Bryan Colangelo Resigns As President Of 76ers In Wake Of Twitter Fiasco
BOSTON (CBS) -- An extremely appealing front office job is now open in the NBA.
The Philadelphia 76ers will be looking for a new team president this offseason. Bryan Colangelo has resigned as Philadelphia president of basketball ops. following the team's investigation into whether or not he was behind a number of burner Twitter accounts that made disparaging remarks about 76ers players, including young center Joel Embiid. There was also some sensitive medical information about players discussed on the accounts, which is not a very good look for an NBA executive or the team.
Colangelo denied knowledge of four of the accounts, admitting that he used one to follow news about the team and NBA. The 76ers launched an independent investigation into the matter, which determined that it was Colangelo's wife, Barbara Bottini, running the four other accounts.
"Our investigation revealed substantial evidence that Mr. Colangelo was the source of sensitive, non-public, club- related information contained in certain posts to the Twitter accounts. We believe that Mr. Colangelo was careless and in some instances reckless in failing to properly safeguard sensitive, non-public, club-related information in communications with individuals outside the 76ers organization," the law firm said following the investigation.
In a statement to announce his resignation, Colangelo maintains he did nothing wrong and said his wife acted independently.
"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," said Colangelo. "Further, the content she shared was filled with inaccuracies and conjecture which in no way represent my own views or opinions. While this was obviously a mistake, we are family and we will work through this together.
"Although I am not directly responsible for the actions, I regret this incident occurred and understand that it has become a distraction for the team. Therefore, the organization and I have mutually agreed to part ways," he said.
The 76ers will hold a press conference to address the matter Thursday afternoon.
There's speculation that former Cleveland Cavaliers GM David Griffin is the favorite to land Colangelo's job, which will give the 76ers the inside track to signing LeBron James this offseason. Celtics assistant GM Mike Zarren is also reportedly in the running.
