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Sixers Twitter Moments of the Decade

I looked through every single tweet since 2010 to write this piece.

Philadelphia 76ers v Orlando Magic Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images

From executives to players to fans, no team was more online than the Philadelphia 76ers this decade. It would be impossible to acknowledge every great tweet and tweeter on Sixers Twitter, so that’s not what I’m trying to do here.

Instead, I’m looking to capture the most significant Sixers Twitter moments (not individual people or tweets) of the 2010s. Because of the increasing online-ness as the decade went on, most of these moments come in the latter half of the decade.

The Sixers’ CEO bragging to the editor of Liberty Ballers

On January 30, 2013, Sixers center Spencer Hawes went for 12 points and 11 rebounds on 4-of-13 shooting in an 8-point win over the abysmal Washington Wizards. For some reason, Adam Aron viewed this as a big win over Mike Levin.

Marreese Speights’ one-sided feud with #dougcollins

On February 9, 2014, Marreese Speights scored 32 points, leading the Golden State Warriors to a 53-point win over the tanking Sixers. On the afternoon of the 11th, Speights unleashed this tweet, shouting out his former coach in Philly.

Of course, the 2013-14 season was the first of the Brett Brown era, and Doug Collins was only in an advisory role with the Sixers. But Speights clearly still had Collins on his mind. The Warriors played a game the night of this tweet, in which Speights scored just 4 points in 13 minutes, and the Warriors lost by 1 point to the Miami Heat.

Between May 21, 2011 (right after Speights’ final season in Philly during which he played just 11.5 minutes per game) and May 10, 2015, Speights tweeted about Doug Collins by name 13 times.

There was this one, laughing at the notion of Collins being intelligent.

And these three, all within a span of six months, during which Doug Collins was no longer coaching but apparently still giving Speights a good laugh.

Keith Pompey showing how wet the floor gets

On November 30, 2016, the Sixers had to delay and then eventually postpone their home game against the Sacramento Kings due to condensation on the floor. If you were wondering just how wet the floor was, Keith Pompey had you covered.

Howard Eskin gaffes

Howard once confused a form of fraud with a diner in Cherry Hill.

Howard found out about the Michael Carter-Williams trade four years after it happened.

Anyone who has followed Howard on Twitter knows he has plenty of other funny moments, but none as directly Sixers-related as these.

Joel Embiid being Joel Embiid

Joel Embiid recruiting LeBron James.

Joel Embiid hitting on celebrities.

Joel Embiid has talked a lot of trash on a lot of players, but arguably no instance was funnier than criticizing Hassan Whiteside’s plus/minus in a preseason game.

Joel Embiid made a joke.

Jalen Rose didn’t like the joke, so John Winter suggested Joel Embiid make another joke, this time at Rose’s expense (Rose famously guarded Kobe Bryant during his 81-point game).

Embiid made the exact joke John suggested he make.

#RaiseTheCat

A beautiful movement started by Dennis Grove. Should be brought back in my opinion.

Parents getting angry

KJ McDaniels’ mom really didn't want her son on the Sixers. This didn't happen on Twitter, but the fact that it was live tweeted makes it a Sixers Twitter Moment.

Then there was the time Kendall Marshall’s dad took to Twitter to blame his son losing minutes to Nik Stauskas on racism. The tweets were deleted, but this photo comes from Reddit user sfan76 on r/Sixers.

Around the same exact time as the Marshall tweets, this happened:

That wasn’t the only incident involving Jah’s dad — he also threatened Liberty Ballers writer Shamus Clancy. The tweet was deleted, but the screenshot lives on.

Please note: I am aware #FreeJah was a significant thing that happened, but I refuse to include it in this piece.

There was also the time Mike Muscala’s dad was shown to have made some racist tweets, including one about Jimmy Butler. The Sixers went on to trade for Butler later that year.

And most recently, Trey Burke’s dad got in on the action:

#RTArmageddon

Retweet Armageddon, started by the The Rights to Ricky Sanchez podcast, was a cool idea in a vacuum. People had said a lot of ignorant things about the Sixers, and bringing them up once it was clear we were right was really enjoyable.

Unfortunately, Retweet Armageddon launched after the Sixers acquired the pick they used on Markelle Fultz, which isn’t such a great memory (we were still right, though).

Kyle Scott of Crossing Broad put together a good list of tweets that were commonly retweeted during this time. Here’s a fun one not included in Kyle’s piece:

RTRS has had plenty of other good bits on Twitter. A favorite of mine was “Who is Paul Millsap?” after Millsap got an All-Star nod over Joel Embiid in Embiid’s rookie year.

Weird Markelle Fultz things

Markelle got off to a rough start on draft night.

These pyjamas were fire.

While he was out with a mysterious injury, he put some cryptic messages on social media.

Fultz returned to play in the 2018-19 season after a summer of training with Drew Hanlen. After continued terrible form, Hanlen revealed on Twitter that Fultz was still not healthy.

Burnergate

The Sixers’ story of the decade easily came from Ben Detrick of The Ringer.

Five twitter accounts: @phila1234567, @AlVic40117560, @Honesta34197118, @Enoughunkownso1, and @s_bonhams. Operated maybe by Bryan Colangelo? Maybe by his wife, Barbara Bottini? Maybe by his dad, Jerry Colangelo? Maybe all three?

Many tweets from these accounts can be found in Detrick’s article, and some more can be found in David Early’s one year anniversary piece from Liberty Ballers. There are too many good ones to include in this article, but re-reading these pieces is necessary to fully appreciate the best Sixers Twitter Moments of the Decade.

The most famous tweet from the burners was when @Enoughunkownso1 defended Bryan Colangelo’s clearly-too-big collar, tweeting “That’s a normal collar. Move on, find a new slant.” I would embed that tweet, but I can’t because it’s private.

Another great one is included below, in which a burner discloses private medical information.

Sixers Twitter solving Burnergate

After the Detrick piece came out, Liberty Ballers writer Adam Aaronson was able to tie three of the accounts to the same phone number.

The 91 phone number was eventually traced back to Colangelo’s wife, Barbara Bottini. This theory was initiated by David “Legs” Leggieri, and the evidence can be seen below.

Reaction to the burners

Season opener 2019

Other Favorites

I couldn’t help but throw in a few of my favorite tweets this decade, but this list is by no means exhaustive.

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