Source: Rene Johnston / Getty
Twitter fingers aren’t reserved solely for rappers; it seems like Philadelphia 76ers GM Bryan Colangelo may have a pair, too.
Ben Detrick of The Ringer reported Tuesday that Colangelo used fake “burner” Twitter accounts to talk trash about the players on his franchise—including Joel Embiid and Markelle Fultz, as well as former Sixers Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel. One of the tweets from said burner accounts even stated that Philly should trade Embiid for Kristaps Porzingis because he’s “such a smarter player.”
Now, the franchise is launching an investigation.
“An online media outlet filed a story linking multiple social media accounts to 76ers president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo,” the Sixers’ 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.”
Colangelo has since confirmed that he did use one of the accounts in question but denied four others.
“Like many of my colleagues in sports, I have used social media as a means to keep up with the news,” the statement said. “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. This storyline 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,” he revealed to The Ringer.
But Detrick reports that he asked the organization about two of the five Twitter accounts he thought Colangelo used, and after that, three accounts he didn’t even ask about were set to private.
ESPN’s NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski spoke to Philly’s Joel Embiid, who revealed that Colangelo reached out him personally to say that the accounts weren’t true.
“I talked to him and he said that he didn’t say that,” Embiid said. “He called me just to deny the story. Gotta believe him until proven otherwise. If true, though, that would be really bad.”
