Philadelphia 76ers President of Basketball Operations Bryan Colangelo has been accused of running several burner accounts on twitter, which he allegedly used to scrutinize his own players such as Joel Embiid and Markelle Fultz, as well as head coach Brett Brown and other executives.
An investigation by The Ringer's Ben Detrick revealed five different Twitter accounts, including one with the handle @phila1234567, which Colangelo admitted to using "to monitor our industry and other current events."
Colangelo released the following statement in regards to last night's bombshell report.
"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, nor do I know who is behind them or what their motives may be in using them."
Detrick was reportedly tipped off to the accounts by an anonymous source. He contacted the Sixers asking about only two of the five accounts: @phila1234567 and @AlVic40117560, but noted that "all three of the accounts I hadn't discussed with the team switched from public to private."
Among the tweets from Colangelo's alleged burner accounts are some that questioned Embiid's ego, blamed Fultz's shooting struggles on personal trainer, pushed a theory that a possible Okafor trade fell apart because he failed a physical, and called Noel a "selfish punk." Additionally, the accounts called out Raptors president Masai Ujiri, who worked under and then eventually replaced Colangelo.