Hawks NBA owner: racist, honest, or both?

[mountain]

Selling team after self reporting demographic oriented email from 2012.


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

 

[GasMan]

Only a problem when it's blacks being talked about. If he was saying there were too many whites and they wanted to attract a more hip hop, black crowd, this would never even surface.

Double standard.

 

[JDeuce]

Only a problem when it's blacks being talked about. If he was saying there were too many whites and they wanted to attract a more hip hop, black crowd, this would never even surface.

Double standard.

rac·ist
ˈrāsist/
noun

• 1.
  a person who believes that a particular race is superior to another.
  

  synonyms:

  racial bigot, racialist, xenophobe, chauvinist, supremacist More

adjective

• 1.
  having or showing the belief that a particular race is superior to another.
  [COLOR=#878787 !important]"we are investigating complaints about racist abuse at the club"[/COLOR]

Someone explain to me how what this guy said conveyed the attitude that one race is superior to another.

Or perhaps...if Sterling swindled $2B out of the Clippers sale, maybe some other owners will be inspired to stand up and say "Hey, I'm a racist too...make me an offer!"

 

[GasMan]

You dirty fkin cracker

 

[akphidelt]

No surprise the resident loons are defending another one of their fellow racists!

 

[mountain]

No surprise the resident loons are defending another one of their fellow racists!

If the statements he makes are factual does that make him a racist? If he thought about it but kept the statements to himself is he a closet racist? As a business man is it not wise to look at demographics when targeting your customer base?

I don't think the guy is a racist at all. Unfortunately he is not a good business man because he put facts in an email and in this day and time you can't do that. I guarantee you that 100% of every CEO in America looks at demographics when making decision for their products or service, they are careful how they present the facts

 

[JDeuce]

No surprise the resident loons are defending another one of their fellow racists!

Even less of a surprise the resident retard decides to blindly follow the mob mentality without reading the facts for himself just so he can advance his stupid agenda...

 

[akphidelt]

If the statements he makes are factual does that make him a racist? If he thought about it but kept the statements to himself is he a closet racist? As a business man is it not wise to look at demographics when targeting your customer base?

I don't think the guy is a racist at all. Unfortunately he is not a good business man because he put facts in an email and in this day and time you can't do that. I guarantee you that 100% of every CEO in America looks at demographics when making decision for their products or service, they are careful how they present the facts

Lol, he's probably not a racist, but that is an incredibly stupid way to word that email. It comes off very bad. No wonder he stepped down and is selling. That's almost worse than what Sterling said.

 

[T0mmyJ0hnZipper]

If he sells Joe Biden should resign for saying we need to take back our country. Libtards get away with dumb stuff. They are held to a lower standard.

 

[Willie99]

gee, I wonder how he would have voted back in May? Each and every owner in each and every sport has made a comment in a private conversation that would embarrass the league they represent. Doesn't mean they're racist, doesn't mean they're bad people

but it does mean there's no way in hell they ever vote to defrock a fellow owner for doing likewise, hence there would never even be a vote.

a 3rd grader who has a parent who is an attorney would know this through osmosis, although self proclaimed legal experts with "real life experience" in an unprecedented legal matter have no fucking clue

 

[akphidelt]

gee, I wonder how he would have voted back in May? Each and every owner in each and every sport has made a comment in a private conversation that would embarrass the league they represent. Doesn't mean they're racist, doesn't mean they're bad people

but it does mean there's no way in hell they ever vote to defrock a fellow owner for doing likewise, hence there would never even be a vote.

a 3rd grader who has a parent who is an attorney would know this through osmosis, although self proclaimed legal experts with "real life experience" in an unprecedented legal matter have no fucking clue

Lmao, he was one of the owners that actually came out against Sterling. Sterling would have lost 29-1 in the vote. You are really dumb.

"Sterling (if he is on the recording) should be given the maximum penalty for his comments," Levenson said Monday on Atlanta radio station 92.9/The Game. "I strongly believe that the league has to have a zero-tolerance policy against racism and discrimination in any form and I have faith that commissioner Adam Silver will act in what's the best interest of the league. I have expressed these views to Adam and my fellow owners."

 

[Dave007inVegas]

From reading the email it appears to me that Levenson was looking at ways to boost attendance. A 70/30 black to white ratio meant he wasn’t putting forth a product that was appealing to whites.

If the Hawks were selling out every game I don’t think he would have cared what the ratio was. It was obliviously a popular product with blacks (hip hop, gospel) so what needed to done to attract more whites?

I don’t think your average fan gives a shit what color a cheerleader is or who you show on kiss cam. And $2 weenies at half time isn’t a great incentive either.

So is he a racist? I doubt it. He had tapped the black population to the max and it wasn’t enough to pack the house, so he needed whites to fill the gap.

I don’t follow basketball but I’m guessing his team sucked. I suspect if he had a contender he would have sold out.

 

[Dave007inVegas]

Lmao, he was one of the owners that actually came out against Sterling. Sterling would have lost 29-1 in the vote. You are really dumb.

"Sterling (if he is on the recording) should be given the maximum penalty for his comments," Levenson said Monday on Atlanta radio station 92.9/The Game. "I strongly believe that the league has to have a zero-tolerance policy against racism and discrimination in any form and I have faith that commissioner Adam Silver will act in what's the best interest of the league. I have expressed these views to Adam and my fellow owners."

And he was, 2 billion to be exact. Maybe Levenson is hoping for the same penalty.

 

[akphidelt]

And he was, 2 billion to be exact. Maybe Levenson is hoping for the same penalty.

Lol, the way you guys try to make this out like Sterling got what he wanted is hilarious. But I don't have much hope for racist supporters. You would have to spin the situation in some ridiculous way to act like Sterling came out ahead, lol. Even though Sterling himself didn't want to sell.

 

[JudgeWapner]

Not racist.

 

[Dave007inVegas]

Lol, the way you guys try to make this out like Sterling got what he wanted is hilarious. But I don't have much hope for racist supporters. You would have to spin the situation in some ridiculous way to act like Sterling came out ahead, lol. Even though Sterling himself didn't want to sell.

Yeah we know. The whole forum is racist.

Cry wolf much?

 

[akphidelt]

Yeah we know. The whole forum is racist.

Cry wolf much?

The whole forum isn't racist at all. There is a select group of racists and racist supporters though. It just happens a lot of the people who don't like me are racists and support racists. Just a coincidence. You're a Cliven Bundy fan... there is honestly no reason you should be talking about race issues, lol.

 

[rolltide]

gotta love a country where you can observe that 35-55 year old white men are not attending NBA games but you can't actually type it or say it. bizarro world...

 

[MantisToboggan]

This isn't even close to as bad as what Sterling said in my opinion. He's essentially saying we need ideas to get more white people from the suburbs to broaden our season ticket base and improve our bottom line. He's making comments on demographics in an effort to improve his business. He definitely made some poor choices in how he phrased some of his points but I don't think it's even close to Sterling. I mean the guy even calls out the racist southern whites for being scared of African Americans.

 

[akphidelt]

Yea, dude doesn't seem like a racist, but he definitely worded it in a way that is very very difficult for him to get past. And he probably made the best decision for himself and the team. Just to avoid the controversy. He basically is saying there are too many blacks, including cheerleaders, that are scaring away the whites. Now that might be 100% accurate, but you just can't say that as an owner, politician, or any high level representative of any kind. He could have avoided any problems if he just used ages instead of skin color.