The Philadelphia 76ers have agreed to part ways with president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Colangelo is expected to resign to his post today with an ensuing statement.
Sixers ownership will hold a press conference to announce this decision later this afternoon. Head coach Brett Brown is expected to oversee basketball operations on an interim basis until the organization can find a replacement for Colangelo.
Philly was hard-pressed to make a decision sooner, rather than later, as the NBA Draft is only two weeks away from taking stage, and the organization will need to have an image of transparency with the No. 10 overall selection on the line.
Colangelo was probed after allegations of five burner Twitter accounts came to the forefront after The Ringer received an anonymous tip of his possible involvement with Twitter handles that bashed some of the team's players, former executives, and even gave insight into private medical information, which could result in several HIPAA violations.
The Sixers ran a third-party investigation through a private firm, who shortly honed into Colangelo's wife, Barbara Bottini, as the main alleged responsible culprit for the tweets in those accounts.
“We do not believe Mr. Colangelo established the Twitter accounts or posted content on those accounts,” said the firm in a statement, according to ESPN's Chris Haynes. “The evidence supports the conclusion Ms. Barbara Bottini, Mr. Colangelo’s wife, established the Twitter accounts and posted content on those accounts. Forensic evidence corroborates her admissions.”
While Colangelo himself wasn't responsible for these tweets, the mere fact that his wife had this much information and felt like taking such measures to defend her husband holds Colangelo as a liable employee, given the fragile and confidential nature of the information disclosed and later leaked with the public through these burner accounts.
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