The NBA is 2018’s best soap opera

Tuesday was supposed to be a boring night in the sports world. The NBA Finals don’t start until Thursday, the Stanley Cup Final was between games. But then The Ringer dropped this utterly stunning story about Sixers president Bryan Colangelo running five anonymous Twitter accounts to talk trash about his players and leak sensitive information.

What happened next is a perfect example of why the NBA seems like it will inevitably overtake the NFL as America’s most popular sport. I know most sports fans don’t care about Twitter but this was literally the only thing sports fans on Twitter were talking about last night. They were digging up other tweets that the original article didn’t include, like ones where Colangelo apparently revealed his political beliefs. The speculated about Sam Hinkie possibly being the source who leaked the accounts’ existence to The Ringer.

Joel Embiid, who was heavily criticized by the accounts allegedly belonging to Colangelo, broadcast his reaction to the entire world.

Later, presumably after someone from the Sixers got him on the phone, he said he was just playing around.

It’s impossible for me to believe this isn’t Colangelo, though. I mean, one of the accounts tweeted repeatedly about the Division-III college team Colangelo’s son plays for. There’s also this bit of inside info from Adrian Wojnarowski:

But for me, the big takeaway is that this could never happen in the NFL. Not in a million years. The NFL just takes itself way too seriously for this sort of story to be treated a fun opportunity to crack jokes, the way it is now with Colangelo. If John Elway was found to have a secret Twitter account where he trash-talked Trevor Siemien (which, he honestly should), the NFL would lauch an investigation, Roger Goodell would give a very stonefaced press conference where he talked about “the integrity of the game” and the Broncos would end up being docked a sixth-round draft pick. All that’s going to happen here is that Colangelo will (probably) lose his job and this will become one of those hilarious NBA stories fans talk about for years, like Kurt Rambis liking a porn tweet. What a great league.

This guy isn’t as good at covering his tracks as Bryan Colangelo

Colangelo was able to keep the Twitter accounts under wraps for years—this New Jersey coach who fabricated an entire track meet barely lasted a week.

Corey Johnson said his team, the Newark Flames Track Club, participated in a meet called Brick City Invitational on May 20. He entered times for the races into a popular timekeeping website, adding results for at least five other teams. But the meet never happened. He made the whole thing up to make his runners look better.

The whole thing fell apart when people whose teams were listed as attending the meet called foul.

"Notre Dame never heard of this meet," Joe McLaughlin, head coach of Notre Dame in Palisades Park, told NorthJersey.com. "And we never entered this meet. Besides, we hosted our own meet that day."

Johnson admitted to faking the meet after the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association launched an investigation. The NJSIAA is now trying to verify the Flames’ other times.

Hey man, let me borrow those?

Rays outifelder Carlos Gomez forgot to wear sunglasses, so he borrowed a pair from a fan.

Bits & Pieces

In other Process news, Ben Simmons is dating a Kardashian—Kendall Jenner, to be exact. ...The world’s oldest basketball court is in need of some repairs. ... Some YouTube idiot was arrested for falsley telling people there was an active shooter so he could film their reactions. ... Self-driving cars still don’t know how to drive themselves. ... A Louisiana preacher is asking his congregants to buy him a $54 million private jet. ... The government doesn’t want you roasting marshmallows over Hawaiian volcanoes.

That’s a buff cat

I’ve gotta start watching more Rockies games

The most brutal own of the first century

NFL teams are way too stuck-up to do this

And the woman in the green plays defense like she’s from the Pac-12

Looks pretty fun until you think about how to clean it

One of my favorite obscure sports traditions

A good song

Hot Clicks is everything you need to know in the world of sports and pop culture, ready for you to read right when you get to your desk in the morning. Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or ping me on Twitter. Click here for previous editions of Hot Clicks. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.