In the NBA you don’t necessarily need a game to stay entertained. NBA Twitter exploded on Tuesday night after a Ringer report linked 76ers President of Basketball Operations and GM Bryan Colangelo to five secret Twitter “burner” accounts which repeatedly took aim at 76ers players, their coach and former GM Sam Hinkie.
On Wednesday the 76ers released a statement announcing that they are launching a full investigation into the matter.
“An online media outlet filed a story linking multiple social media accounts to 76ers president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo. The allegations are serious and we have commenced an independent investigation into the matter,” the 76ers’ statement said. “We will report the results of that investigation as soon as it is concluded.”
Colangelo confirmed that one of the accounts was his but denied the rest. Problem is according to the Ringer once the reporter contacted the 76ers to ask about two of the 5 accounts the other 3 not mentioned went dark. That would be some coincidence.
The players that the so-called burner accounts went after included Markelle Fultz, Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel and “The Process” himself Joel Embiid with several accounts questioning Embiid’s maturity. In February of last year one account (Eric jr) tweeted about Embiid “If I were mngt I would step on a ladder and kick his b#**.” Nine months later, the Enoughunkownsources account used similar phrasing to attack Embiid.
Things are about to get very ugly in Camden pic.twitter.com/AW1xuw56Tz
— Jon Johnson (@jonjohnsonwip) May 30, 2018
Naturally Embiid being Embiid took to twitter to join in the fun.
Joel told me that @samhinkie IS BETTER AND SMARTER THAN YOU @AlVic40117560 #BurnerAccount
— Joel “Troel” Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) May 30, 2018
Fun night on Twitter lmao.. All jokes asides I don’t believe the story. That would just be insane
— Joel “Troel” Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) May 30, 2018
In addition to airing grievances and stirring up beefs the accounts also revealed damaging and team sensitive information about players. The accounts would peddle storylines then urge journalists to aggressively track them and push the team for interviews. In each case the tweets removed blame from Colangelo and placed it on the former regime or players directly.
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Some matters were far more petty with one account going so far as to defend Colangelo’s dress style.
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The Ringer got most of its information from an anonymous source who said they used AI to compare the styles of the tweets and also similar followed accounts. Sam Hinkie, the 76ers former GM and author of “the Process.”
Dots were connected and Twitter conspiracy theories ran rampant.
🤔🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/YG1Ee4kJsk
— Kevin Cole (@KevinColePFF) May 30, 2018
Celtics boss Dany Ainge even entered the fray when it was ‘jokingly’ suggested that Ainge could be secretly running the legendary Celtics twitter account @isjanosNBA.
The timing of this could not be worse for Philly entering the free agent season. They are currently Vegas favorites to land LeBron James. If Colangelo is in fact the owner of all these accounts and holds onto his job it’s hard to imagine James or any other high profile free agent coming to Philly.
Or maybe sensing the 76ers were closing in on LeBron James the founder of the Ringer just went ahead and ordered the hit himself.
https://twitter.com/Anthony_Capelli/status/1001666596157444096
Regardless how this all went down, the 76ers are in an impossible position. Even if ‘cleared’ there will be major trust issues going forward. It’s possible ‘the Process’ is over before it got a real chance to get off the ground.
