What a whacky 24 hours it’s been for the Philadelphia 76ers who just wrapped up an incredible turnaround season that ended with a surprising trip to the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.
Yesterday, Ben Detrick of The Ringer published a rather extensive investigation into Sixers’ general manager Bryan Colangelo and his alleged use of “burner” Twitter profiles to criticize players, Sixers head coach Brett Brown and team executives.
Within the report, an account with the handle @phila1234567 was mentioned, an account Colangelo confirmed.
Colangelo issued the following statement:
“Like many of my colleagues in sports, I have used social media as a means to keep up with the news. While I have never posted anything whatsoever on social media, I have used the @Phila1234567 Twitter account referenced in this story to monitor our industry and other current events. This storyline is disturbing to me on many levels, as I am not familiar with any of the other accounts that have been brought to my attention, nor do I know who is behind them or what their motives may be in using them.”
Colangelo stood by his claim of not knowing the “motives or origin” of the accounts after the allegations went public, according to Yahoo Sports’ Shams Charania.
Things are looking fishy and not many people are buying Colangelo’s version of the story.
Maybe there’s an IT person who can prove it wasn’t Bryan Colangelo, but here’s one of his biggest problems in disputing Ringer story: Those tweets reflected not only private team biz, but launched personal beefs/jealousies/frustrations that he’s shared inside and outside 76ers.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 30, 2018
On Wednesday, The Athletic’s Rich Hoffman tweeted the Sixers’ official statement on the matter involving Colangelo, announcing that they will be conducting an investigation.
Here is the Sixers’ statement on Colangelo. pic.twitter.com/emkehLWQVA
— Rich Hofmann (@rich_hofmann) May 30, 2018