The most dysfunctional ownership group in professional sports history – and I feel comfortable making such a declaration – is in its final days. For that reason alone, there was reason to rejoice Sunday.
Bruce Levenson may have been the only name on a news release Sunday and there has been nothing disclosed about what will happen to the other members of Team Chucklehead, notably Atlanta Spirit partners Ed Peskowitz and Michael Gearon Jr. But Levenson’s intention to sell his controlling interest of the Hawks – supposedly because of an inflammatory email he sent to general manager Danny Ferry in 2012 regarding the lack of white fans attending home games – will remove the group’s most divisive and publicly ridiculed figure and it should give the franchise a chance to move forward.
Probably.
Maybe.
Well, maybe we shouldn’t assume anything.
The Atlanta Spirit purchased the Hawks and the since-sold-and-moved NHL’s Thrashers from Time Warner in 2005. Things have seldom gone well or according to plan.
It’s also noteworthy that on a day when Levenson would make such a strong public declaration, neither he, nor Ferry, nor part-owner Michael Gearon would publicly comment.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who just led the excommunication of former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, also didn’t comment beyond a statement in which he commended Levenson for “self-reporting to the league office … and for putting the best interests of the Hawks, the Atlanta community, and the NBA first.”
But something seems off.
There’s no obvious reason for the strange timing of this. On a Sunday, in September, Levenson suddenly went public with an “inappropriate and offensive” email that he wrote to Ferry two years ago. In the email, Levenson expressed concern over the Hawks’ continuing attendance problems and speculated it was because of “an overwhelming black audience” that had been built in part on “thousands and thousands of tickets being giving away … in the black community.” That led Levenson to believe white fans were being “scared away.”
Levenson fed into several negative stereotypes, writing: “I never felt uncomfortable, but I think Southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority.”
He also wrote: “I have (said) I want some white cheerleaders and while I don’t care what the color of the artist is, I want the music to be music familiar to a 40-year-old white guy if that’s our season (ticket) demo. I have also balked when every fan picked out of the crowd to shoot shots in some time-out contest is black. I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black.”
But why is Levenson suddenly throwing himself on the sword now? Was there some reason to think the email was going to become public?
Steve Koonin, the Hawks’ CEO, told the Journal-Constitution’s Chris Vivlamore Sunday night that Ferry also will be disciplined for repeating an “offensive and racist” remark that was in a background report on a player in June, prior to the start of NBA free agency.
Koonin wasn’t specific but said, “This is wrong. This should not be said. It’s not appropriate in any world but not a post-(Donald) Sterling world.”
Expect more to come out about this story.
The NBA is hypersensitive to racial issues in the league now, especially at the executive level in light of Sterling being forced to sell the team following his secretly recorded racist rants. It can’t be confirmed at this time if Levenson believed that the email would be disclosed in a league investigation.
Levenson could have been looking for a reason to sell, anyway. He sees the empty seats in Philips Arena. Hawks’ home attendance remains among the NBA’s lowest, despite appearances that the on-court product is heading in the right direction under Ferry. The Hawks ranked 28th out of 30 teams in announced attendance last season with an average of 14,339 per game. On most nights, the announced crowd far exceeded reality.
NBA franchise values also have soared in recent months. The Clippers recently were sold for $2 billion. Even if that figure is an aberration, franchise values are up, in part because of the increased cost certainty with player payroll in the collective bargaining agreement. Even the Milwaukee Bucks, who are in a smaller television market than the Hawks, sold in April for $550 million.
We’ve learned not to assume anything with Levenson and his partners. There was protracted litigation between them and former Hawks part-owner Steve Belkin, who fought the acquisition of Joe Johnson from Phoenix. (In retrospect, Belkin was the smartest guy in the room.)
Even after Belkin sold his percentage of the Hawks, Thrashers and Philips Arena, there were other squabbles and missteps in the executive suite. Levenson led the string of lies about the group’s intentions with the Thrashers, denying the team ever was for sale, vowing support while running the franchise into the ground. In the end, the team was sold to Canadian investors and moved to Winnipeg. On the day the sale was finalized, Levenson hid from public view like a coward. Gearon, who had little to do with the hockey team, was left to comment.
This story may not be over. But Levenson will soon be out. That eliminates at least part of the Hawks’ problem.
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