On the night of Wednesday, a piquant rumor leaked out to the Philadelphia 76ers: GM Bryan Colangelo is said to have used several fake accounts on Twitter to criticize his own players such as Joel Embiid. However, Colangelo has already denied this in a statement.
The Ringer’s report listed in detail how accounts that are to belong to Colangelo praised the work of the GM and criticised players such as Embiid and Markelle Fultz and former sixers Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel. In addition, some “insider information” such as the statement that a trade Okafors failed in the 2016/17 season because it had not passed a medical check.
Embiid joked on Twitter about the report and referred to one of the allegedly Colangelo owned accounts with the statement that its predecessor Sam Hinkie had been “better and smarter”. The all-star told ESPN that he had already spoken to Colangelo.
“I talked to him and he said he didn’t,” Embiid said. “He called me to contradict this report. I’ll believe him until proven otherwise. But if it’s true, that would be really bad.”
Colangelo himself published the following statement: “Like many of my colleagues in the sports world, I use social media to keep up to date. I’ve never posted anything myself, but I use the @Phila1234567 account on Twitter to keep track of our industry. This storyline disturbs me on several levels and I don’t know any of the accounts mentioned here. “I don’t know what the motivation is or where it comes from.”
Colangelo has been GM of the Sixers since 2016. Although the team has made great progress since then, the GM is a controversial figure among fans, accusing him of reaping only the fruits of the work of predecessor Hinkie. Some of the tweets in The Ringer’s overview also referred to this.