{"id":18196,"date":"2014-09-08T04:09:47","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T10:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=18196"},"modified":"2014-09-08T04:09:47","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T10:09:47","slug":"atlanta-hawks-co-owner-bruce-levenson-to-sell-team-over-racially-offensive-email","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/atlanta-hawks-co-owner-bruce-levenson-to-sell-team-over-racially-offensive-email\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Hawks co-owner Bruce Levenson to sell team over racially offensive email"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(JTA) &#8212; Bruce Levenson, a co-owner of the NBA&#8217;s Atlanta Hawks, is selling his stake in the team after self-reporting a racially insensitive email he sent two years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Levenson and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced the sale on Sunday in separate statements. Levenson voluntarily reported the email, in which he racially stereotyped African-American fans, to the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>Levenson, who is Jewish, apologized in his statement for the email sent to the team\u2019s co-owners and general manager Danny Ferry complaining that black fans were keeping white fans from attending games.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019m truly embarrassed by my words in that e-mail, and I apologize to the members of the Hawks family and all of our fans,&#8221; he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The statement was posted on the Hawks&#8217; website.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter 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,\u201d Levenson wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver the past several years, I\u2019ve 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\u2019ve 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\u2019s racial sports divide seemed to be failing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;By focusing on race, I also sent the unintentional and hurtful message that our white fans are more valuable than our black fans.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Silver called the remarks &#8220;entirely unacceptable and in stark contrast to the core principles of the National Basketball Association.\u201d He commended Levenson for his cooperation during the league&#8217;s investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Levenson is stepping down in the aftermath of a Jewish NBA owner, Donald Sterling of the Los Angeles Clippers, being forced to sell his team by the league after making racist comments that were secretly recorded. Sterling&#8217;s wife sold the team for $2 billion last month.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Atlanta%20Hawks%20co-owner%20Bruce%20Levenson%20to%20sell%20team%20over%20racially%20offensive%20email\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1491],"tags":[5982,5981,8790,8795,1961,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18197,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18196\/revisions\/18197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}