Per a report early Friday morning by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe, the Sixers are seriously considering dismissing their president of basketball operations as the probe has become increasingly focused on Colangelo’s wife.
Colangelo, a two-time past NBA Executive of the Year, has discussed with ownership and upper management the possibility that his wife, Barbara Bottini, may have been involved in the postings of the tweets from so-called burner accounts, league sources said.
While many of Colangelo’s staff with the Sixers are bracing for his dismissal, some are still holding on to hope that he can somehow survive this firestorm with this job, sources say.
Ownership fears that Colangelo’s credibility inside and outside the organization may be too badly damaged to continue his job, especially within a month of a July free-agency period when the Sixers plan to pursue superstars such as LeBron James and Paul George to partner with young stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver responded to the turmoil surrounding Colangelo and the Sixers at his annual NBA Finals news conference on Thursday, cautioning against a rush to judgment on the controversy.
“The notion here was, let’s find out what’s going on,” Silver said. “You have to separate sort of the chatter and sort of what either fans or, frankly, the media are saying from the facts. And the first thing we have to do here is determine what the actual facts are in this circumstance.”
Bad PR is everything when it comes to losing free agents. They may have no choice but to fire him.
