http://www.si.com/nba/2014/09/07/bruce-levenson-atlanta-hawks-owner-sell-team-donald-sterling

NardDogNation wrote:I'm Black and I don't find the emails offensive in the least. I'm not sure why this guy self-reported a non-story and don't understand why he feels compelled to sell his team, unless this is a smokescreen for something else. I wouldn't be surprised if he's being blackmailed with something bigger.

http://www.si.com/nba/2014/09/07/bruce-levenson-atlanta-hawks-owner-sell-team-donald-sterling

I get why he's going, after the Stirling thing- plus even if you take racism out of it, it's never good business to basically insult or alienate your main customers.

I'm all for people learning and developing from their mistakes (unless they are malicious), but I suspect the reason why he's so keen to go is because he's not making any money and probably figures after seeing the Clippers sale, he'll make a big chunk of cash from selling.

smackeddog wrote:

NardDogNation wrote:I'm Black and I don't find the emails offensive in the least. I'm not sure why this guy self-reported a non-story and don't understand why he feels compelled to sell his team, unless this is a smokescreen for something else. I wouldn't be surprised if he's being blackmailed with something bigger.

http://www.si.com/nba/2014/09/07/bruce-levenson-atlanta-hawks-owner-sell-team-donald-sterling

I get why he's going, after the Stirling thing- plus even if you take racism out of it, it's never good business to basically insult or alienate your main customers.

I'm all for people learning and developing from their mistakes (unless they are malicious), but I suspect the reason why he's so keen to go is because he's not making any money and probably figures after seeing the Clippers sale, he'll make a big chunk of cash from selling.

The thing is though that I don't think he's trying to insult or alienate fans. I just think he's trying to maximize his profits by appealing to a broader base. There is nothing wrong with that in my opinion.

Beyond that, I don't think he's making a value judgment about Black people. He just understands the perception a majority of people have about Black people. The perception lends itself to a culture where I could be unarmed and still be deemed a lethal threat, requiring lethal force. But a James Holmes, carrying 7,000 rounds of ammunition is misconstrued as being non-threatening and could be apprehended. Levenson isn't trying to further or embrace that culture, he just understands it exist and had the balls to acknowledge it.

NardDogNation wrote:I'm Black and I don't find the emails offensive in the least. I'm not sure why this guy self-reported a non-story and don't understand why he feels compelled to sell his team, unless this is a smokescreen for something else. I wouldn't be surprised if he's being blackmailed with something bigger.

http://www.si.com/nba/2014/09/07/bruce-levenson-atlanta-hawks-owner-sell-team-donald-sterling

"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)," Levenson said in a statement.

"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."

Bonn1997 wrote:

EnySpree wrote:Maybe he wanted to get rid of the team ASAP and saw how fast Sterling sold the team and for how much. The process of selling the team is slow.... he basically expedited the process. As a mega wealthy business man, image is nothing when it comes to making 2 billion dollars.

I still don't get why he would self-report this e-mail unless he knew it was about to be made public by someone else.

Yeah that's what I think as well. He wrote that email in 2012 I think? I doubt all of a sudden he just wanted to come clean.

The "black" thing was good for a while in some leaner times, but Hawks wanted to move on up without doing the hard work of making teams people give a crap about. Execs care about corporations and their precious box seats, not the plebs and bleacher creatures. More white dudes in the former, more blacks in the latter. Surprise, surprise.

NardDogNation wrote:

MX25 wrote:How is this any different from MLB/Bud Selig diversity program. MLB has programs designed to get more black kids playing baseball since # of black guys in mob is way down. Is that racist? SMH

...because Bud Selig's program is inherently aimed at being inclusive. Levenson's game plan was to increase white attendance by trying to par down black attendance. Again, I don't necessarily see a problem with it because his motives are financially driven and his industry is in entertainment based. But you can't seriously believe that there is parity between the two situations.

It's an interesting comparison though. Black American (meaning native-born, Southern-descended "Anglo"-American black folks, versus Caribbean & Central American black folks) participation being way down is both an issue of an overcoming of past discrimination and relevance to the future. The color barriers of baseball post-WWII was a big part (if symbolically) of the Civil Rights struggles that followed the next decade, so to see that legacy not represented in both current players and fanbase has rung alarms to the old timers and the league to do something. Because it is a startling downturn for a quintessentially American demo to reject America's past time. Maybe North American sports are a zero-sum game and the NFL and NBA simply offer a more interesting product. Maybe Levenson needs to buy a piece of the Braves!

The Hawks thing is more about box seats and profits, so I'm not going to have the same sort of empathy for their situation, but I think MX25's comparison isn't apples and oranges. But the difference is that in the background of the Hawks' email is the faint echo of white supremacy, or white folks' wallet supremacy at least. That's the core difference.

EDIT: which is probably just a long-winded version of what you just said, haha.

smackeddog wrote:Also their GM, Ferry is being disciplined by the nba- in a conference call with 7 other Hawk figures, he repeated a line from a report they had done that about Deng and said Deng "had some african in him". No idea what the f*** that is meant to mean. Personally, I think thats probably more damaging as Ferry is in a recruiting role.

Edit:

Just found the full quote:

He's still a young guy overall. 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

Still no idea what the hell it means.

Yea, that's weird. Is "African" the new "Euro"? Benefit of doubt: is there some sort of stereotype about the style of the African player like there are for Europeans?

(Deng is a Brit from Brixton, btw!)