Well, "Duty of Loyalty" has just claimed another NBA owner.
The majority owner of the Atlanta Hawks, Bruce Levenson, has decided to divest himself of his stake in the Hawks after self-reporting a Donald Sterling-esque e-mail he sent in 2012.
The Daily Mail reports that the e-mail, which Levenson reported to the league after Sterling's expulsion, leading to an investigation by Adam Silver and the NBA, was perceived as an attempt to bridge racial divides in Atlanta sports and attempt to bring in more suburban (read: Caucasian/White) fans.
Several money quotes, from the Daily Mail article, from the e-mail as released by the Hawks:
"My theory is that the black crowd scared
away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to
build a significant season ticket base."
"Please
don't get me wrong. There was nothing threatening going on in the arena
back then. 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."
The article notes: "Levenson said Hawks crowds were 70 percent black, the team's cheerleaders were black and hip-hop music was played."
Duty of Loyalty, ladies and gentlemen.
Which leads to only one remaining question: How many more owners is the NBA going to lose? Have we opened Pandora's Box here, finding out that the White owners of the NBA, by and large, have no regard for the urban/Black nature of many of the players and of the sport and fans too?
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