand him and gleefully went after him.

Sixers Twitter fans/investigators soon had the case solved, and the law firm a few days later confirmed it. All the accounts except one (which Colangelo admitted was his and had never tweeted) were linked to Colangelo’s wife, Barbara Bottini.

Colangelo denied any knowledge of the accounts but the damage was done.

He resigned and has not surfaced in the basketball world since.

In the ever-expanding world of social media, Colangelo might not be the only victim to ever suffer this fate, but he is certainly the first to lose his job due to a spouse’s Twitter account.