Twitter is a great place for people to do really stupid things on the internet, just look at Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo.
Thanks to some dogged reporting from The Ringer’s Ben Detrick, it appears as though Colangelo used as many as five burner accounts on Twitter to ether all things relating to the team he is responsible for. Of course, such a decision eliminates all trust and privacy within the organization.
On those burner accounts, Colangelo blasts his predecessor Sam Hinkie and players he was responsible for drafting, such as Joel Embiid, Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor. All the while, Colangelo elevates decisions he’s made, such as claiming multiple times that it is “Ben’s team,” referring to Rookie of the Year candidate Ben Simmons.
And while ripping your players from hidden accounts never is a good idea, it gets even more dangerous when Colangelo implores reporters to seek out medical info on players. While reporters get that all the time from fans on Twitter, it becomes apparent that Colangelo actually leaked info to reporters about the medical info of players in hopes that they’d push the player on it.
And while he took aim at ex-Sixers Noel and Okafor, the fact that he rips Embiid to no end is concerning, and if true, it could get him fired.
Here is some of what Detrick uncovered about Embiid.
“In recent months — particularly since Simmons’s emergence as a formidable talent — the accounts became increasingly hostile toward Embiid. Earlier this season, HonestAbe compared him unfavorably to the Knicks’ Kristaps Porzingis. “I am a Philly fan but out trade The process for The Unicorn in a heart bit,” the account wrote. “Such a smarter player.” And, in response to a Sixers Nation post about Embiid committing a foul, Enoughunkownsources replied: “I am sure it is hard for him ‘to process’ the fact, that this is now Ben’s team. So he is acting up. This ego foul is costing us big!”
Other times, Embiid was described as “a bit lazy,” “selfish,” and “acting like a tool,” and accused of partying too much. “Ben is going to be better than Joel@snd less distracted by models and social media,” Still Balling wrote in October 2017, in response to Sixers Nation.
In January, in a tweet directed at the Twitter accounts of Simmons and Robert Covington, Still Balling tore into Embiid. “I am not voting for Joel, but I am voting for Ben at every change I get,” they wrote. “I love his intensity, his passion and the pride for his team. Joel is a big selfish baby, not my leader anymore.”
Not great.
