forecasted Jayson Tatum trade
It was surprising last year when the Celtics announced they traded the No. 1 overall pick to the Sixers in exchange for the No. 3 selection. That is, unless you were following one of Philly general manager Bryan Colangelo’s alleged secret Twitter accounts.
The Ringer, through superb Internet snooping, determined Colangelo was likely operating five Twitter handles on the down-low. When reporter Ben Derrick presented two of the accounts to the 76ers, Colangelo admitted to using one of them for news-gathering purposes. Curiously, the three that Derrick didn’t mention went private.
One of those accounts, “Still Balling,”
liked a tweet last May that argued for sending the No. 3 pick and the 2018 Lakers pick to Boston for the top draft choice. Of course, during the week of the NBA Draft, the Sixers made that exact trade.
During the regular season, “Still Balling” posted disparaging tweets about Markelle Fultz, in an apparent effort to defend Colangelo’s trade. While Jayson Tatum blossomed into a star, Fultz only played 17 games last season, due to an enigmatic shoulder condition and lost jump shot. On Dec. 9, “Still Balling” presented an alternative theory about Fultz’s struggles, blaming them on his mentor and longtime family friend.
“If somebody would care to go look for the story of what happened with his so called mentor/father figure… it would explain a lot about the shoulder and Fultz ‘ state of mind,” Still Balling wrote.
Later in the season, “Still Balling” accused Sixers coach Brent Brown of benching Fultz to undermine the team. “I think that it would shorten Brett’s rope on ‘why we lost’ alibi,” the account tweeted to Sixers announcer Marc Zumoff. “So Brett would rather keep him out.”
In addition to Fultz, the mysterious accounts disparaged Joel Embiid, Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafar, even speculating that Okafor failed a previously unannounced physical.
It’s unlikely Colangelo would be able to survive if more evidence ties him to these curious Twitter accounts that defended him at every turn, followed people in his life and seemed to possess inside knowledge about the Sixers organization. Not only would it destroy his relationships with players, but it would undermine his trust with other general managers. Danny Ainge was negotiating with Colangelo about trading the No. 1 pick leading up to last year’s draft. And one of Colangelo’s alleged burner accounts broadcasted their intentions to the world weeks before the deal went down.