The Atlanta Hawks’ controlling owner, Bruce Levenson, announced Sunday that he is selling his stake in the team. The decision came after a racially offensive email Levenson sent back in 2012 surfaced. He has come forward and admitted the email was “inappropriate and offensive”.

The email to fellow owners and Hawks’ staff bemoaned the fact that about seventy percent of the audiences at Hawks games in the Philips Arena were black. Levenson also noted in the email that the majority of the cheerleaders were black and the music played in the arena was mostly hip-hop and rap. The owner appears, from the email, to have believed that the strong presence of the black community at Hawks games had a negative impact on ticket sales and the interest of the corporate sponsors.

“My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites”, Levenson wrote in the email. He proposed that there be more white cheerleaders, music familiar and enjoyable for white men, and more white people featured on the Kiss Cam.

The controversial email was discovered by an outside law firm who was brought in to review the organization from top to bottom after racially insensitive remarks made in a June conference call between owners were reported. The investigation was ongoing for over two months and only recently uncovered the email sent by Bruce Levenson. When confronted with the email, Levenson decided it was best to walk away rather than fight.
Bruce Levenson has apologized for what he said in the email and admits to “trivializing” the fans by making inaccurate assumptions of their interests. Levenson also acknowledges that he conveyed the message that white fans are more important than black fans which he knows to be untrue and claims was unintentional.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has voiced his belief that Levenson was truly regretful for his actions and was apologetic toward everyone the email offended. He also commended Levenson for stepping forward. However, Silver regarded the email as “unacceptable” and knew punishment of some sort was necessary which meant that Levenson was fined in addition to losing his team.