NBA News: Bruce Levenson Selling Atlanta Hawks Because of ‘Racially Offensive’ Email He Wrote Two Years Ago

NBA News: Bruce Levenson Selling Atlanta Hawks Because of 'Racially Offensive' Email He Wrote Two Years Ago

Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson on Sunday announced that he is selling his controlling interest in the franchise because of remarks he made that he says were racially insensitive, according to an NBA news from The Guardian.

The racially insensitive remarks were contained in an internal memo dated August 25, 2012, addressed to then newly appointed President of Basketball Operations and General Manager for the Atlanta Hawks, Danny Ferry, on the subject "Re: Business/Game ops." It discussed ways of boosting ticket sales, presented some figures regarding the racial composition of fans who go to the Hawks arena and somehow "suggested that southern white men might not be comfortable in an arena with a high percentage of African American fans." Part of that memo reads: "My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season ticket base."

Levenson himself surrendered to league officials his 2012 internal memo. He also released a public apology to fans. He said: "In trying to address those issues, I wrote an email two years ago that was inappropriate and offensive. If you're angry about what I wrote, you should be. 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."

NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in an opinion published by Time, says Levenson in his email "wasn't valuing white fans over blacks; he was trying to figure out a way to change what he thought was the white perception in Atlanta so he could sell more tickets. That's his job." In fact, maintained Kareem, "his worst crime is misguided white guilt."

Following ex-Clippers owner Donald Sterling's disgrace and banishment from NBA for some racial slurs he made in private, but which were secretly recorded and made public, all other franchises, but Atlanta more so, it seems, have become much more sensitive to their own hidden prejudices. The Hawks according to Miami Herald will be punishing general manager Danny Ferry for having described the Heat's Luol Deng during an internal conference as someone who "has a little African in him."

 

 

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