Exec’s use of Twitter is probed
The Philadelphia 76ers opened an “independent investigation” into a report alleging that Bryan Colangelo, the team’s top basketball executive, used anonymous Twitter accounts to criticize his players, including stars Joel Embiid and Markelle Fultz, and to disclose personal information that could be damaging to the athletes.
“An online media outlet filed a story linking multiple social media accounts to
76ers President of Basketball Operations
Bryan Colangelo,” the team said in a statement Wednesday morning, in response to a story published by The Ringer, a sports and pop culture website and podcast network. “The allegations are serious and we have commenced an independent investigation into the matter. We will report the results of that investigation as soon as it is concluded.”
By Wednesday morning, Colangelo was “actively reaching out to individuals mentioned in those burner accounts, insisting that he isn’t responsible for those tweets,” ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported.
The Ringer’s Ben Detrick reported Tuesday that an anonymous source suggested months ago that he look into five Twitter accounts with nondescript identifiers. The same source suggested to Detrick that all five accounts were controlled by Colangelo, who also is the team’s general manager.
Some of the accounts had conveyed vehement support for Colangelo, who has taken criticism for his personnel decisions since replacing Sam Hinkie, the general manager behind “The Process,” as Philadelphia’s
rebuild is known. The accounts followed other Twitter users who appeared to reflect not only Colangelo’s current occupation, but also his previous stops in Toronto and Phoenix, and the fact that his son plays basketball for the University of Chicago.
“Most disturbingly,” Detrick wrote, “the accounts have repeatedly disclosed potentially damaging information about Sixers players, including [Jahlil] Okafor, [Nerlens] Noel, Embiid, and, most recently, Fultz. The accounts routinely challenge journalists to report these negative claims and, in some cases, have pushed writers to ask players specific questions or to contact the organization to set up interviews. In every example, the accounts have pursued an agenda of absolving Colangelo of blame while vilifying Sixers players.”
According to Detrick, the 76ers confirmed that Colangelo controlled one of the five accounts, but it was one that never issued its own tweets, merely following others. The team said Colangelo had no knowledge of another account, created around the same time he assumed the reins in Philadelphia, which issued some of the most noteworthy comments in the story from The Ringer, including that Embiid should be “called out” by 76ers beat writers for his behavior, but “nobody has the guts to do it.”
Detrick said he deliberately
mentioned just those two accounts to the team. After this correspondence with the team, he wrote, the other three accounts brought to his attention “switched from public to private, effectively taking them offline.”
In a statement to The Ringer, Colangelo acknowledged using the first account. “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,” he said. “This story line 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.”
Embiid, who maintains an active and frequently humorous presence on social media, appeared to take a sharp jab back at Colangelo, tweeting to one of the five accounts that Hinkie “IS BETTER AND SMARTER THAN YOU,” using the hashtag “#BurnerAccount.”
Wojnarowski reported Tuesday night that Embiid “talked to” Colangelo, and the general manager asserted that “he didn’t say” what was in the tweets. “He called me just to deny the story,” Embiid told Wojnarowski. “Gotta believe him until proven otherwise.”
“If true, though,” Embiid added, “that would be really bad.”