Joel Embiid rips 76ers executive linked to Twitter accounts that were critical of the NBA star
- Joel Embiid ripped Philadelphia 76ers' president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo after a report linked the executive to five Twitter accounts.
- In a tweet shortly after the report was published, Embiid called former 76ers GM and president Sam Hinkie "better and smarter" than Colangelo.
- Embiid did later walk back the criticism of Colangelo a tad after he spoke with Colangelo.
Joel Embiid ripped Philadelphia 76ers' president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo after a report linked the executive to Twitter accounts that had been critical of the team's star.
In a bombshell report by Ben Detrick of The Ringer, Colangelo was linked to accounts that called Embiid "a bit lazy," "selfish," and "acting like a tool." The accounts also said Embiid was hurting the team, struggling to deal with the 76ers being Ben Simmons' team, and even strongly suggested the team should trade Embiid for Kristaps Porzingis who is "such a smarter player."
Embiid fired back at Colangelo in a not-too-subtle tweet shortly after the report was published. In a tweet that mocked the idea of using a burner Twitter account, Embiid called former 76ers GM and president Sam Hinkie "better and smarter" than Colangelo. The Tweet also tagged one of the accounts linked to Colangelo in The Ringer report.
Hinkie is credited with developing "The Process" in which the 76ers tanked several seasons in order to obtain high draft picks, one of which became Embiid. But after several dreadful seasons, Hinkie was seemingly forced out and replaced by Colangelo.
Shortly after Embiid's tweet, he did walk back the criticism of Colangelo a tad when he spoke with ESPN.
"I talked to [Colangelo], and he said that he didn't say that," Embiid told ESPN. "He called me just to deny the story. Gotta believe him until proven otherwise. If true though, that would be really bad."
The anonymous Twitter accounts were also critical of No. 1 pick Markelle Fultz, head coach Brett Brown, other NBA executives, and even appeared to reveal private medical information of Jahlil Okafor.
The five accounts were discovered by an anonymous source who contacted The Ringer after noticing a "bunch of weird tweets," and then using an analysis tool that linked the accounts based on "commonalities including similarities in who the accounts followed and linguistic quirks," according to Detrick.
The 76ers confirmed that one of the accounts belonged to Colangelo, but he denied any association with the others.
Shortly after Detrick contacted the 76ers about two of the accounts, the other three accounts were switched to private.