In the wake of the scandal caused by the racist comments that Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling made, Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson has decided to sell his shares in the team after self-reporting a racist email from two years ago.
According to AP News Levenson sent the email in question approximately two years ago in August 2012 to the team’s co-owners and manager Danny Ferry. In the email he outlined his concerns about the team’s predominantly black fanbase and commented that the crowds were 70 percent black, the cheerleaders were black and the music choices were hip-hop, among other concerns.
An excerpt from the email touches on these things:
“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 don’t get me wrong. There was nothing threatening going on in the arean [sic] 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.”
Now, he has called the correspondence “inappropriate and offensive” and decided today (September 7) that he will sell his share in the Hawks.
“I have said repeatedly that the NBA should have zero tolerance for racism, and I strongly believe that to be true,” Levenson said in the statement. “That is why I voluntarily reported my inappropriate email to the NBA. After much long and difficult contemplation, I have decided that it is in the best interests of the team, the Atlanta community, and the NBA to sell my controlling interest in the Hawks franchise.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league had launched an independent investigation into the racist comments, and that he supported Levenson’s decision both to self-report and to sell his interests.
“I commend Mr. Levenson for self-reporting to the league office, for being fully cooperative with the league and its independent investigator, and for putting the best interests of the Hawks, the Atlanta community, and the NBA first,” Silver said. “As Mr. Levenson acknowledged, the views he expressed are entirely unacceptable and are in stark contrast to the core principles of the National Basketball Association.”
Silver’s full statement is included below in the tweet sent out from the official NBA Twitter account:
The Hawks ownership group and CEO Steve Koonin will have the full support of Silver and the rest of the league. Koonin will now oversee team operations.
The full text of the 2012 email has been released in an effort to be totally transparent with the public and is available on the Hawks’ website:
“If you’re angry about what I wrote, you should be,” Levenson said in today’s 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.”
Get educated and check out Look Different’s Implicit Bias Quiz. It’s important to examine our own hidden biases.
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