Hawks owner to sell team because of "racist" email

[Waew]

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11481937/atlanta-hawks-owner-bruce-levenson-selling-team

racially offensive comments came as he pondered ways to bridge Atlanta's racial sports divide and increase fan attendance at Hawks' games.

maybe he wanted a pay day aftr seeing the clippers sell?

or Could this be a result of sterlings "dirt digging" on other owners we heard a few months ago? even though it says he self reported it, that still sounds fishy.


does ballmer regret getting the clippers now? he could have gotten the hawks at its fire sale right now, and easily moved them to seattle without anyone noticing.

[86MaxwellSmart]

Well, it's proven to be a good way to get Overpaid for your team.

[indeedproceed]

Well, it's proven to be a good way to get Overpaid for your team.

Haha. I thought this as well.

Levenson 'self-reported' a two year old racist email? What?

This smells like classic 'getting in front of the story'.

[fairweatherfan]

Yeah this is an odd series of events since both the release and the sale appear to be completely voluntary.  Wonder if this is his way of cashing out, or if there's a lot more out there besides this one email, or what.

[Roy H.]

Here's the email:

http://www.nba.com/hawks/copy-bruce-levensons-email

From my take on that, I don't see the owner as racist.  Maybe stereotypical; it depends where his "estimates" come from, etc.  I think what he's acknowledging, however, is that a lot of his potential season ticket holders might have racist / stereotypical attitudes, and he was trying to appeal to a wider consumer basis.

It's an interesting issue, in my mind.  He indicates that those labeling the arena as dangerous and who are staying away from games are involved in "racist garbage", but he still sees the need to appeal to those racists to run a successful business.  Is that a legitimate point of view?

[rondoallaturca]

Here is the "racist" email for anyone interested:

http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/basketball/complete-e-mail-sent-by-levenson/nhHbD/

It certainly does not come across as racist to me at all. Here is a businessman who suspects racial stereotypes within the customer base as a reason for poor revenue. It's his job to address it, even though he himself believes those stereotypes to be "racial garbage". Like many others have stated, there has to be more behind the story because this email itself is an incredibly weak excuse to oust an owner, especially if it is voluntary as reported.

[D.o.s.]

Just as racist as the dress code, and with the same motivation.

[rondoallaturca]

Here's the email:

http://www.nba.com/hawks/copy-bruce-levensons-email

From my take on that, I don't see the owner as racist.  Maybe stereotypical; it depends where his "estimates" come from, etc.  I think what he's acknowledging, however, is that a lot of his potential season ticket holders might have racist / stereotypical attitudes, and he was trying to appeal to a wider consumer basis.

It's an interesting issue, in my mind.  He indicates that those labeling the arena as dangerous and who are staying away from games are involved in "racist garbage", but he still sees the need to appeal to those racists to run a successful business.  Is that a legitimate point of view?

Looks like you pretty much summed up what I said. To answer your question, I think it's perfectly legitimate. It's entirely his responsibility to set the level of ethics in his operations, and it seems that he values the potential gain in earnings over standing up for racism. There's many reasons why I don't blame him for that, either.

[rondoallaturca]

Because he self-reported his email, I ask: Does this move help him sell his team at a better price as opposed to him selling it outright with no commotion? For example, does this controversy perhaps stir more interest in the team to attract prospective bidders? Does it help draw attention away from the team's poor financial standing? Etc...

[Ogaju]

Looks like Donald Sterling's investigators are finally coming up with some dirt. By the way to all of those saying they do not think the email is racist, does it really matter. Levenson seems to think it was, and it is his intent that matters here.

It is quite odd to see DTS been excoriated though he claims not to be a racist, and Levenson being defended though he owns up to making racially insensitive statements. Moral of the story is to get ahead of the story?

[Ogaju]

delete duplicate

[mgent]

Here's the email:

http://www.nba.com/hawks/copy-bruce-levensons-email

From my take on that, I don't see the owner as racist.  Maybe stereotypical; it depends where his "estimates" come from, etc.  I think what he's acknowledging, however, is that a lot of his potential season ticket holders might have racist / stereotypical attitudes, and he was trying to appeal to a wider consumer basis.

It's an interesting issue, in my mind.  He indicates that those labeling the arena as dangerous and who are staying away from games are involved in "racist garbage", but he still sees the need to appeal to those racists to run a successful business.  Is that a legitimate point of view?

That's 100% what I was going to post after reading the first ESPN link.

If this was an email stereotyping women and trying to figure out how to get female attendence up, it would be absolutely nothing.

[Celtics18]

Wow, that's a very interesting e-mail.  The guy is basically saying that he wants to attract more white costumers at his games so he can make more money. 

Sure, it's racist, but if it's cause for him to be forced to sell the team, then every NBA owner should probably be forced to sell his team and the league should be disbanded.

[mgent]

Wow, that's a very interesting e-mail.  The guy is basically saying that he wants to attract more white costumers at his games so he can make more money. 

Sure, it's racist, but if it's cause for him to be forced to sell the team, then every NBA owner should probably be forced to sell his team and the league should be disbanded.

As well as clothing brands, restaurants, etc.  Is it racist to market your Asian restaurant toward Asians (or talk about how to get more non-Asian customers)?

[LarBrd33]

As others have said... I'm not sure it's racist.  I mean... Think about this...  I live in Seattle.  There is a massive population of Asian folks out here.  There's a reason why the Seattle Mariners spent money on Iwakuma shortly after Ichiro went to the Yankees.  As someone who attends a lot of games, it's hard not to notice the difference in fanbase when iwakuma is pitching.   

I don't have any stats to back it up, but if someone determined that the Indian population in Seattle was typically upper-middle class in wealth comparatively to the white population (on account of the massive amount of Indian employees who work for Microsoft and other software companies), I wouldn't be surprised to see a company try to target that demographic in some way.