Hawks owner will sell team after racist e-mail surfaces

Bruce Levenson wrote the email in 2012, and he announced intention to sell after a meeting with Silver. The whole thing isn't out there yet, but Woj says details of apology email include:

Adrian Wojnarowski @WojYahooNBA · 11m
Levenson released statement, outlining details of 2012 email and an apology. "I trivialized our fans by making cliched assumptions…"

Levenson (cont) "…about their interests (i.e. hip hop vs country, white vs. black cheerleaders, etc.) and stereotyping their perceptions…"

Levenson (cont) "…of one another (i.e. white fans might be afraid of our black fans…If you're angry about what I wrote, you should be."

https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA

Forbes says Hawks are worth $316 million. Guessing they go for twice that.

 

Racism pays.

 

Email is here:

http://deadspin.com/heres-the-email-that-forced-hawks-owner-barry-levenson-1631640411

 

So, everyone continued to work for Sterling because they "didn't know" he was racist.

This email was sent to Danny Ferry and two others.

What do we think of their decision to continue to work for a racist, and not resign, or expose him as a racist?

 

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.

And yet:

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.

It's gold, Jerry!

 

This racist is racist against white people.

 

Call me cynical, but I also wonder if Levenson, who has tried to sell the Hawks for years, saw what happened with Donald Sterling and figured, hell, I can become a racist billionaire, too!

http://m.thenation.com/blog/181516-out-executing-nba-game-plan-atlanta-hawks-and-levenson-e-mail

Interestingly, one defender of the email is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Then again, he's appearing in a Wisconsin tourism commercial in which he sports a Bucks uniform and wonders why he ever left (uh, because he thought Milwaukee was full of racist hilljacks?), so maybe he's re-evaluating his whole value system.

http://time.com/3296175/bruce-levenson-atlanta-hawks-racist-email-kareem-abdul-jabbar/

 

I had the same thought, but why put the racist stuff out there? Can't he just sell the team?

 

Southern man better keep your head

 

Was this being covered anywhere?

I wonder if he's looking for a bidding war so someone can buy the team and move it to Seattle.

 

After reading the email, I think the NBA would have had a hard time making a big deal out of it.

It strikes me as more blunt and politically incorrect than racist. Many of the complaints he made are valid, but obviously in a market like Atlanta, it might cause more of a reaction than in other places. Obviously, he chose he words very poorly.

I think he saw an excuse to get out and make a truckload of money while doing it.

Very strange.

 

"Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
a southern man don't need him around anyhow"