Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo could be getting a little hot under the normal collar. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Sixers ownership spent “hours” Tuesday night discussing whether to fire Colangelo.
Not a Woj Bomb yet, but definitely a Lit Woj Fuse:
A decision could be reached as soon as Wednesday, league sources said.
The Sixers retained the law firm of Paul/Weiss to investigate several secret Twitter accounts that have been tied to Colangelo and his wife, Barbara. Investigators interviewed Colangelo, 53, and his wife separately for several hours Sunday and Monday, league sources said.
Colangelo has professed no knowledge of his wife’s alleged year-plus of unleashing privileged information and attacks on Sixers players, coaches and former and rival executives, sources said. The Sixers ownership is struggling to separate Colangelo from his wife, if she indeed posted those remarks.
As a result of The Ringer’s investigation, Colangelo admitted to owning one anonymous Twitter account, though it never tweeted. Of the four other accounts in question, some of which defended Colangelo, criticized players, and appeared to reveal confidential team information, Twitter sleuths quickly linked three to a publicly available phone number and email address owned by Colangelo’s wife, Barbara Bottini.
Colangelo has reportedly claimed his wife went rogue, and according to Woj he stuck to that story in his interviews with investigators. Can that have been disproven in this days-long investigation, which now appears to be over despite all the juicy billable hours left unbilled? It can never be proven, which probably bodes ill for Colangelo’s future.
Even if Bottini did act independently, perception matters, especially heading into free agency. Woj reports that head coach Brett Brown will be “front and center” in the Sixers’ free-agent presentations next month either way, but it feels untenable to keep Colangelo around very much longer.
[ESPN]