This is what really lessens the chances that it is just a random person attempting to frame Colangelo.
I think there's realistically three options (in increasing order of likelihood IMO):
1. The author did it - talk about a long con. Would require years of running burner twitter accounts with meticulous detail
and getting access to and leaking top-level scooped insights and quotes anonymously vs. publishing them through his journalism platform. This feels like a stretch to me, I'm putting it last on my list
2. Colangelo himself did it - Everything points to this except for three things: the phone number of the account Colangelo owned up to is different than the others, he has repeatedly said that it wasn't him posting, and the incentives here just don't make any sense...I mean the Big Collar can be irrational at times and make poor basketball decisions, but man what you gain by doing this vs. what you lose if caught is just totally misaligned. I think this is possible (and more likely than author doing it), but it's not my bet
3. (What I think actually happened) - It's a different Colangelo! - We know the person who did this would have talked to Bryan Colangelo shortly after the author brought the first two accounts to the Sixers attention, which is how they realized they should close the other three accounts. We also know that the accounts indicated a deep interest in elements of Colangelo's personal life (following his son's basketball teammates and coaches, his old days from the Raptors, etc.). We
also know the three most active anonymous accounts have a different phone number and email than the only one BC owned up to. Any other Colangelo would share all three of these characteristics
So I'm going with Colonel Mustard (Jerry Colangelo) in the Conservatory (likely his study) with the Candlestick (probably a desktop given Jerry's age
)
The real question is what happens to Colangelo? If it's #1, nothing happens. If it's #2, he's clearly fired.
If it's #3, how does the org handle what's going to be a super toxic situation? Clearly the info would have gotten to that source, likely through Bryan. Keeping him without clearly exonerating him by finding the villain here would make the Sixers a super undesirable free agent destination right when they're going for Lebron. I still think he'd have to go...