Maybe its not a Colangelo and here's why

The news of the week are the five Twitter "burner" accounts that the Ringer has attributed to Bryan Colangelo. Mind us, nothing said on these accounts was particularly significant or damning, but in the eggshell world of social media, where every word is analyzed and taken to heart, the digital world has made a mountain out of the "burner" molehills.

The public investigation has consumed social media and the sports talk and media world for 4 days now. Yet I'm starting to think that if the Tweeter was Colangelo or his wife, they would have quietly admitted this to the team by now and avoided the high priced  team and league investigations that have begun. Colangelo handed in his phones, unlike Tom Brady. He must not feel he has much to hide. If either Colangelo were involved, I suggest that BC would have already resigned, and negotiated an exit that saved face, family reputation and preserved substantial salary. While  the Colangelos remain the primary suspects until proven otherwise,  my separate guess is that the burner Tweeter is  someone either affiliated with the team's former GM, or an imposter trying to make some money on the media story as a source or through some other means, while harming Colangelo and Sixers at same time. Remember, there are several thousand "Process" fans, who pack venues for Lottery and Trust the Process events, and who pledge loyalty to the former GM, even if its all in fun and tongue in cheek. And they often follow the same media Twitter accounts the "burner" accounts are alleged to have followed. These men, who are mostly young and tech savy, could brag to be quite the hero if they managed to take the Colangelos down. As a group, they have to be in the suspect pool as well, right?

The Tweeter, and the "Source" who may be one and the same, is clearly someone or someones who knew enough about Colangelo's  personal life to push all the right buttons. Logically, the Source and Tweeter is/are someone with direct familiarity with Sixer's personnel issues,  but who is currently outside the NBA ecosystem and has less to lose by involving in this type of prank or strategy, since he has no NBA contract, job or revenue directly at stake if outed.  If the Tweeter is not a Colangelo, its may well be the former team executive or the Ringer's anonymous "Source" who ran the Twitter burner accounts, and then shut them down just after the Sixers were informed, to perfect the ruse. My guess from afar, without inside information on the subject, is that the Tweeter and the "Source" may be one and the same, or closely connected and that neither are named Colangelo.

Twitter account data is not easy to access. Without a pending civil action or criminal case, and a subpoena issued through that process, my understanding is that the only way Twitter will release private account information is if the account owner grants permission. I'm assuming Colangelo has already offered to grant permissions as part of the team investigation, because if he had refused, its highly likely that he would have been fired by now, or resigned. So Colangelo must be cooperating and since he hasn't resigned, logically he must think that the investigation will turn up another target. If Colangelo is fired without a proven revelation as to who the Tweeter was, we might need to wait until Colangelo's future suit against who he thinks is responsible (for slander), against the Sixers for termination, or some other action which would generate a subpoena which might ultimately reveal who the Tweeter was. Unless the league or team can convince the US Attorney or a District Attorney to bring a criminal case earlier.

Lets see how it plays out.