Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo has been actively calling those in The Ringer‘s investigative piece that detailed the use of five burner Twitter accounts used to criticize players and staff within the Sixers organization, allegedly all owned by him, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
This looks like a damage control tactic from Colangelo, and while he's innocent until proven guilty, these are all signs of someone trying to protect his reputation, if not for his current job, for the possibility of another down the line.
Sixers' big man Joel Embiid came on his defense, telling Wojnarowski the two have had a conversation to address matters.
“I talked to him and he said that he didn’t say that,” said Embiid. “He called me just to deny the story. Gotta believe him until proven otherwise. If true though, that would be really bad.”
Embiid followed by having a little fun of his own and retweeting some of those burner accounts' tweets, but ultimately called the report “insane.”
The Cameroonian was likely one of the first people Colangelo called amid the report going viral, given that those accounts previously criticized him and former teammates Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor.
Wojnarowski himself can't bring himself to believe this report, given the magnitude of the allegation and the all-around circuit the reporter had to follow to draw that exact conclusion.
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
Nevertheless, Colangelo is denying he is responsible for those tweets and many league executives seem to believe this: It is hard to fathom a GM risking his job in such a reckless manner. Many are giving him the benefit of doubt on that level alone. It just doesn’t add up. https://t.co/BDn3n0os2a
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 30, 2018
Disproving this report will prove just as tough as it was to line up all the five burner accounts and connect them to Colangelo — making this private investigation one that will likely take some time to figure out.
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