After the bizarre turn of events involving the Philadelphia Eagles and the White House-trip-that-wasn’t, it’s only fitting that the city turns its attention to the resolution of the Bryan Colangelo “Woodergate” scandal.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the 76ers’ owners convened in New York to discuss the fate of their president of basketball operations. According to Wojnarowksi, the decision to terminate or retain Colangelo could be announced today.
Thanks to the relentless sleuthing of various internet detectives, including Crossing Broad’s own Kyle Scott, it has become painfully clear that the man behind the curtain of the various Colangelo-linked Twitter burner accounts first investigated by The Ringer’s Ben Detrick is actually a woman: Barbara Bottini, the wife of the embattled Sixers executive.
Wojnarowski’s deeply-sourced reporting has corroborated the evidence gathered on social media; he asserted that the law firm that the 76ers hired to investigate the issue has interviewed Colangelo and Bottini during their own information-gathering process.
Given the deep embarrassment that this entire situation has caused the franchise, it appears imminent that Colangelo will be handed his walking papers.
There is simply too much at stake for the 76ers, who have only recently emerged from a painful rebuilding process that saw the team become something of a laughingstock. Armed with a talented, playoff-tested core, a lottery selection, and the cap space needed to reel in a prime free agent, now was not the time for the Sixers to once again become the butt of the joke. But the indiscretions of the Colangelo camp have eroded much of the hard-earned credibility the 76ers regained with their 52-win regular season campaign.
