Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo is in danger of losing his job as the team’s internal probe of several anonymous Twitter accounts has increasingly centered around his wife, who may have been responsible for Tweets that criticized team players, revealed confidential information, and attacked professional rivals of her husband.
According to a report by ESPN, Barbara Bottini, Colangelo’s wife, is being investigated by the team after a recent article by the Ringer raised the possibility that five anonymous Twitter accounts were secretly being used by Colangelo, or someone close to him, as an underhanded way of defending the two-time NBA Executive of the Year on the social media site.
A final decision on Colangelo’s fate has not been made and the probe has yet to be finished, but according to ESPN, he is in serious danger of being be fired. The Sixers reportedly commissioned a law firm to investigate and Colangelo reportedly surrendered his cell phones.
Colangelo has admitted that one of the five accounts was his, although that particular Twitter handle had never Tweeted, and he denied ownership of the other four. According to ESPN, he told associates that he believes he knows who is responsible for the Tweets from the other four accounts, which Colangelo claims he knew nothing about until the Ringer article on Tuesday.
A Twitter account with the handle ‘@DidTheSixersWin‘ claims to have uncovered one clue which left open the possibility of Bottini’s involvement.
After Tuesday’s report, several Twitter users began requesting resets of the relevant accounts’ passwords. The numbers were blocked out, for the most part, but the effort did reveal the final two digits. The account, ‘@phila1234567,’ which Colangelo admitted was his had a phone number that ended in ’75.’
However, the other accounts ended in ’91.’ And as ‘Did the Sixers win?’ revealed by finding her number on an Upper Canada College parents website, Bottini’s number does, in fact, end in ’91.’
The team has yet to say whether it will make any distinction if the tweets turned out to have been written by Bottini rather than Colangelo, but much of the damage is already done.
The decision of whether or not to fire Colangelo is a significant one ahead of the start of NBA free agency, which begins in July. The 76ers are believed to be a possible destination for four-time NBA MVP LeBron James, and a stable front office will be critical to luring the three-time NBA champion.
If Colangelo’s credibility has suffered, then the 76ers could determine that he’s no longer needed, even if it’s not determined that he’s responsible for the Twitter accounts.
Of particular concern for team ownership, led by American investor Joshua Harris, is the criticism of the team’s All-Star center Joel Embiid.
‘I talked to him, and he said that he didn’t say that,’ Embiid told ESPN on Tuesday night about Colangelo. ‘He called me just to deny the story. Gotta believe him until proven otherwise. If true though, that would be really bad.’
On Tuesday, the team confirmed to The Ringer that Colangelo is indeed the operator of one of the accounts.
‘Like many of my colleagues in sports, I have used social media as a means to keep up with the news,’ Colangelo said in a statement.
‘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.’
If Colangelo is indeed behind the ‘burner accounts,’ it would reveal him to be an extremely thin-skinned and petty executive who is eager to settle scores with his predecessors and critics.
The source of Colangelo’s insecurity appears to be the fans’ near universal admiration for his predecessor, Sam Hinkie, who is now being credited with drafting the star players that propelled the team to a 52-win season and a victory in the first round of the playoffs.
It was Hinkie who drafted Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Dario Saric, the young core of the Sixers team.
After Colangelo arrived last year, he made a controversial trade for the top pick in the 2017 NBA draft.
He then used that pick to select Markelle Fultz No. 1 overall. Fultz has only played 17 games.
He has been on the sidelines due to mysterious ailments.
The team with whom Colangelo made the trade – the Boston Celtics – used it to get Jayson Tatum, who many believe to be an up-and-coming star.
The accounts take aim at Hinkie.
‘I have no respect for Hinkie’s martyrdom bcs it is orchestrated by him behind the curtains via all the bloggers he cultivated with leaks,’ the account @Enoughunknownso1 tweeted in November.
Another account reacted to a suggestion that Hinkie deserved credit for the franchise’s newfound success.
‘BC has done nothing but clean up hinkie’s mess,’ the account wrote in January 2017.
‘Hinkie got great pieces but could [not] make the puzzle work.’
The accounts also seemed to target Ujiri, who was hired to replace Colangelo as Toronto’s top executive.
It was Colangelo who promoted Ujiri in the Toronto front office before he was fired.
After a Toronto Raptors loss in February 2017, one of the accounts posted a tweet which read: ‘Nothing seems to fall on Ujiri’s shoulders. Why?’
Another post suggested that the Raptors owe their success to players that Colangelo acquired, like Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan.
One Twitter account posted: ‘they are falling apart! Because nothing was done to make them a better team. Coasting by on ‘trustfund’ money.’
In the fall of 2016, Ujiri signed a lucrative contract extension with the Raptors.
One of the Twitter accounts reacted angrily.
‘You were resigned for 30+ millions this Summer, so yes! please Masai do something!
Perhaps the most damaging of all is the apparent effort made by the anonymous Twitter user to steer reporters toward pursuing stories that reflect positively on Colangelo and negatively on the team’s players.
In one tweet, @s_bonhams, whose Twitter handle is ‘Still Balling,’ called Embiid, who has emerged as an All-Star center for the Sixers, ‘selfish.’
Last fall, Embiid played in a nationally televised game with an apparent injury, prompting fans and media to criticize Colangelo.
But one of the Twitter accounts, whose handle is Eric jr, posted a tweet aimed at Embiid’s Twitter account in which the center was blamed for concealing the injury, a minor tear in the meniscus.
The tweet read: ‘Joel, you are just a kid, but why didn’t you tell docs knees hurt before Houston? You costed yrself (&us) 9+ games and playoffs.’
After Embiid was seen dancing shirtless on stage at a Meek Mill concert, Eric jr tweeted in February 2017: ‘Too bad that Embiid danced like a fool and the whole disaster happened, next time he will think twice before mocking his team.’
In another tweet, Eric jr wrote: ‘If I were mngt I would step on a ladder and kick his b#**.’
Interestingly, another account, Enoughunknownsources, used similar wording in a post nine months later: ‘If I had a medium size ladder I would love to knock some sense in Joel’s head right now. He is playing like a toddler having tantrums.’
The accounts then tried to egg on reporters so that they would pursue the story from that angle.
Eric jr tweeted at a beat reporter for the Sixers, Derek Bodner, because ‘nobody has the guts to do it.’
The accounts continued to cast the players in a negative light.
When Fultz was struggling with his jump shot due to what many believe is a mental block, Still Balling tweeted that the player’s family friend and trainer, Keith Williams, was to blame.
‘If somebody would care to go look for the story of what happened with his so called mentor/father figure… it would explain a lot about the shoulder and Fultz ‘ state of mind,’ Still Balling wrote in a thread responding to a December post from Bodner.
‘The so call mentor tried to force him to change the shot.
‘Tapes have surfaced of the guy making Markelle shooting while sitting on a chair, while on his back on the floor etc.
‘The guy denies it as doesn’t want to say Y was forced out of kid’s life.
‘Y nobody reports this.’
Colangelo has a track record of success as an NBA executive.
He has twice won the NBA’s Executive of the Year Awards.
His resume includes stints as general manager for the Phoenix Suns as well as his tenures with Toronto and Philadelphia.
Colangelo is the son of Jerry Colangelo, the former Suns owner who is now a special adviser to the Sixers.