Colangelo blames wife as his 76ers term ends
Imagine what the burner accounts would have to say about this.
The 76ers announced Thursday they are moving on without Bryan Colangelo — the team said he resigned, the former president and general manager said they mutually parted ways — nine days after an explosive report by The Ringer linked him to anonymous Twitter accounts that trashed his own players, leaked sensitive information and defended Colangelo throughout his tenure in Philadelphia.
An independent investigation came to the conclusion it was Colangelo’s wife, Barbara Bottini, who was running the accounts, but the Sixers decided he was still compromised by the situation and could not continue to run the team.
“The results of the investigation conducted by [law firm] Paul/Weiss determined that Bryan Colangelo failed to safeguard sensitive, non-public, club-related information,” owner Josh Harris said at a press conference at the team’s facility. “Ultimately, Bryan offered his resignation, realizing the detrimental way in which these circumstances impacted our organization and his ability to do his job effectively.”
Harris announced head coach Brett Brown would oversee basketball operations on an interim basis while the organization searches for its next GM. Brown will be the face of the organization at a critical time for team-building, with the NBA draft just two weeks away and free agency beginning July 1.
The law firm said Bottini admitted to authoring the accounts and forensic evidence backed that up, despite her deleting the contents of her iPhone through a factory reset before she handed it over to officials. The investigation could not determine if Colangelo was aware of the Twitter accounts, but there was “substantial evidence” he was the source of information that became public through the tweets. The firm’s statement described Colangelo as “careless” and “reckless.”
“At no point did I ever purposefully or directly share any sensitive, non-public or club-related information with her,” Colangelo said of his wife in a statement. “Her actions were a seriously misguided effort to publicly defend and support me, and while I recognize how inappropriate these actions were, she acted independently and without my knowledge or consent.”
Harris disputed a report by PhillyVoice.com that said longtime NBA executive Jerry Colangelo, Bryan’s father, tried to intervene and threatened to harm the 76ers’ relationship with other teams. While Jerry Colangelo serves as a special adviser for the Sixers, he was not involved in the process.
The decision capped off a tumultuous time for the organization since it first became aware of the situation, though Harris said he didn’t know about it until an hour before the story was first published. The PR staff knew a week earlier, when The Ringer first reached out for comment.
“There was, I guess, initially a lack of believing this story from people who heard it,” Harris said. “As the story emerged in all its glory, people all of a sudden understood the gravity and severity of what was going on.”
Now that Colangelo is gone, the 76ers may have some work to do in proving to players — their own and those available through free agency, with LeBron James and Paul George expected to be on their radar — they can be trusted again.
“We’ve all been doing stuff like this long enough to understand that this too shall pass,” Brown said. “A sad situation will not get the better of us as it relates to moving the program forward. I feel very confident saying that.”