Sixers to Investigate Bryan Colangelo’s Connections to Twitter Accounts

The Philadelphia 76ers announced Wednesday that they have launched a probe into the issues raised by The Ringer’s investigation into Sixers president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo and several social media accounts that revealed sensitive team information and openly questioned the behavior and performances of several Philly players, including All-Star Joel Embiid. “We will report the results of that investigation as soon as it is concluded,” the Sixers’ statement read.

The Curious Case of Bryan Colangelo and the Secret Twitter Account

Getty Images/Ringer illustration

What does a collection of Twitter accounts that has criticized Philadelphia 76ers players, disclosed sensitive information, and outlined strategy have to do with the team’s president?

The Ringer NBA Show: The Colangelo Twitter Story With Ben Detrick

Detrick joins Chris Ryan on The Ringer NBA Show to discuss our investigation.

The Ringer reported Tuesday that an anonymous tipster pointed out evidence connecting Colangelo to five Twitter accounts that have been critical of current and former Sixers players, former Sixers president Sam Hinkie, and Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri. Tweets from the accounts claimed that a 2017 trade involving former Sixers center Jahlil Okafor was derailed because Okafor failed a physical and that coach Brett Brown wanted Nerlens Noel gone because the former Sixers big man was bad for the locker room, blamed Markelle Fultz and his trainer for the rookie’s shooting woes, and called Embiid a “toddler,” among other things. One tweet also defended the size of Colangelo’s shirt collar.

The Sixers confirmed that one of the Twitter accounts, @phila1234567, was Colangelo’s, but the account has never tweeted and in a statement Colangelo said it was used only to monitor league activity. Soon after The Ringer asked the Sixers about two of the accounts, the three others switched from public to private. In a statement provided to The Ringer on Tuesday afternoon, Colangelo denied familiarity with any account other than @phila1234567, and said he hadn’t posted anything on social media “whatsoever.”

Several people named in the tweets have spoken out in the wake of the story. As you might imagine, none have been more vocal than Embiid:

The big man and ardent supporter of Hinkie, who stepped down as Sixers president after Colangelo’s hiring in 2016, fired off several tweets Tuesday night, and liked several of the tweets made by one account in question that took aim at his behavior. By the end of the night, Embiid tweeted, “Fun night on Twitter lmao.. All jokes asides I don’t believe the story. That would just be insane.” ESPN reported shortly after that Colangelo reached out to everyone mentioned by the various accounts, “insisting that he isn’t responsible for those tweets.”

Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union also weighed in on claims made by one of the accounts suggesting both were rude to a young fan at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Twitter users also researched the accounts reported to have ties to Colangelo, finding commonalities in the phone numbers and emails registered to them. But mostly, a lot of schadenfreude poured in from all corners of the internet. ESPN’s Zach Lowe reported “confusion” and “snark” around the league. Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, a former colleague and close friend of Hinkie’s, and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban also made light of the situation:

The Sixers were coming off a breakthrough season, and seemed primed for even bigger things heading into the offseason. Despite hitting a wall in the second round of the playoffs, Philly won 52 regular-season games—its most in nearly two decades—and toppled the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs. Ben Simmons established himself as one of the best young players in the game, and Embiid played in more than double the amount of games he did last season. With cap space to burn this offseason, and rumors of LeBron James being interested in joining the party, the Sixers seemingly were in line to challenge for championships as soon as next season. Now it appears that ascent will at least have to wait until some internal clarity is reached.