For the second time in less than a year, an NBA owner is being forced to resolve a situation connected to their own offensive remarks.
Bruce Levenson, part owner of the Atlanta Hawks informed NBA commissioner Adam Silver that he will be looking to sell his interest in the team. This news comes after Levenson self-admitted to Silver that he wrote an email in 2012 that contained racially insensitive language in it.
Only a month after Donald Sterling was forced to sell the Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, this latest incident will be the next major shift in an owners controlling stake.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports there was a meeting in NYC last week where this issue was discussed among NBA owners. It should also be noted that only a few owners were aware of any such investigation.
Though the email was written in 2012, Levenson has since apologized for the content and misguided wording used in the message.
Excerpt from the email:
. Regarding game ops, i need to start with some background. for the first couple of years we owned the team, i didn’t much focus on game ops. then one day a light bulb went off. when digging into why our season ticket base is so small, i was told it is because we can’t get 35-55 white males and corporations to buy season tixs and they are the primary demo for season tickets around the league. when i pushed further, folks generally shrugged their shoulders. then i start looking around our arena during games and notice the following:
– it’s 70 pct black
– the cheerleaders are black
– the music is hip hop
– at the bars it’s 90 pct black
– there are few fathers and sons at the games
– we are doing after game concerts to attract more fans and the concerts are either hip hop or gospel.Then i start looking around at other arenas. It is completely different. Even DC with its affluent black community never has more than 15 pct black audience.
Before we bought the hawks and for those couple years immediately after in an effort to make the arena look full (at the nba’s urging) thousands and thousands of tickets were being giving away, predominantly in the black community, adding to the overwhelming black audience.
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.
While the email in question certainly wasn’t the harshest thing ever written and probably shouldn’t be compared to statements made earlier in the year by Donald Sterling, the reaction is undoubtedly a result of that incident. Having already made it clear that there is no place in the NBA for owners like Sterling, this issue is one that can’t be ignored.
As a result of the admission, Silver released the following statement:
Following Bruce Levenson notifying the league office this July of his August 2012 email, the NBA commenced an independent investigation regarding the circumstances of Mr. Levenson’s comments.
Prior to the completion of the investigation, Mr. Levenson notified me last evening that he had decided to sell his controlling interest in the Atlanta Hawks. 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. He shared with me how truly remorseful he is for using those hurtful words and how apologetic he is to the entire NBA family – fans, players, team employees, business partners and fellow team owners – for having diverted attention away from our game.
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.
We will be working with the Hawks ownership group on the appropriate process for the sale of the team and I have offered our full support to Hawks CEO Steve Koonin, who will now oversee all team operations.
The NBA and its teams have long had in place anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies in order to facilitate respectful and diverse workplaces. Earlier this summer, the league re-doubled its efforts by, among other things, making it mandatory for all league and team personnel to receive annual training on these issues.
The Atlanta Hawks have also released their own statement on the matter. Since Levenson has taken to helping Silver and the investigation of the 2012 email, this seems like it will be a much more speedy process than the Sterling saga.
Levenson has also released a public apology on the matter.
“Over the past several years, I’ve spent a lot of time grappling with low attendance at our games and the need for the Hawks to attract more season ticket holders and corporate sponsors. Over that time, I’ve talked with team executives about the need for the Hawks to build a more diverse fan base that includes more suburban whites, and I shared my thoughts on why our efforts to bridge Atlanta’s racial sports divide seemed to be failing.
In trying to address those issues, I wrote an e-mail two years ago that was inappropriate and offensive. I trivialized our fans by making clichéd assumptions about their interests (i.e. hip hop vs. country, white vs. black cheerleaders, etc.) and by stereotyping their perceptions of one another (i.e. that white fans might be afraid of our black fans). By focusing on race, I also sent the unintentional and hurtful message that our white fans are more valuable than our black fans.
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.
I have said repeatedly that the NBA should have zero tolerance for racism, and I strongly believe that to be true. That is why I voluntarily reported my inappropriate e-mail to the NBA.
What will be interesting about this matter is whether or not Silver and the NBA take any extra measures against Levenson. The NBA sought to have Donald Sterling banned for life from the NBA, in addition to forcing him to sell the Clippers. Since Levenson was responsible for bringing this matter forward, there may be a chance that he is granted leniency. Self-awareness is one of the major differences between this and the Sterling issue, as Levenson has already acknowledged that his words were offensive in nature.
Something even more interesting to keep an eye on, is how much of this becomes a trickling effect throughout the rest of the NBA. Wojnarowski wrote an article addressing why the owners around the league are all under a microscope now. There are a myriad of issues, and topics that could be interpreted in a lot of ways under the wrong context, and owners should be cautious of things they have done or said even if it was in the past.
Regardless of how this plays out for Levenson, the loss of him as an owner shouldn’t affect the Hawks too much. Hawks CEO Steve Koonin will now oversee all operations for the team moving forward.
Esau Howard is a regular contributor to Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on Twitter.
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This is too nonsensical, from what I’ve heard so far to waste time commenting. Even Kareem Abdul-Jabar wrote an editorial explaining why he ISN’T a Racist but rather a business man.
Until everyone reads the Kareem editorial, no one should be commenting against Levenson.
Not many living in the NBA knows true Racism more than Kareem.
As far as I can tell, everything that was said in the Email was accurate from a business point of view.
However, now business owners just have to be more secretive and use “code words” to avoid being caught, telling the truth. Businesses can’t put anything in writing; They have to be weary of I-phones recording their conversations, everywhere. Its getting ridiculous.
For further example of media bias, CNN interviewed a couple of young white women (who attend ATL games), who with a camera in their face denied being afraid at Hawks games? Really? Did CNN take a sample of all the people who don’t go to ATL games?
Are we forgetting how hypocritical the NBA has become? Do we forget how David Stern successfully changed the “culture” of the NBA by requiring a dress code and removing the thug Alan Iverson element among the players. I don’t think Stern would have resigned if we had microphones on him 24/7.
What is going to be so ironic, is that he may not be able to get a good price for selling the Hawks, for the same business reason that he self-reported himself to the other owners.
Sorry, please ignore the duplicated posts. For some reason my post didn’t appear for 1/2 hour and then they all appeared.
Jerry, there’s some guys who have to apologize for the stuff they leave here. You’re not one of them.
This is too nonsensical, from what I’ve heard so far to waste time commenting. Even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote an editorial explaining why he ISN’T a Racist but rather a business man.
Until everyone reads the Kareem editorial, no one should be commenting against Levenson.
Not many living in the NBA knows true Racism more than Kareem.
As far as I can tell, everything that was said in the Email was accurate from a business point of view.
However, now business owners just have to be more secretive and use “code words” to avoid being caught, telling the truth. Businesses can’t put anything in writing; They have to be weary of I-phones recording their conversations, everywhere. Its getting ridiculous.
For further example of media bias, CNN interviewed a couple of young white women (who attend ATL games), who with a camera in their face denied being afraid at Hawks games? Really? Did CNN take a sample of all the people who don’t go to ATL games?
Are we forgetting how hypocritical the NBA has become? Do we forget how David Stern successfully changed the “culture” of the NBA by requiring a dress code and removing the thug Alan Iverson element among the players. I don’t think Stern would have resigned if we had microphones on him 24/7.
What is going to be so ironic, is that he may not be able to get a good price for selling the Hawks, for the same business reason that he self-reported himself to the other owners.
This is too nonsensical, from what I’ve heard so far to waste time commenting. Even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote an editorial explaining why he ISN’T a Racist but rather a business man.
Until everyone reads the Kareem editorial, no one should be commenting against Levenson.
Not many living in the NBA knows true Racism more than Kareem.
As far as I can tell, everything that was said in the Email was accurate from a business point of view.
However, now business owners just have to be more secretive and use “code words” to avoid being caught, telling the truth. Businesses can’t put anything in writing; They have to be weary of I-phones recording their conversations, everywhere. Its getting ridiculous.
For further example of media bias, CNN interview a couple of young white women (who attend ATL games), who with a camera in their face denied being afraid at Hawks games? Really? Did CNN take a sample of all the people who don’t go to ATL games?
Are we forgetting how hypocritical the NBA has become? Do we forget how David Stern successfully changed the “culture” of the NBA by requiring a dress code and removing the thug Alan Iverson element among the players. I don’t think Stern would have resigned if we had microphones on him 24/7.
What is going to be so ironic, is that he may not be able to get a good price for selling the Hawks, for the same business reason that he self-reported himself to the other owners.
I couldn’t refrain from commenting. Perfectly written!