PC guilt trip takes out another NBA owner

[onwebcam]

Bruce Levenson will sell Atlanta Hawks after releasing racist e-mail

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...team/15241591/

[Rochard]

I'm sorry... While I find such things offensive, that shouldn't mean they should be stripped out something they own. Somewhere along the line they have the right to their own opinion, no matter how fucked up it is.

[L-Pink]

Originally Posted by Rochard

I'm sorry... While I find such things offensive, that shouldn't mean they should be stripped out something they own. Somewhere along the line they have the right to their own opinion, no matter how fucked up it is.

[MrBottomTooth]

He wasnt even being racist in the email, just making observations based mostly on fact. I expected at least a n-word in there.

[TidalWave]

Lol, idiots being idiots over idiotic shit.

[MaDalton]

PC is boring..

[bagfull]

His team sucks, he trying to get money, this was done on purpose.

[Captain Kawaii]

He's just following his bro Stirling to the bank. Although the trip will be somewhat less fruitful if the article is to be believed. Self-reporting.
His e-mail seems fairly fact-based. Sounded like simple and sound financial analysis of the state of things.

[mozadek]

No guilt trip, no one "self reports" unless they are about to be ratted out.

[Captain Kawaii]

Originally Posted by mozadek

No guilt trip, no one "self reports" unless they are about to be ratted out.

Please tell us what is in the e-mail to cause a "rat-out." Seems more likely he wants to unload his share of the team and buy something more fruitful.

[jdubs1982]

Originally Posted by Captain Kawaii

Please tell us what is in the e-mail to cause a "rat-out." Seems more likely he wants to unload his share of the team and buy something more fruitful.

Yes because clearly nobody can sell something they own, unless they're forced to....

I don't think there was anything wrong with the email, but can people please stop acting like if he wanted to sell the team, he needs a "race" scandal to do so? Or that somehow being forced to sale inflates value, in fact if anything losing your leverage to decline a sale (assuming the NBA puts him on a "time table" to unload) does nothing but harm bargaining position. There's no reason to believe that Balmer over bidding on the Clippers, wouldn't have happened regardless of Sterling's issues. He wanted a team, and he had the money to make an offer that nobody would try to beat and he did. Nothing more nothing less.

[Spunky]

Telling it like it is,gotta be a reason the white people don't wanna go to the games.I find it too intimidating if the crowd were a certain ethnic minority and would avoid it

[SBJ]

Originally Posted by Spunky

Telling it like it is,gotta be a reason the white people don't wanna go to the games.I find it too intimidating if the crowd were a certain ethnic minority and would avoid it

no.. no one wants to go to a Hawks game cause they suck! If they were a good team ticket prices would go up and thus more white people would go.. When teams don't sell out games then you need to cater to your current clientele or make your team better..

I still don't understand how this is just making news now when this was a 2012 email only sent to a few of his staff. He isn't being forced to sell the team, he agreed to sell the team before it was brought up by The NBA.

[kane]

I know GFY is no place for facts but let's try a few on for size and see how they fit.

1. Nobody is forcing him to sell his share of the team. He reported the email himself and he made the decision to sell. At some point down the road there may have been an investigation into the email and action may have been taken, but none of that happened so he is not being forced to sell anything.

2. He is not using this as a way to sell the team. He could sell his share of the team any time he wanted to for any reason he wanted. He did not write a potentially racist email as a way to create an opportunity to sell the team.

3. Yes, he owns the team, but he only does so at the pleasure of the NBA. When you own a sports team, before you can buy it, the rest of the owners in the league must vote to approve your purchase. You are, in effect, like a franchise owner. You own your McDonald's, but you are still beholden to corporate and if you do something they don't like they can force you out. You aren't having your constitutional rights violated. They aren't throwing you in jail nor is the government coming after you. The governing body which you beholden to has decided they no longer want to be affiliated with you. Deal with it.

[AaronM]

Originally Posted by Rochard

I'm sorry... While I find such things offensive, that shouldn't mean they should be stripped out something they own. Somewhere along the line they have the right to their own opinion, no matter how fucked up it is.

Anybody who found his email offensive is a fucking pussy.

What he said was dead on.

[AaronM]

Originally Posted by MrBottomTooth

He wasnt even being racist in the email, just making observations based mostly on fact. I expected at least a n-word in there.

Exactly.

[SBJ]

Originally Posted by kane

I know GFY is no place for facts but let's try a few on for size and see how they fit.

1. Nobody is forcing him to sell his share of the team. He reported the email himself and he made the decision to sell. At some point down the road there may have been an investigation into the email and action may have been taken, but none of that happened so he is not being forced to sell anything.

2. He is not using this as a way to sell the team. He could sell his share of the team any time he wanted to for any reason he wanted. He did not write a potentially racist email as a way to create an opportunity to sell the team.

3. Yes, he owns the team, but he only does so at the pleasure of the NBA. When you own a sports team, before you can buy it, the rest of the owners in the league must vote to approve your purchase. You are, in effect, like a franchise owner. You own your McDonald's, but you are still beholden to corporate and if you do something they don't like they can force you out. You aren't having your constitutional rights violated. They aren't throwing you in jail nor is the government coming after you. The governing body which you beholden to has decided they no longer want to be affiliated with you. Deal with it.

spot on with 1 and 3 but I'm not sure about 2..

Ask yourself did the clippers really get 6-10 potential buyers cause it was a LA team or was it the publicity around Sterling? Oprah only put her name in the buyers ring cause of the publicity around it.. along with many others. So one could say that the Hawks could sell for more if there is press about it..

Just a thought

[kane]

Originally Posted by SBJ

spot on with 1 and 3 but I'm not sure about 2..

Ask yourself did the clippers really get 6-10 potential buyers cause it was a LA team or was it the publicity around Sterling? Oprah only put her name in the buyers ring cause of the publicity around it.. along with many others. So one could say that the Hawks could sell for more if there is press about it..

Just a thought

I would guess the Clippers would have sold for nearly that much if they were just put on the market without any of the controversy. Most sports teams end up with multiple buyers putting in bids. In that case Oprah may have just entered her bid based on the circumstances, but I think they would have still gotten plenty of bids.

I would ask why an owner would do this for just a few extra dollars? Why taint your legacy as someone who sold their team in shame just so you could get a few extra bucks? I think when you are at the level that many of these guys are at legacy is more important to them than cash.

[SBJ]

Originally Posted by kane

I would guess the Clippers would have sold for nearly that much if they were just put on the market without any of the controversy. Most sports teams end up with multiple buyers putting in bids. In that case Oprah may have just entered her bid based on the circumstances, but I think they would have still gotten plenty of bids.

I would ask why an owner would do this for just a few extra dollars? Why taint your legacy as someone who sold their team in shame just so you could get a few extra bucks? I think when you are at the level that many of these guys are at legacy is more important to them than cash.

well then explain why he would out his own email 2 years later? I just find it odd that he would call himself out and then offer to sell his shares of the team before the NBA looked into it. Looking at the email it is nothing like Sterling and I doubt the NBA would've done much of anything to him other than a fine just to save face.. This guy is not racist.

[kane]

Originally Posted by SBJ

well then explain why he would out his own email 2 years later? I just find it odd that he would call himself out and then offer to sell his shares of the team before the NBA looked into it. Looking at the email it is nothing like Sterling and I doubt the NBA would've done much of anything to him other than a fine just to save face.. This guy is not racist.

The email is actually pretty tame, I agree. I have two theories. First, he was a very vocal critic of Donald Sterling. If his letter came out while he was busy denouncing Sterling it could put him in an odd situation. There is also a chance that he found out someone had sent the letter to the league and they were looking into it so he decided to just avoid all the crap that an investigation would be bring and step down.

[SBJ]

Originally Posted by kane

The email is actually pretty tame, I agree. I have two theories. First, he was a very vocal critic of Donald Sterling. If his letter came out while he was busy denouncing Sterling it could put him in an odd situation. There is also a chance that he found out someone had sent the letter to the league and they were looking into it so he decided to just avoid all the crap that an investigation would be bring and step down.

yup I could see both of those reasons.

[DBS.US]

It's 70 pct black-- there are few fathers and sons at the games
Racist

[blackmonsters]

He wants to stop playing hip-hop to attract a more white audience.

Ummmmm,

[OldJeff]

Originally Posted by blackmonsters

He wants to stop playing hip-hop to attract a more white audience.

Ummmmm,

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[Tofu]

Originally Posted by Rochard

I'm sorry... While I find such things offensive, that shouldn't mean they should be stripped out something they own. Somewhere along the line they have the right to their own opinion, no matter how fucked up it is.

Agreed, dude.

[blackmonsters]

Originally Posted by Rochard

I'm sorry... While I find such things offensive, that shouldn't mean they should be stripped out something they own. Somewhere along the line they have the right to their own opinion, no matter how fucked up it is.

So I guess you will be buying all those season tickets and playing in the games too right?
I mean, if your opinion is the only opinion that matters then that will work out just fine right?

[VikingMan]

Maybe this was brilliant marketing. After all it will play into the white guilt so many pussies have so now they to go to the games to show people they are not racist. Also if the races were reversed and this was a black team owner instead of another Jewish owner this would be a non story.

[ilnjscb]

No one in his right mind would subject himself to the gauntlet during a time like this voluntarily. It is almost better to be an actual murderer than an accused racist and it probably will get worse. Additionally, no very rich person does anything on a whim. The most likely scenario is he identified it as a substantial risk and wants to divest himself of it, whether under duress or preemptively.

[mikesouth]

what he said wasnt even offensive it was simply the truth...wow

[TrafficTitan]

He should have just used more tact and said that their needs to be more diversity in the Cheerleaders, kiss cam, music, etc.

[blackmonsters]

Originally Posted by mikesouth

what he said wasnt even offensive it was simply the truth...wow

The guy blamed black people in every way for the decline in tickets sales.
He did that in a city with 54% black people.

Maybe the truth is that he didn't know how to market his team to blacks and then blamed them for it.

[mozadek]

Originally Posted by Captain Kawaii

Please tell us what is in the e-mail to cause a "rat-out." Seems more likely he wants to unload his share of the team and buy something more fruitful.

Don't play dumb, sooner or later the email would of leaked and he would of caught hell for what he said. Instead of standing by his true feelings in the email if it came to light he took the pussy's way out and turned himself while announcing he plans to sell his stake in the team. If he just wanted to sell the team he could of done so without bringing attention to his email.

[Captain Kawaii]

Originally Posted by ilnjscb

No one in his right mind would subject himself to the gauntlet during a time like this voluntarily. It is almost better to be an actual murderer than an accused racist and it probably will get worse. Additionally, no very rich person does anything on a whim. The most likely scenario is he identified it as a substantial risk and wants to divest himself of it, whether under duress or preemptively.

- QFT.

[Captain Kawaii]

Originally Posted by mozadek

Don't play dumb, sooner or later the email would of leaked and he would of caught hell for what he said. Instead of standing by his true feelings in the email if it came to light he took the pussy's way out and turned himself while announcing he plans to sell his stake in the team. If he just wanted to sell the team he could of done so without bringing attention to his email.

It all comes down to this.

I have 2 answers. Can't decide which one to use, so here's both.

1. What would Joan Rivers say? That's what matters. End of story.

2. Anyone reading his e-mail and injecting racism into it has the reading comprehension of a squirrel. And while I love squirrels I don't count on them for Cliff Notes.

Some squirrel probably got a hold of it and gave it to the NBA as someone else suggested. That's my best guess.

[Matt 26z]

There is nothing racist about the email. He was discussing target demographics and their need to better resonate with white fans.

His mistake was in the terminology. You don't just complain that the cheerleaders are all black. Instead, you say "We need a more racially diverse cheerleading team."

If he would have used a more professional tone throughout the email he would have been fine. And no, he probably didn't out himself. Someone likely sent it to the league and they forced him to "out himself" and then sell.

[mikesouth]

Originally Posted by blackmonsters

The guy blamed black people in every way for the decline in tickets sales.
He did that in a city with 54% black people.

Maybe the truth is that he didn't know how to market his team to blacks and then blamed them for it.

hey I live here I wouldnt feel safe at a hawks game alone or with a date.....sorry its just the way it is if some black dude said he wouldnt feel safe at a NASCAR event I could see that too but I wouldn't blame the guy for pointing out the obvious...

[blackmonsters]

Originally Posted by mikesouth

hey I live here I wouldnt feel safe at a hawks game alone or with a date.....sorry its just the way it is if some black dude said he wouldnt feel safe at a NASCAR event I could see that too but I wouldn't blame the guy for pointing out the obvious...

Doesn't seem like you understand the intent of the email.

He is trying to change the situation.
He thinks more whites will come to the game if there were less blacks.
How is he going to do that without running blacks away from the game?

Why doesn't he just cater to the people who come to the games instead of trying to mold them into nice white people?

The inner city there is black, he wants a white audience in the middle of that; maybe the motherfucker is just stupid.

[ilnjscb]

Originally Posted by blackmonsters

The inner city there is black, he wants a white audience in the middle of that; maybe the motherfucker is just stupid.

[mikesouth]

To some degree BM I wouldnt argue that but it aint like he Hawks are selling out games...any games. I expect the way they see to help fill empty seats is to reach what we call here OTP ie outside the perimeter, the perimeter being the I285 freeway that circles the city and is generally the "white flight" area. Atlanta is just not a safe city after dark, generally speaking, its better than it used to be but only marginally. If ya cant address the problem honestly then you cant really solve it.

[onwebcam]

Originally Posted by mikesouth

To some degree BM I wouldnt argue that but it aint like he Hawks are selling out games...any games. I expect the way they see to help fill empty seats is to reach what we call here OTP ie outside the perimeter, the perimeter being the I285 freeway that circles the city and is generally the "white flight" area. Atlanta is just not a safe city after dark, generally speaking, its better than it used to be but only marginally. If ya cant address the problem honestly then you cant really solve it.

Wat you mean? Free tickets don't pay da bills? Catering to da crowd doesn't involve free cheese? Why you friskin me main I got no bottles of licker in my pocket?

Awww shit dat wuz raciss.

I should sell my assets.