Philadelphia 76ers GM Bryan Colangelo is being accused of criticizing his team and divulging information from secret Twitter accounts, actions which seem clearly and widely inappropriate for a team executive.
The Ringer’s Ben Detrick published an in-depth article on Tuesday that accuses Colangelo of operating five secret Twitter accounts which he used to criticize others, pump up his reputation, and share private information about his team. The 76ers confirmed that Colangelo was operating one of the accounts in question, but in a statement, Colangelo denied knowledge of the other accounts. The Ringer notes that three of the secret accounts went private after they sent an inquiry and seemingly “outed” the accounts.
The accounts all seemed to follow a similar group of Twitter accounts, including Philadelphia 76ers media members and accounts about Colangelo’s son’s college basketball team. The accounts were used to try and bolster Colangelo’s reputation while bringing down others.
From Detrick:
In posts ranging from April 2016 to last Tuesday, the accounts insulted the likes of Joel Embiid and Markelle Fultz; criticized coach Brett Brown; and bashed executives such as Sam Hinkie and Toronto president Masai Ujiri. And, at every turn, the accounts relentlessly defended or promoted Colangelo.
One of the accounts suggested multiple times that a Jahlil Okafor trade fell through because he had failed a physical — information which had been previously held private. Another said 76er former Nerlens Noel was “acting like a vulture.” An account called Embiid “lazy” and “selfish” and accused him of hiding an injury from the team, which led to another injury. One account was also critical of Embiid for dancing at a concert. One of the accounts liked a tweet that suggested the 76ers should trade up in the draft, which they eventually did for Markelle Fultz. And while there was a ton of speculation about Fultz’s injury status, an account seemed to accuse the former Husky’s mentor of changing his shot.
All of this makes you wonder what happened to the old days of executives just leaking information to reporters instead of tweeting it from a burner account. Maybe Kevin Durant is finally off the hook.
