Philadelphia 76ers general manager Bryan Colangelo has come under fire after a report claimed he criticized his own team and shared private information from several anonymous Twitter accounts, and an interesting theory has popped up about who could have broken the story open.
Ben Detrick of The Ringer said he was contacted by a source whose identity he still does not know, but the person claimed he or she works in artificial intelligence. The source said he or she used a data analysis tool to link the five Twitter accounts in question after noticing “a bunch of weird tweets” directed at 76ers writers and reporters.
Here’s where it gets interesting. A feature that was published by The Ringer earlier this year gave a behind-the-scenes look at Sam Hinkie, who resigned as 76ers GM in April 2016. The story notes that Hinkie has invested in some startup companies and become “increasingly interested in machine learning and artificial intelligence.”
— Kevin Cole (@Cole_Kev) May 30, 2018
Crazy that it’s pretty clear Sam Hinkie was the leak/source who outed him….Have to be careful when you go after geeks, they’ll out think you in the end
— John Middlekauff (@JohnMiddlekauff) May 30, 2018
The implication, of course, is that Hinkie is the leak. As if this story wasn’t already entertaining enough, that would make it even more legendary.
For what it’s worth, Hinkie got some sarcastic support with a chant that broke out at an MLB game on Tuesday night. While this all seems incredibly far-fetched, we have seen much stranger things in the social media glory days.
