Bryan Colangelo could be on the verge of losing his job with the Philadelphia 76ers, but the front office executive continues to maintain he is not guilty of what a bombshell report accused him of this week.
After he returned to Philly on Thursday, Colangelo told John Clark of NBC Sports that he was “fully unaware of anything” related to tweets that were sent from so-called burner accounts. Colangelo has already admitted that one of the five accounts belong to him, but he insists he had no knowledge of the other four.
Bryan Colangelo is back in Philly.
I spoke with him at Philly airport.He told me he stands by his Ringer statement and is “fully unaware of anything” related to the messages.
I asked him if he had any knowledge any of those tweets were being sent
He told me “zero” pic.twitter.com/2AUtCZYhHR
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) May 31, 2018
According to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe, Colangelo has discussed the situation with the Sixers and has not ruled out the possibility that his wife, Barbara Bottini, may have been operating the accounts without his knowledge. However, the report goes on to say that the 76ers have not shown a willingness to let Colangelo off the hook even if a family member or associate did sent the tweets.
Unless Colangelo can prove he was completely set up by someone, it is tough to imagine him keeping his job. His credibility has been damaged, and that will make it extremely difficult for the 76ers to attract free agents during a summer in which they plan to pursue LeBron James and others.
Some of the evidence we have seen points to Colangelo’s wife running the burner accounts, but Colangelo will have a hard time convincing people she went rogue in doing it.
