Last night, The Ringer's Ben Detrick published an investigative report detailing how Philadelphia 76ers GM Bryan Colangelo used as many as five different burner accounts on social media to scrutinize head coach Brett Brown and several players, including All-Star center Joel Embiid. Of course, Embiid was quick to react to the news on twitter moments after it broke.
The 24-year old big man sent out a tweet directed at one of Colangelo's alleged burner accounts which reads, "Joel told me that @samhinkie IS BETTER AND SMARTER THAN YOU @AlVic40117560 #BurnerAccount." Additionally, Embiid began liking multiple tweets that had been sent by accounts associated with Colangelo's burners, including this one, "alternative fact: Joel is not the future of the franchise, so who cares if he is not 100%. let's exploit him."
https://twitter.com/_/status/1001655821913284610
https://twitter.com/_/status/1001659466478219264
https://twitter.com/_/status/1001662493457084418
While Embiid had some fun with the allegations last night, he made clear to note that he doesn't believe the story. According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, Embiid said, “I talked to him and he said that he didn’t say that. He called me just to deny the story. Gotta believe him until proven otherwise. If true though, that would be really bad.”
Colangelo has since released a statement denying that he used any account other than the burner @Phila1234567, which he says was used "to monitor our industry and other current events." The Sixers have announced that they've launched their own investigation into the matter.