As the Sixers' investigation into president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo continues, Colangelo arrived back in Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon.
Upon his arrival at Philadelphia International Airport, he told NBC Sports Philadelphia's John Clark that he "stands by his (previous) statement" and is "fully unaware of anything" related to the scandal.
"I got a true sense that he needs to figure out a lot of the stuff that happened," Clark said on Philly Sports Talk. "The Sixers are investigating him and he's also trying to figure out what happened, I believe."
Added Clark: "He wasn't happy to see me."
This unusual saga began publicly when a story from The Ringer dropped on Tuesday night. That story linked Colangelo to five separate Twitter accounts. One, that hasn't tweeted, the Sixers confirmed to be owned by Colangelo. Others had disclosed non-public information and criticized Sixers players, head coach Brett Brown and front office members from around the league.
This was Colangelo's statement to The Ringer that appeared in their published story:
"Like many of my colleagues in sports, I have used social media as a means to keep up with the news. 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."
Sports
In partnership with NBC Sports Philadelphia
Less than 12 hours after the report dropped, the Sixers announced that they had launched an internal 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 on Wednesday morning. "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."
As of early Thursday evening, the only other time the Sixers have broken their silence was to officially announce a contract extension for Brett Brown. Notably, Colangelo was mentioned and quoted in the release (see story).