Owner Bruce Levenson Selling Atlanta Hawks Over Allegedly Racist Email He Wrote

[BusSport]

From ESPN:

Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson is selling his controlling interest in the team, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced Sunday.

In July, Levenson self-reported an email he wrote to the team's co-owners and general manager Danny Ferry in August 2012 that he called "inappropriate and offensive." The league commenced an independent investigation after being made aware of the comments.

Levenson writes in a statement that the racially offensive comments came as he pondered ways to bridge Atlanta's racial sports divide and increase fan attendance at Hawks' games.

"In trying to address those issues, I wrote an e-mail two years ago that was inappropriate and offensive," he said. "I trivialized our fans by making clichéd assumptions about their interests (i.e. hip hop vs. country, white vs. black cheerleaders, etc.) and by stereotyping their perceptions of one another (i.e. that white fans might be afraid of our black fans). By focusing on race, I also sent the unintentional and hurtful message that our white fans are more valuable than our black fans."

"If you're angry about what I wrote, you should be," Levenson continued in the statement. "I'm angry at myself, too. It was inflammatory nonsense. We all may have subtle biases and preconceptions when it comes to race, but my role as a leader is to challenge them, not to validate or accommodate those who might hold them."

The controversial part of the email, part of a much longer email on other marketing issues:

4. Regarding game ops, i need to start with some background. for the first couple of years we owned the team, i didn’t much focus on game ops. then one day a light bulb went off. when digging into why our season ticket base is so small, i was told it is because we can’t get 35-55 white males and corporations to buy season tixs and they are the primary demo for season tickets around the league. when i pushed further, folks generally shrugged their shoulders. then i start looking around our arena during games and notice the following:

— it’s 70 pct black

— the cheerleaders are black

— the music is hip hop

— at the bars it’s 90 pct black

— there are few fathers and sons at the games

— we are doing after game concerts to attract more fans and the concerts are either hip hop or gospel.

Then i start looking around at other arenas. It is completely different. Even DC with its affluent black community never has more than 15 pct black audience.

Before we bought the hawks and for those couple years immediately after in an effort to make the arena look full (at the nba’s urging) thousands and thousands of tickets were being giving away, predominantly in the black community, adding to the overwhelming black audience.

My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a signficant season ticket base. Please dont get me wrong. There was nothing threatening going on in the arean back then. i never felt uncomfortable, but i think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority. On fan sites i would read comments about how dangerous it is around philips yet in our 9 years, i don’t know of a mugging or even a pick pocket incident. This was just racist garbage. When I hear some people saying the arena is in the wrong place I think it is code for there are too many blacks at the games.

I have been open with our executive team about these concerns. I have told them I want some white cheerleaders and while i don’t care what the color of the artist is, i want the music to be music familiar to a 40 year old white guy if that’s our season tixs demo. i have also balked when every fan picked out of crowd to shoot shots in some time out contest is black. I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black.

Gradually things have changed. My unscientific guess is that our crowd is 40 pct black now, still four to five times all other teams. And my further guess is that 40 pct still feels like 70 pet to some whites at our games. Our bars are still overwhelmingly black.

This is obviously a sensitive topic, but sadly i think it is far and way the number one reason our season ticket base is so low.

 

[Mecca]

What he wrote is actually kinda funny and not racist imo.

The guy is trying to raise his revenue, not devalue a group of people.

The funny part is that he's to stupid to figure out his own problem.

He bought a BASKETBALL team in one of the BLACKEST towns in the Country and he can't figure out where all the white people are?

Me smells a money grab.

Nothing gets our cackles up like a little race-baiting.

Lets see if Oprah and Magic come with a Billion to save the Hawks from the evil White man

Cha-ching!

 

[wlk3]

What he wrote is actually kinda funny and not racist imo.

The guy is trying to raise his revenue, not devalue a group of people.

The funny part is that he's to stupid to figure out his own problem.

He bought a BASKETBALL team in one of the BLACKEST towns in the Country and he can't figure out where all the white people are?

Me smells a money grab.

Nothing gets our cackles up like a little race-baiting.

Lets see if Oprah and Magic come with a Billion to save the Hawks from the evil White man

Cha-ching!

That's pretty smart of you... When I read it, I didn't see anything particularly racist... He's pretty much giving up but until reading your post couldn't figure out why (besides the Hawks suck)... Bring in a winner and all this changes... Just ask the Clips...

 

[Demonjoe93]

Yay, this means we might get a decent owner now.

 

[Mecca]

That's pretty smart of you... When I read it, I didn't see anything particularly racist... He's pretty much giving up but until reading your post couldn't figure out why (besides the Hawks suck)... Bring in a winner and all this changes... Just ask the Clips...

Damn you!!!!!


Seriously, the Clippers sold for 2 billion and that team was only worth MAYBE 1/4 of that.

You don't think some of the other owners are looking at this and thinking......hmmmm?

The Hawks were not supposed to make the playoffs last year.

They have a feel good story, are viewed as underdogs and are now embroiled in scandal?

Show me the money!!!!

 

[wildturkey]

I can't figure this out. There's information missing somewhere for this to be put into proper context. For one, the email isn't racist. It's basically real talk. Atlanta is pretty damn segregated (not the only city in the US like that). If anything, the email is chastises whites of the region for being racists. And he's searching for ways to get those racist whites money because the black population isn't enough from his perspective. Again, nothing racist. Just brutal realities of society that makes lots of folks uncomfortable.

Secondly, it makes no sense to self-report that or to even dig it up. Even if it were racist, why would you turn yourself in? Has someone been doing a full investigation and he's just trying to get ahead of it?

Lastly, I thought maybe he's doing this to cash out and by bringing up something controversial, he is guaranteeing the sale of the team in light of Donald Sterling. But why would anyone potentially label themselves a racist just for a guaranteed sale? He could have just put the team up for sale straight up and likely would have had a buyer approved by the league.

It just reads weird right now. I don't think all the cards are on the table yet. Heck, it really doesn't even look like the NBA put any pressure on him at all to sell. He looks like he did it all on his own and the NBA was like "Yeah, that email may or may not be a problem but if this is what you want..."

 

[Lakers+USC=#1]

I can't figure this out. There's information missing somewhere for this to be put into proper context. For one, the email isn't racist. It's basically real talk. Atlanta is pretty damn segregated (not the only city in the US like that). If anything, the email is chastises whites of the region for being racists. And he's searching for ways to get those racist whites money because the black population isn't enough from his perspective. Again, nothing racist. Just brutal realities of society that makes lots of folks uncomfortable.

Secondly, it makes no sense to self-report that or to even dig it up. Even if it were racist, why would you turn yourself in? Has someone been doing a full investigation and he's just trying to get ahead of it?

Lastly, I thought maybe he's doing this to cash out and by bringing up something controversial, he is guaranteeing the sale of the team in light of Donald Sterling. But why would anyone potentially label themselves a racist just for a guaranteed sale? He could have just put the team up for sale straight up and likely would have had a buyer approved by the league.

It just reads weird right now. I don't think all the cards are on the table yet. Heck, it really doesn't even look like the NBA put any pressure on him at all to sell. He looks like he did it all on his own and the NBA was like "Yeah, that email may or may not be a problem but if this is what you want..."

I had the same feelings. As i was reading it, i was trying to find the smoking gun, that pointed to him being racist and i couldn't find it. I feel like there is more to this story that we don't know about.

 

[Epoch1]

What he wrote is actually kinda funny and not racist imo.

The guy is trying to raise his revenue, not devalue a group of people.

The funny part is that he's to stupid to figure out his own problem.

He bought a BASKETBALL team in one of the BLACKEST towns in the Country and he can't figure out where all the white people are?

Me smells a money grab.

Nothing gets our cackles up like a little race-baiting.

Lets see if Oprah and Magic come with a Billion to save the Hawks from the evil White man

Cha-ching!

I read the article thinking he was under pressure. I also read the email which is anything but racist. It read like an exec of a multi-million collar business trying to make his business more productive.

Other then the remark that it was the NBA that "suggested" he give out free tickets to blacks (kind of racist itself) I didn't see any pressure on him. He basically brought it up himself.

After reading the comments, especially Mecca's, I have to agree. Maybe he is seeing the billions the Clippers went for and decided that there is some fool with gold out there.

Take the money and run!

 

[LogicMan]

This seems like a play on selling off while the price tag could be high. Interesting times at the ownership levels in the NBA. He is not the only owner who should consider selling out.

 

[trojanfan12]

I'm wondering if this is the beginning of the "slippery slope" that Mark Cuban talked about?

Sure, this could be him trying to capitalize on folks being "hyper alert" to anything remotely racist, but I think it's also possible that this could be just the beginning and we'll see other issues besides racism start to come out.

There is word coming out that the private support from owners for Silver's actions against Sterling wasn't nearly as strong as the public support from owners. Apparently, behind the scenes, several owners are/were concerned about what else could be used as leverage to take away their ownership.

 

[True Lakers Fan]

I'm wondering if this is the beginning of the "slippery slope" that Mark Cuban talked about?

Sure, this could be him trying to capitalize on folks being "hyper alert" to anything remotely racist, but I think it's also possible that this could be just the beginning and we'll see other issues besides racism start to come out.

There is word coming out that the private support from owners for Silver's actions against Sterling wasn't nearly as strong as the public support from owners. Apparently, behind the scenes, several owners are/were concerned about what else could be used as leverage to take away their ownership.

My response to Mark Cuban and anyone who supports his statements is this: Are you sure it isn't the NBA now holding the owners to a higher standard of integrity and equal treatment to the employees and fans regardless of race, creed, or sexual preference? The owner has openly admitted his guilt and has volunteered to sell the team because of his racist emails, so why is their even a debate or question about what he said? Emails would be the easiest thing to deny because of how easy it is to change them and make the other person look guilty. I am sometimes awed at how gullible the courts are at accepting emails as proof in court. My point, however is the guy admitted guilt - let him leave and let the door hit him on the way out

 

[Demonjoe93]

I wonder how worried I should be about the team moving because of this.

 

[Clayton]

I wonder how worried I should be about the team moving because of this.

It almost sounds like the owner wanted to move the team. 'Other teams dont have to deal with our racists whites and our blacks without money'

He is NARC'ing on the whole NBA profit model. The owner wants out before it blows up because his team couldn't recruit any major stars to come in the offseason because Atlanta has a stigma. But that stigma is with a soft fanbase for basketball in the middle of football country and a huge Braves fanbase

 

[Demonjoe93]

It almost sounds like the owner wanted to move the team. 'Other teams dont have to deal with our racists whites and our blacks without money'

He is NARC'ing on the whole NBA profit model. The owner wants out before it blows up because his team couldn't recruit any major stars to come in the offseason because Atlanta has a stigma. But that stigma is with a soft fanbase for basketball in the middle of football country and a huge Braves fanbase

Well, we had some momentum, but that's gone now. Now all I can hope for is the team not moving.

 

[Clayton]

Well, we had some momentum, but that's gone now. Now all I can hope for is the team not moving.

Seattle Hawks? Yeah, that'd be terrible

 

[HammerDown]

So what is Chris Broussard talking about on ESPN right now about Danny Ferry being disciplined as well? What did he do?

 

[BusSport]

I also read the email which is anything but racist. It read like an exec of a multi-million collar business trying to make his business more productive.

Uh... Freudian slip?

 

[HammerDown]

Zero racism here. If it meant more profit, he'd have said the exact opposite.

 

[lakersrule]

 

[GNG]

Yay, this means we might get a decent owner now.

Maybe Charles Barkley.