We sit here closing in on nine days since The Ringer dropped a bombshell of a story alleging that Sixers president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo may have operated as many as five different Twitter accounts. Four of the reported accounts tweeted out information that was either inflammatory in nature toward current or past players or disclosed inside information revealing medical and interpersonal relationships that would not be known to the general public.
What we know is Colangelo has copped to having one Twitter account. He claims he never tweeted out anything and simply used it as an information source. That's all we know right now.
There is plenty of speculation running wild, most of which has zeroed in on Colangelo's wife Barbara Bottini. From "Sixers Twitter" connecting the dots, the theory goes that Bottini was running the burner accounts.
The pertinent question is did Colangelo have knowledge of his wife's actions, if in fact she was the one with the smoking keyboard in hand? And if he didn't, does it matter in deciding his fate? Leaking that kind of sensitive information to anyone, including his wife and having it become public, may be just cause for dismissal, unbeknownst or not.
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Here's the problem: as has been the case far too often since Josh Harris bought the team, this has been handled poorly. The bottom line in any investigation is getting it right. That should not be lost in a rush to judgement, but there is a clock attached to this one.
The NBA draft is June 21. Free agency begins July 1. The longer this drags on, the longer there is an appearance of dysfunction. Real or perceived. When the best player in the league/most-prized potential free agent, LeBron James, is in the midst of the Finals and uses your team as the punch line to a joke, it's a bad look. And James' acknowledgement of this mess is a reflection of what the league is saying. Players, front offices, free agents, agents, etc. Not good.
Fans of the team who have shown this organization more unconditional love through dreadful times than any other in the history of the city are naturally getting antsy at the length of this process. Combine the time this has taken and the fact that Colangelo was quoted in the Brett Brown contract extension release and was reportedly in person at the Grayson Allen workout, and the appearance is Colangelo may not be a goner. Something most fans thought was a fait accompli when the burner account story first surfaced.
Through their lense, Colangelo's perceived betrayal of player trust will result in the club being stifled when it comes to landing a potential big-time free agent. More importantly, the in-house fallout of the alienation of his own players, including superstar Joel Embiid.
If this traces back to Colangelo in any way, be it his wife, son, a front office underling, he needs to go regardless of his claims of ignorance. The information put out was too inside for some random troll on Twitter to know.
With that said, what's taking so long? How much damage has already been done regardless of how this plays out as the team embarks on a monstrous offseason?
