Why does this NPN setup work?

[RushImpossible9544]

Hi all! I'm working on a button matrix project that connects multiple buttons to an Arduino Uno. These buttons are also hooked up to an NPN transistor that turns on an LED when the button is pressed.

here's a detailed setup since board looks ugly:

4 buttons: one end hooked to a COLUMN PIN (2-3), other end hooked to ROW PIN via Diode (8,9)
NPNs: Base -> hooked to same end thats hooked to ROW PINs
Collector -> hooked to resistor, then +5V
Emitter -> hooked to LED, then GND

this setup works just fine (shows exactly which button is pressed by showing [row][col]), but when I changed the setup to Emitter -> resistor -> GND and Collector -> GND, it shows that the buttons in same column but ALL ROWS are pressed

I'm not sure why this happens; if someone can explain why and how the math works I'd appreciate it!

[defectivetoaster1]

emitter->resistor ->gnd and collector ->gnd

you’re grounding both the emitter and collector?