And, as if the NBA doesn't have ENOUGH problems...

• The Finals are the same Finals now, four years running.
• They are viewed, by many, to be one of the worst mismatches in history, pitting an all-but one-man team against what is viewed the greatest lineup in NBA history.

And now, less than 24 hours before they tip Game 1, the NBA has a problem which might cost them one of their team's top executives!!

There has been great controversy surrounding the Philadelphia 76ers and "The Process", something which has probably led to upwards of 2/3 to 3/4 of the teams tanking their seasons in hopes of gaining traction through other means.

(And, I'll be honest:  I think even the Warriors and Cavaliers tanked some of their season too.  Could easily see them having gotten bored and figured they needed to spice things up a little bit...)

But Bryan Colangelo, Director of Basketball Operations for the 76ers, is now under official team (and probably league!) investigation after sports blog The Ringer may have just blown the lid off of how he does business.

A way that, if true, probably isn't as surprising as anyone might want to think.

It's one thing to have what are called "sock puppet" accounts to talk shit at other people if you're one of these slimy-ass trolls and you want to try to get over on somebody on the Net.

It's quite something else if you're the Director of Basketball Operations of an NBA team, and you're doing this surreptitiously to throw key members of your team under the bus!

An anonymous party alerted The Ringer in February that Colangelo might be operating up to five Twitter accounts.

According to The Ringer, the last 3-4 months has been spent attempting to discern if Colangelo, through these accounts [now quoting from the blog post]:

• Criticize NBA players, including Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor, and Nerlens Noel
• Publicly debate the decisions of his own coaching staff, as well as critique former Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie and Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri
• Telegraph the 2017 trade in which the Sixers acquired the no. 1 overall pick that would become Markelle Fultz
• Disclose nonpublic medical information about Okafor and gossip about Embiid and Fultz to members of the national and Philadelphia media

[close quote]

This has tampering ramifications, including that of the #1 draft pick and probably multiple players and at least one other team's president -- as well as violations of HIPAA regarding at least one player and probably more...

It seems to indicate that, had these accounts not been "socking" for Colangelo, they claim Ben Simmons never comes to Philadelphia.

At least four 76ers players have been damaged by this apparent "sock puppet" scheme, if proven true.

The article notes the Tweet history:

• Outing the possibility that Jahlil Okafor would not pass a required physical for a February, 2017 trade that would've sent Okafor to New Orleans.  The trade fell through, but it is rumored it was simply due to not getting "pick protections" straightened around.  By December, another sock puppet claims no one wanted to take Okafor at all because of the problems -- he was eventually traded to Brooklyn last December, and passed a physical to complete the trade.
• Nerlens Noel was traded to Dallas for a 1st-round pick at the trade deadline of last season. One of the sock puppets did everything to try to ensure the end of his career, it appears.
• One of the sock puppets claimed Joel Embiid hid a knee injury that derailed a 76ers season.
• And then there's the story of Markelle Fultz and whatever caused him to lose the ability to shoot a basketball.

Read this thing, and start asking some real questions about Jerry Colangelo and the NBA...