This story tarnishes one of sport’s best feel-good stories of the last five years–the rise of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76er’s.
The mystifying story about the 76’s Bryan Colangelo—and how he presumably used multiple pseudonyms on Twitter to communicate nasty things about his team—reminds me of an experience I had a few years ago.
An executive search firm contacted me about a friend of mine who was interviewing for an institutional presidency. An otherwise uneventful interview ended with this question: “Is there any reason to believe that your friend will do something to put his career in jeopardy?” I answered no, but couldn’t resist asking why the interviewer would ask that question.
“Successful people often do themselves in,” she answered without hesitating. “It happens all the time.”
I remember putting down the phone and having Pete Rose’s face flash in my mind’s eye. Rose couldn’t resist gambling—even on his own team. No Hall of Fame for him.
Back then, Rose’s plight seemed like a one-off. Today it’s a pattern. Social media is one reason—Twitter in particular. The undoing of success seems constant, across personalities and fields. Roseanne is but one example.
Unlike Roseanne and others, though, Colangelo is accused of expressing his opinions with face shrouded and identity hidden. ‘Burner accounts’ (i.e., masked Twitter accounts used to criticize) were used–five of them, according to accounts.
From The Ringer
Ben Detrick of The Ringer broke the story.
In February, Detrick received an anonymous tip about Colangelo’s use of ‘secret’ Twitter accounts to criticize the 76ers. Detrick investigated and what he found was, in a word, bizarre.
Among other things, the tweets shared previously private medical information about two players, predicted a trade, criticized players, and questioned coaching decisions.
Here are several tweets in question — courtesy of Eliot Shorr-Parks and NJ.com:
Eric jr @AlVic40117560 Replying to @SixerSense alternative fact: Joel is not the future of the franchise, so who cares if he is not 100%, let’s exploit him 12:58 PM – Feb 11, 2017
Eric jr @AlVic40117560 Replying to @BehindCurve @BobCooney76 I agree, i think Colangelo’s reorganization of the franchise and his good work area making Hinkie look better than he could’ve made himself 7:58 AM – Jul 15, 2017
Detrick and his colleagues then did more digging into the matter. Finding sufficient reason for concern, Detrick shared the results with Sixers’ management. The team responded quickly and publicly.
“The allegations are serious and we have commenced an independent investigation into the matter,” read a Sixers’ statement. “We will report the results of that investigation as soon as it is concluded.”
What do I think about all of this? I don’t like it at all. It’s an example of what I call ‘out-of-line executive leadership.’ That happens when executives lash out at people, circumstances, and other things associated with an organization they lead. To wit, how would you like it if your boss said nasty things about you, including criticizing your work publicly? Behaviors like that can turn an organizational culture upside-down.
Some journalists find the Colangelo affair to be inconsequential. “Goofy” is how Jason Gay described it, an extreme case of Twitter antics.
That’s a fair assessment in at least one respect: no other sport is as Twitter-obsessed as NBA basketball. “On social media, there’s nothing like NBA Twitter,” writes Rick Maese of The Washington Post. “The NBA is the most tweeted-about sports league in 2018, according to Twitter, with more than 100 million NBA-related tweets heading into the NBA Finals,” says Maese.
Fine. But let’s not confuse social media use with leadership decorum.
With that in mind, I predict that Colangelo’s NBA executive career will end if he’s found to be the perpetrator. It would be yet another case of a successful person doing himself in.
And this mess doesn’t get any better if it’s about ‘politics’—that is, somebody either connected to Colangelo or the Sixers’ organization is going after Colangelo and using him in some way. With that in mind (and to make this matter even more bizarre) multiple press reports have tied the burner accounts to Colangelo’s wife, Barbara Bottini.
No matter how this story ends, it spoils one of the best (albeit controversial) NBA stories over the last few years. It’s a story about “The Process” — the team-development strategy Sam Hinkie (former Sixers’ GM and president of basketball operations) put in place starting way back in 2013-14.
Frank Fear @frankfear May 31 12:28 pm.: There are sports stories that make me happy and there are sports stories that make me sad. This sports story makes me mad.
