Report: Jerry Colangelo threatened to hurt 76ers' relationships to save son's job
Jerry Colangelo, the father of recently resigned Philadelphia 76ers executive Bryan Colangelo, and a current special adviser to the organization, reportedly threatened to impact the team's relationships with other teams in an effort to save his son's job, several sources told PhillyVoice's Kyle Neubeck.
The 78-year-old Colangelo became a special adviser to the Sixers in December 2015 amid the team's long-term, loss-heavy rebuild known colloquially as "The Process." In April 2016, the organization accepted the resignation of general manager Sam Hinkie and installed Jerry's son, Bryan, as the team's president of basketball operations and GM.
For his part, Sixers co-managing owner Josh Harris shot down the reports that Jerry Colangelo intervened to attempt to save his son's standing amid fallout from a social media scandal centered on the disclosure of sensitive, confidential information on anonymous Twitter accounts operated by Bryan's wife, Barbara Bottini.
"Jerry was not involved with the process in any way," Harris said at the team's press conference Thursday afternoon. "I am aware of the press report - it's just not true. We did give Jerry a heads up at the end of the process, this morning just before (the press conference). Jerry was respectful of the process we had to go through."
The elder Colangelo has significant influence throughout basketball. In five-plus decades around the NBA, he has served at various points as the general manager and head coach of the Phoenix Suns, and eventually went on to own the team from 1987-2004. He has sat as the chairman of both USA Basketball and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
When asked if Bryan's split from the organization could prelude Jerry's own departure, Harris said, "That's not today's issue. Certainly I've appreciated Jerry's counsel. His deal goes through the end of the year. We're going to be talking about that and it's probably not today's issue, but we've enjoyed having Jerry. I think this whole thing is unfortunate. My respect for him is certainly not colored by this unfortunate situation."