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Sixers Beat Reporter Made Shockingly Honest Admission About Former GM's Twitter Burner

Bryan Colangelo stepped down from his role with the Sixers after a social media scandal.

Josh Wilson

Colangelo was general manager of the Sixers for two years.
Colangelo was general manager of the Sixers for two years. / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
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If you missed it or otherwise forgot this obscure chapter in Philadelphia 76ers history, you would be forgiven because other similar wild and nearly unbelievable stories have come out of the Philadelphia 76ers rebuilding period over the last decade or so. But at one point, a general manager stepped down from his post with the team after he was tied to social media "burner" accounts that shared sensitive team information, including health and injury details of players.

The Sixers had the accounts investigated and it was determined that Colangelo's wife established and ran the accounts, sharing sensitive information that Colangelo was the source of. She admitted her involvement, and an investigating law firm painted Colangelo as reckless as the source of the account's inforrmation.

Years later, a Sixers beat reporter addressed the burner accounts, admitting that the account was one of his, "best sources," in an interview with the Hello and Welcome podcast.

"When he got caught, I was mad!"

The idea of a beat reporter for an established outlet using an anonymous social media account as a source lands as a bit wild. Pompey went on to say that after some claims were made and verified, it became clear to people in the circle that the account was more than just your standard fan-run troll account.

"It was kind of like, 'such and such is gonna happen today.' And so I would like, write it. I mean, first you would verify it."

Somehow, this doesn't even crack the top-five craziest things to come out around the Sixers in the last several years.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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