Atlanta Hawks Owner to Sell Team Over Supposedly 'Racist' Email

[Jeffx]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/ ... _mail.html

Let's tell it like it is - this dude said what every NBA owner feels...how to sell a predominately black league to white audiences without being overtly racist. Shit, I heard this back in the 70s when the NBA had a serious image problem. Bill Russell said during his playing days, a survey was done to find out why the Celtics weren't selling out home games during the regular season. The prevailing answer was 'too many blacks on the team'.

[Andrew]

Sources: GM Danny Ferry's reference to Luol Deng's African heritage initiated Hawks investigation

"He's still a young guy overall," Ferry said, league sources with direct knowledge of the probe told Yahoo. “He's a good guy overall. But he's not perfect. He's got some African in him. And I don't say that in a bad way."

Kind of a weird remark to make.

[_Steve_]

I'm with Marc Cuban on this matter: if you dig to deep, you'll most likely be able to blame any other owner too. IIRC even MJ made some comments about white people which could be labeled as racism back in the days.
If that's the NBA's new policy to keep the house clean, I'm not sure if I like it...

[Patr1ck]

That email was not racist at all. There were a few prejudicial statements, but nothing surprising. It was definitely business-minded and he made fair points after comparing his demographic and sales with other teams. His problem wasn't that he wasn't getting enough white people to buy tickets and merchandise, it's that his team has been mediocre for years and has had no star power since Dominique Wilkins to bring any interest.

TIL racism means saying anything about black people while being white.

[_Steve_]

Racism consists of both prejudice and discrimination based in social perceptions of biological differences between peoples.

This is not white vs. black only. Otherwise the German national socialists ("Nazis") who tried to annihilate the jews during WWII wouldn't have been racists after all...

[Andrew]

I want to tread carefully here, because I'm not exactly qualified to talk about prejudice. It's not something that I've experienced myself, so I'm wary of talking about things I can't possibly know about.

I'd like to think that the email was composed in good faith, especially since it denounces bigotry and expresses some measure of exasperation at the prejudice. Unfortunately, some of it does come off a bit...iffy. There are enough unfortunate implications and poorly chosen phrases that it's going to catch the attention of the league and force them to look into it.

Again, Danny Ferry's remarks strike me as a bit weird, particularly the qualifying "(a)nd I don't say that in a bad way". Why say it at all, then? Why was that relevant to bring up? I'm not suggesting Ferry is bigoted, but it was kind of a strange thing to say. If nothing else, he expressed himself poorly.

Honestly, I think the NBA is in a tough position here. If they don't do anything, they're criticised for protecting owners and letting them get away with making controversial remarks, while players and coaches are fined up to $25,000 for daring to criticise the officiating (sometimes with very good reason). If they do act, they're criticised for being overbearing and encroaching on freedom of speech. It seems whatever they do, however they choose to act, it's always seen as the wrong thing.

The league obviously wants to avoid scandal as much as possible, and maintain a positive image. Anything that could adversely affect their image - and potentially have financial ramifications, thus affecting the stability of the league and its teams - is going to draw their attention and be investigated. I think that's only sensible, and I'd rather the NBA not ignore problems and hope that they go away of their own accord.

Like I said though...it seems they're in a no-win situation here. If they let owners be when they go off half-cocked, it's wrong. If they investigate and take action, it's wrong. Since there's a wrong thing to do, there must be a right thing; so, what are they to do?

[Sauru]

imo you could accuse pretty much every single person on earth of racism.

[Spree#8]

There was nothing offensive in that email. It's called "demographic research" and plenty of businesses do it. Either there was something a lot worse in there that didn't get released, or the NBA is getting WAY too sensitive.

This is ridiculous. Thanks to political correctness, you really can't say anything without offending someone anymore.

TIL racism means saying anything about black people while being white.

Exactly. In this day and age, it appears that for a white person to not be accused of racism, they have to pretend black people just don't exist. It's the only way. Say anything about them and you're racist.

[Patr1ck]

It's funny. I have a co worker who is black and he was going to climb on top of a grocery aisle. I told him he should get a ladder to be safe(this worker was out for several months with a hernia recently). He said "What? I'm black, I can jump up there." . I replied as a joke, "But your light-skinned.". Another co-worker who is white said it sounded racist.

[shadowgrin]

^ Should have replied,"But you're whiter than [black person who's white - Kidd, Bibby, Steph, Klay, Blake, Larry Bird, Sammy Sosa, etc.]

[Patr1ck]

Larry Bird. Wow.

When was Sammy Sosa light skinned?

[shadowgrin]

Skin bleaching. Same as Michael Jackson did.





Bird is black. He couldn't had been that great in basketball if he doesn't have some blackness in him.

[NovU]

Wow Sosa. That is nuts. I wonder if he bleached his entire body. Sickening.

[Patr1ck]

Wow Sosa. That is nuts. I wonder if he bleached his entire body. Sickening.

That doesn't sound right. Why don't you investigate further.

[NovU]

grin got me again

[shadowgrin]

Don't blame me for your fetish.

[Jeffx]

Years ago, Larry Bird said a few more white stars would increase fan interest, and some media-types got offended by it. Larry wasn't being racist, he was just dealing in reality. And Larry always gave the brothas their due. Remember his famous quote to an opposing coach who had a white player guard him - "you must not want to win tonight!"

[benji]

I think Ferry's comment was more bigoted, but technically accurate since Deng is from Africa after all, than the moron Hawks owner.

Remember everyone, this is the franchise where the owners were all suing themselves for like four years.

I'm not convinced the majority owner isn't trying to sell out after seeing what the Bucks and Clippers just fetched.

With Jordan finally learning we're going to be left with Dolan as the only blatantly shitty owner left in the league. (And Glen Taylor I suppose.)

[Patr1ck]

You think Levenson leaked the email hoping the sale would garner a huge interest and line his pockets?

[benji]

Within the past year, Atlanta Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. approached fellow co-owner Bruce Levenson about selling the franchise, two people familiar with the situation told USA TODAY Sports. Levenson wasn't interested in selling but is going to do that now, and with NBA now in a seller's market, Gearon will be in position to cash in on his investment — despite financials losses in the past decade. Gearon understands that if he wants to capitalize, he needs to sell more than just his stake. The Hawks are worth more when a majority of the team is sold. So for the second time in the past few months, an ownership group mired in a controversy over the use of racial language could stand to make a significant amount of money selling the team. In the case of the Hawks, how they got here is a decade of poor judgment, mismanagement and a power play among owners.

....

Gearon recorded the nearly hour-long call but only a brief snippet of the audio has been made available, and there is no full transcript of the call, three people familiar with those details told USA TODAY Sports. The league requested a full transcript, but one was not provided. Ferry's comments sparked the independent review, and the aftermath has rattled the franchise. Levenson is on his way out and Ferry is on indefinite leave. Turns out, Gearon might be getting two wishes. Also in Gearon's letter to Levenson, he wrote, "The racial diversity of our management team has changed for the worse since Ferry took over."