Source: Steve Russell / Getty
Tweeting from burner accounts seem to be all the rage in the NBA just ask Kevin Durant, allegedly. While KD still has his job and is one win away from securing his second NBA championship, Philadelphia 76ers President Bryan Colangelo lost his.
This should serve as the perfect lesson as to why you should not hit send.
Yesterday, Colangelo “resigned” from his job as president of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers. The news comes a week after The Ringer dropped a bombshell report linking the now disgraced NBA executive to five burner accounts. The accounts in question sent out numerous tweets taking shots at the team’s franchise player Joel Embiid and 76ers rookie Markelle Fultz, former player Jahlil Okafor, criticizing other NBA executives and leaking privileged medical information about those players.
The Philadelphia 76ers released a statement yesterday on their Twitter account sharing the results of the investigation conducted by the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. It concludes that Colangelo’s wife Barbara Bottini was behind the tweets from four of the accounts and that Colangelo did supply the information. Colangelo has denied using all, but one of those accounts, the one he did admit to using was not a source of the tweets.
The statement also pointed out the Bottini was not cooperative with the investigation and even attempted to delete evidence on her iPhone by doing a factory reset before handing it in for review.
Colangelo also released his own statement which counters the 76ers statement and also throws his own wife under the bus. Colangelo on his resignation:
“While I am grateful that the independent investigation conducted by the 76ers has confirmed that I had no knowledge of or involvement in the Twitter activity conducted by my wife, I vigorously dispute the allegation that my conduct was in any way reckless. At no point did I ever purposefully or directly share any sensitive, non-public, club-related information with her.”
Her actions were a seriously misguided effort to publicly defend and support me, and while I recognize how inappropriate these actions were, she acted independently and without my knowledge or consent. Further, the content she shared was filled with inaccuracies and conjecture which in no way represent my own views or opinions.”
While sending out tweets would seem harmless, this definitely could have an impact on the 76ers as far as being a landing spot for upcoming free agents like LeBron James or Paul George. So his “resignation” should come as no surprise to anyone. We also won’t be shocked if Colangelo loses his wife after his statement as well.
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Photo: Steve Russell / Getty
