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But if you’re someone who covers the Sixers, someone who covered them during the Sam Hinkie and especially the post-Hinkie years, you don’t get Jerry Colangelo on the phone and not ask him about the strangest story in recent Philly sports history. So, Jerry, how is your son doing? “Bryan is doing fine,” he said. “He’s not in basketball, as you well know, and that’s a sad story from my perspective because he really had nothing to do with anything, if you know what I mean.”
Bryan resigned in June 2018, then all but vanished. He reportedly bought an ownership stake in an Australian professional team in 2020; otherwise, his name appears publicly only in retrospectives or rehashes about the still-mind-bending circumstances and events that led to the end of his career. Jerry did not mention what Bryan was doing now. “I look at it this way,” Jerry said. “He had 20 years in the NBA as a GM, three different teams. He was executive of the year a couple of times, and he established himself on his own as a legitimate executive in the NBA. “Things happen in life that don’t always work out the way you want them to, and in his case, that’s what transpired. But he was very, very strong in his support of his own wife. That became stronger after the fact. It brought them even closer. So it’s a happy ending in the sense that he may be out of basketball and that still pains him, for sure, but he’s doing well for himself. He’s a good young man with a good heart.”
It would certainly be worth asking Bryan what he thinks. Any chance he’d talk? “No, he’s so private in that sense,” Jerry Colangelo said. “That’s not something he would do. He wouldn’t. It’s not so much to protect himself. He doesn’t want anything said about anybody. That’s just his M.O. There’s nothing wrong with that. There really isn’t.”
For those who don’t remember, Colangelo was forced to resign following a report by The Ringer that determined he’d used five burner accounts to disparage predecessor Sam Hinkie and several Sixers players. It turns out that one of the many people whom Colangelo’s burner accounts funneled information to was Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who admitted in a recent appearance on the Hello and Welcome podcast that the accounts served as one of his “best sources.” “That was crazy,” said Pompey of Colangelo’s burner accounts. “But the crazy part is the account… The people used to reach out to me. That was one of my best sources all the time. It was great, that was one of my best sources. So when he got caught, I was like… Cause it was kinda like ‘Such and such is going to happen today.’ So I would write it. First, you would verify it. Then all of a sudden you’re like, how come nobody is upset? Stuff like that. But yeah, I was upset.”
The Sacramento Kings sent a strategic chauffeur to the airport late Saturday morning to bring DeMar DeRozan back to their downtown facility. When DeRozan stepped off the plane, he was met by Jay Triano, the Kings’ lead assistant coach who also happens to be DeRozan’s first NBA head coach. Triano remembered the last time he was included in a high-stakes meeting regarding DeRozan’s future. It was 2009, the pre-draft process. Triano and Toronto Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo flew to Oakland, Calif., to watch DeRozan work out. They were so impressed that they promised DeRozan afterward, if he was available at the ninth pick, they’d select him. Don’t worry about working out for anybody 10th or later. Promise kept.
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Speaking of Embiid, he took a shot at former Sixers GM Bryan Colangelo, referencing a series of burner accounts on Twitter that criticised him and former teammate Markelle Fultz. “I’ve been through a lot, whether you’re talking about GMs using burner accounts, talking trash on their players,” he said, talking about keeping the culture strong in the group.
Simmons’ agent, Rich Paul, and family had decided that he’d be better off working with one of his brothers, Liam, a former low-level Division I guard and assistant coach, who now coaches at Division II Colorado Christian University. Brown, who'd been promoted to interim GM in the wake of former team president Bryan Colangelo's Twitter scandal, wasn’t sure the reason for the change. It also didn’t matter.
In the two years since, Colangelo has scarcely spoken publicly about the incident. When he spoke to the Herald from Arizona, he knew it was the elephant in the room. "I haven’t addressed it very much over the course of the last two years. I have stayed very much under the radar on the topic because it’s a sensitive topic, for a lot of reasons," Colangelo said. "Family, personal, professional, or otherwise. I have to say I was dealt a pretty big blow, personally and professionally. And it’s been a difficult time dealing with the fallout. I was completely blindsided by the accusation and the storyline of the controversy."
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"Once that investigation was completed and I was absolved, I felt the appropriate thing to do - in conjunction with ownership there in Philly - was to mutually walk away. "It was a difficult decision and a difficult time for me. But I have to say, it was a very, very difficult time for my family. Because of some of the reasons that came to light, it was something I thought was important not to talk about, quite frankly. And we’re still dealing with that. "But the No.1 thing I thought needed to happen was trying to stay positive; preserve and love my family, protect their interests, emotionally or otherwise. And frankly, two years on, it’s gone. It’s in the past and I’m ready to move on."
This answer also shows Colangelo doesn’t deserve credibility. He wasn’t absolved. It was untrue when Colangelo said it at the time, and it’s untrue now. The investigators concluded only that they found no forensic evidence that proved Colangelo knew of the Twitter accounts before they became public – and that they had a significant impediment to finding that evidence. Bottini deleted the contents of her phone before surrendering it for review.
I knew little about Johnson when I first saw him in Ottawa. He was sporting a very tame fauxhawk — shaved on the sides and back, a shortish patch of hair running through the middle of his dome. At the time, Raptors president and general manager Bryan Colangelo traditionally held a dinner at training camp for the travelling media. At The Keg in ByWard Market, I told Colangelo that I thought Johnson’s haircut was interesting. Colangelo suggested that it would be a good look for me.
At the time, I had an unfortunate Jewfro, a look I have had little choice but to readopt during the pandemic. Indeed, I was the last person who should have that haircut. Colangelo was as aggressive in this situation as he was in trying to sign a free agent or work out a trade. Once the idea of me getting the cut got in his head, he would not let it go. He offered me a hundred dollars to do it. “I know how much you make, Bryan,” I said. “It’s going to take more than that.”
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