Bruce Levenson to Sell Atlanta Hawks over Email Comments

[classhandicapper]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/hawks/2014/09/07/bruce-levenson-racist-email-atlanta-owner-sell-team/15241591/

[Robert Fischer]

You simply don't 'announce' social engineering designs, especially race-related designs.

Levenson is correct about some of the challenges he faces/faced.
He also comes across as short-sighted.

[TJDave]

If he want's to get the big bucks he's gonna have to be more racist than that.

[Robert Fischer]

If he want's to get the big bucks he's gonna have to be more racist than that.

:D @ the joke going around that after Sterling got 2 billion or whatever for the Clippers, that this is all an elaborate plot to sell.

[johnhannibalsmith]

Seems more like a flip of the bird to someone in the reputation hijacking via hack and extortion industry.

[classhandicapper]

I think I'm going to become a curling fan. They seem to have way fewer controversies. ;)

[johnhannibalsmith]

And it's about six times the sport.

[JustRalph]

If he want's to get the big bucks he's gonna have to be more racist than that.

Great line :ThmbUp:

[barn32]

then i start looking around our arena during games and notice the following:-- it's 70 pct black

-- the cheerleaders are black

-- the music is hip hop

-- at the bars it's 90 pct black

-- there are few fathers and sons at the games

-- we are doing after game concerts to attract more fans and the concerts are either hip hop or gospel.

Then i start looking around at other arenas. It is completely different. Even DC with its affluent black community never has more than 15 pct black audience.


What's wrong with pointing out the truth?

[Robert Fischer]

What's wrong with pointing out the truth?
The truth is one of the most abjectly offensive things in existence.

You guys think that if we could see (before emails..."memos"!?)evidence of whatever Larry O'brien and/or David Stern and co... were thinking when they first saw Larry Bird the young star, that they weren't seeing dollar $ign$ in regards to finally breaking through to sell the NBA to their target clientele(white male consumers ages 35-55 or whatever their researchers come up with as the best target)???

Those memos may have been more eloquent, but they would have had some of the same subject matter...

These leagues are first and foremost entertainment media businesses.

The guys that run them are relatively intelligent, and they make the rules in regards to their best interests.

Even with today's biggest events, if you don't see that LeBron "coming home" to Cleveland, immediately supported by a Wolves/Cavs Kevin Love trade, is as much(or more) about the economics of positioning one of their leading products in the best possible vehicle that they can orchestrate, than it is actually any spontaneous free-agency event, you are being naive.

[horses4courses]

And it's about six times the sport.

My sentiments entirely :ThmbUp:

[TJDave]

You guys think that if we could see (before emails..."memos"!?)evidence of whatever Larry O'brien and/or David Stern and co... were thinking when they first saw Larry Bird the young star, that they weren't seeing dollar $ign$ in regards to finally breaking through to sell the NBA to their target clientele(white male consumers ages 35-55 or whatever their researchers come up with as the best target)???


If the target audience is whites then why don't the uniforms fit? Why must basketball players look like gangbangers?

[dartman51]

If the target audience is whites then why don't the uniforms fit? Why must basketball players look like gangbangers?


I heard a black commentator lamenting, the other day, wondering why the inner city youth didn't play baseball, like they used to. They want to play basketball or football. You just hit the nail on the head, TJ. They want to be gangbangers and thugs, like their idols. :ThmbUp:

[Stillriledup]

Conspiracy theorists might suggest he saw the 2 B pricetag of the Clips and thought ....Hmmmm.

[JustRalph]

then i start looking around our arena during games and notice the following:-- it's 70 pct black

-- the cheerleaders are black

-- the music is hip hop

-- at the bars it's 90 pct black

-- there are few fathers and sons at the games

-- we are doing after game concerts to attract more fans and the concerts are either hip hop or gospel.

Then i start looking around at other arenas. It is completely different. Even DC with its affluent black community never has more than 15 pct black audience.


What's wrong with pointing out the truth?

It's a great question, considering the content of the email.

I would suggest that someone else threatened to release the email and he did this to head off a D. Sterling like episode.

Take the money and walk away laughing....... :ThmbUp:

[Robert Goren]

He has been trying to sell the Hawks for a couple years.

[cj's dad]

I regularly attended Baltimore Bullets games in the late 60's early 70's. Attendance was good, games vs. the Knicks were memorable. Then the downtown area went to crap (crime and violence) and people stopped attending.Owner Abe Pollin moved the team to DC.

Good thing for him e-mail wasn't around at that time.

[classhandicapper]

If I was an NBA owner I'd sell just so I didn't have to be part of a league that thinks these comments are enough to warrant you having to forfeit your business.

[magwell]

There was no problem when Bud (Light) commissioner of MLB said there wasn't enough "American" black players in Baseball.......

[Robert Fischer]

Ohhh the hardships of running a major professional sports franchise...

[classhandicapper]

Ohhh the hardships of running a major professional sports franchise...

lmao.

Every last one of them is lucky they aren't part of some reality TV show where they were recorded 24 hours a day. Otherwise every owner, commissioner, coach, and player would be out of a job or forced to sell.

[Robert Fischer]

lmao.

Every last one of them is lucky they aren't part of some reality TV show where they were recorded 24 hours a day. Otherwise every owner, commissioner, coach, and player would be out of a job or forced to sell.

That is true.

It's bullshit. It's media entertainment to drive revenue and sell advertisements and products.

And I like sports. It's legitimately entertaining, there's strategy, there's gambling, home town teams, rivalries, etc...

But it's all bullshit. :D

[Clocker]

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (http://time.com/3296175/bruce-levenson-atlanta-hawks-racist-email-kareem-abdul-jabbar/) says:

I read Levenson’s email. Here’s what I concluded: Levenson is a businessman asking reasonable questions about how to put customers in seats. In the email, addressed to Hawks president Danny Ferry, Levenson wonders whether (according to his observations) the emphasis on hip-hop and gospel music and the fact that the cheerleaders are black, the bars are filled with 90% blacks, kiss cams focus on black fans and time-out contestants are always black has an effect on keeping away white fans.

Seems reasonable to ask those questions. If his arena was filled mostly with whites and he wanted to attract blacks, wouldn’t he be asking how they could de-emphasize white culture and bias toward white contestants and cheerleaders? Don’t you think every corporation in America that is trying to attract a more diverse customer base is discussing how to feature more blacks or Asians or Latinos in their TV ads?

[cj's dad]

Kareem is clearly a racist. Shocking !

[Clocker]

Kareem is clearly a racist. Shocking !

And probably a greedy, evil capitalist as well.

[classhandicapper]

I read a lot of what Kareem has to say on race issues. He's not one of those hypersensitive leftists that are all too common these days and he's not a race baiter strictly looking to advance a personal or black agenda. He's thoughtful and reasonable.

He could have gone even further and said it's not the job of a businessman to explain the economic circumstances of blacks or how to fix it. It's his job to attract people into the arena that have higher incomes and spend more. If that happens to be whites, so be it. If it happens to be people between the ages of x and Y, so be it. If it happens to be men, so be it.

[TJDave]

And probably a greedy, evil capitalist as well.

And a Muslim.

[Tom]

Diversity....the Mother of us all. :bang:

[PhantomOnTour]

Levenson was talking about something very prominent in American businesses...marketing (to a specific audience)

[jballscalls]

Diversity....the Mother of us all. :bang:

I think diversity is a great thing. It's forced diversity isn't.

[jballscalls]

I guess HAWKs GM Danny Ferry said this about Luol Dang. In the post-Sterling NBA, he'll probably get fired too.

"He has a little African in him, but not in a bad way. He's like a guy that would have a nice store out front but sell you counterfeit stuff out the back."

http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/news/documents/2014/09/08/Gearon_letter.pdf

[Robert Goren]

I like Ferry was raised in a different time, thing were commonly said back then are out of bounds today. But then again, things that were out of bounds then are ok now. Sometimes we let our upbringing slip out and we pay dearly for it. When that happens, we are often left to wonder when the rules changed. It is life and we have to roll with it.

[classhandicapper]

I guess HAWKs GM Danny Ferry said this about Luol Dang. In the post-Sterling NBA, he'll probably get fired too.

"He has a little African in him, but not in a bad way. He's like a guy that would have a nice store out front but sell you counterfeit stuff out the back."

http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/news/documents/2014/09/08/Gearon_letter.pdf


Yikes. That quote is worse than anything Serling or Levenson said.

I think it's being slightly misinterpreted in the accompanying letter.

I don't think he was trashing all blacks like that letter suggests. He used the term African for a reason. Luol Deng was born in Africa. I think he was trashing a subset of African entrepreneurs that must have a reputation for selling counterfeit goods and comparing Deng's behavior to them.

[the little guy]

Yikes. That quote is worse than anything Serling or Levenson said.

I think it's being slightly misinterpreted in the accompanying letter.

I don't think he was trashing all blacks like that letter suggests. He used the term African for a reason. Luol Deng was born in Africa. I think he was trashing a subset of African entrepreneurs that must have a reputation for selling counterfeit goods and comparing Deng's behavior to them.

What did I say?

[PhantomOnTour]

What did I say?
:lol:

Must have meant Sterling

[Clocker]

What did I say?

You're so vain
I bet you think this post is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

[cj's dad]

You're so vain
I bet you think this post is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

Paranoia run amuck

[classhandicapper]

What did I say?


That's one of my better ones given the number of typos and grammatical errors I make because I'm too lazy to actually proofread and too cheap to buy a new pair of glasses. ;)

Who knew you actually read the off topic and political stuff.

[lamboguy]

i know that one of the partners of the Hawks owned horses about 15 years ago when Bill Perry was still training. he had a horse named Major Belkin, the owner's name is Steve Belkin. he belonged to the Mensa Club too.

[classhandicapper]

:lol:

Must have meant Sterling

Obviously. :bang: