Hawks owner will sell team after racist e-mail surfaces

Exactly.

 

The player in question reportedly was Luol Deng. The incident happened this summer (post-Sterling) when Ferry read the inappropriate line in his background report, then quickly said it shouldn't be in there.

Don't know what they'd say bad about Luol Deng. He is one of those nice immigrant Africans, not a street thug.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources--gm-danny-ferry-s-reference-to-luol-deng-s-african-heritage-initiated-hawks-investigation-162901096.html

 

What Ferry said was a lot worse than anything in that email.

 

Clearly Ferry has a lot of Cameron Crazy in him.

 

"I don't say that in a bad way."

See? He didn't mean anything bad by it!

 

That was a Holy Shit comment. No Holy Shit comments in the email.

 

It shows how hard it is to have an honest conversation about certain issues without some nucklehead screaming "racism".

Most of the points addressed in Levenson's email are dead on. It's damn hard to maximize business profits in a business that doesn't mass appeal to affluent customers. That's the bottom line of it. Certain demographic groups are not going to be as lucrative a consumer base as others. It's naive to pretend that such isn't true.

Honestly, I doubt I'd go to an NBA game if someone gave me courtside seats. I sure am not going to spend large sums of money for a form of "entertainment" that has grown less and less appealing over the past 30 years. Does that make me racist? I couldn't care less. People spend their money where they want to spend their money.

I do understand where Levenson is coming from as a majority owner of an NBA franchise. Sounds like he made a good financial decision to sell and take that money elsewhere. I'm sure there will be someone who wants to buy the team. Maybe the next owner can come up with a better plan to improve attendance --- a long-standing problem with all Atlanta sports teams --- and grow the bottom line.

 

Hilarious from Deadspin comments section
"As a black person, I dont speak for all black people, we are not monolithic, But reading this email, I dont think its racist, its just a business man trying to figure out why his shit is fucked up. Hes speaking frankly, and probably factually on alot of his points, Hes basically saying mix this shit up, black and white cheerleaders, give me some damn Big and Rich concerts, yeah Andre and Shawnte are in attendance but lets see Tom and Laura kiss some fucking times. Let little Billy shoot the half court airball once in a while. The bars shouldnt look like a Little Wayne afterparty.


I get it, I really do. I like being at events where there is a good mix of black and whites personally. Every game Ive taken my son to we were outnumbered (not that it was a gang fight) but ALWAYS treated us great, that may vary place to place (Im looking at you Philly and SF) but I do understand what he's saying, Hes speaking real shit... probably the same thing 99% of the owners THINK but would NEVER EVER...EVER...EVER....EVER... type or say out loud.

He has my respect.... and no team."

 

All your points are valid, except they are all based on the stereotype that blacks:

1. don't make as much money as whites; and
2. don't spend as much money as whites.

Other than that, not a problem, you're good to go.

 

This made me laugh. If you think the kiss cam is "too black" you're probably at least a little racist.

 

One of the co-owners wanted Danny Ferry fired over his comments:

http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/news/documents/2014/09/08/Gearon_letter.pdf

Yes, there are racism issues here. But knowing the fractious history of Atlanta Spirit, it seems like this is also about one more battle among the ownership group.