The Philadelphia 76ers have accepted the immediate resignation of president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo following an investigation into alleged Twitter activity by Colangelo and his wife.
The club's head coach Brett Brown, a former Australian Boomers coach, will oversee basketball operations until a new general manager is found.
The investigation concluded that Colangelo's wife, Barbara Bottini, was responsible for the existence of four anonymous Twitter accounts that leaked information about the 76ers and been critical of the team's coach and some players.
The accounts also tweeted favorable opinions about Colangelo while denigrating Philadelphia's former general manager, Sam Hinkie.
Bottini admitted to establishing and operating the accounts, but it is unclear if Colangelo was aware of them before a May 22 story by US website TheRinger.
Investigators also say they were impeded by Bottini executing a factory reset of her phone before turning it over for forensic review.
Regardless, the investigation concluded Colangelo "was careless and in some instances reckless in failing to properly safeguard sensitive, non-public, club-related information in communications with individuals outside the 76ers organisation."
"I vigorously dispute the allegation that my conduct was in any way reckless" Colangelo said. "At no point did I ever purposefully or directly share any sensitive, non-public, club-related information with (my wife).
"Her actions were a seriously misguided effort to publicly defend and support me, and while I recognise how inappropriate these actions were, she acted independently and without my knowledge or consent."
One of the accounts reportedly passed along private medical information about then-Sixers center Jahlil Okafor plus gossip about other players, including star big man Joel Embiid.
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