What will happen next for Colangelo, Philadelphia?
OAKLAND, Calif. — On the day before the NBA Finals, the latest battle between LeBron James’s Cleveland Cavaliers and Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors became a footnote to one of the most bizarre stories ever to hit a league that has become defined by such events: alleged fake Twitter accounts linked to Bryan Colangelo, the president of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers.
A story published Tuesday night on The Ringer website showed possible ties between Colangelo and five Twitter accounts that have tweeted disparaging things about Sixers players, as well as alluded to potential proprietary information. Colangelo has acknowledged one account that has tweeted nothing is his and has denied any affiliation with the others. Meantime, people across the NBA are trying to come to grips with what, exactly, could have happened.
As one executive texted, unprompted, Wednesday: “This. League.”
But in the aftermath, one question is continually being asked: What happens now?
Running the Philadelphia 76ers these days is among the best jobs in the NBA. With a roster featuring two of the league’s best young players in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, enough cap space to attract a superstar free agent such as LeBron James or Paul George this summer, the 10th pick in this year’s NBA draft and the assets to chase another star such as Kawhi Leonard via trade, the Sixers are set to be arguably the most fascinating team in the NBA this summer.
Now, just three weeks before the draft and exactly one month before free agency, the organization is investigating possible improprieties by the man in charge of its roster.
“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. “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.”
One assumes the investigation will be wrapped up before the June 21 draft, but in the meantime, people around the NBA were left to theorize possible explanations for what happened. The three most popular scenarios:
1. Colangelo was, in fact, the person operating these Twitter accounts.
2. Someone within Colangelo’s orbit - such as, say, his wife or son - was the one operating them.
3. Someone with access to the franchise’s inner workings put together one of the greatest long cons ever.
That same general consensus has produced two outcomes, depending on which of those theories winds up being true: If Colangelo was running the accounts, or someone within his orbit was, the chances of him keeping his job are slim.
If, however, this was done by someone trying to set Colangelo up - something that he has insisted to people around the league since the story came out - that would create a path that could clear his name.
Twitter officials declined to answer three separate queries on the matter, including whether the company could even discover who was running these anonymous accounts if it wanted to. The company said it never comments on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons.
Philadelphia announced Tuesday night that Brett Brown, one of the league’s most well-respected coaches after shepherding Philadelphia through four years filled with young rosters and heavy losses before winning more than 50 games this season, would be getting a three-year contract extension through the 2022 season as a reward.
It has been two years since Colangelo took over the dayto-day operations of the team, in the wake of his predecessor, Sam Hinkie, resigning after Sixers ownership hired Colangelo’s father Jerry - one of basketball’s most influential power brokers - as “Chairman of Basketball Operations,” a title clearly designed to place him above Hinkie in the organizational hierarchy.
Jerry Colangelo and Hinkie were never going to mesh well, and almost instantly upon his arrival there were expectations that Bryan would be brought in to run the team whenever Hinkie inevitably departed. And, sure enough, Bryan took over just days after Hinkie’s resignation in early April 2016.
Colangelo’s tenure has been defined, in many ways, by the trade he made last spring, sending what likely will be a lottery pick, along with the third pick in last year’s draft, to the Boston Celtics in exchange for the top pick in 2017, which he used to take former DeMatha star Markelle Fultz.
But while Fultz barely played this season after a bizarre ordeal involving potential shoulder issues that threw his jump shot completely out of whack, Boston’s pick, Jayson Tatum, blossomed into what appears to be a future franchise cornerstone.
But Colangelo also made several other moves - from signing J.J. Redick as a free agent to agreeing with Robert Covington on a team-friendly contract extension.