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Racism rears its head in NBA again

NEW YORK — For the second time since April, America’s National Basketball Association has been rocked by a disclosure from a team owner that the presence of black fans at games negatively affects the bottom line.

Atlanta Hawks’ Bruce Levenson had complained that his franchise was drawing an ‘overwhelming black audience’. Photo: AP

Atlanta Hawks’ Bruce Levenson had complained that his franchise was drawing an ‘overwhelming black audience’. Photo: AP

NEW YORK — For the second time since April, America’s National Basketball Association has been rocked by a disclosure from a team owner that the presence of black fans at games negatively affects the bottom line.

Bruce Levenson, who had a controlling interest in the Atlanta Hawks, sent an email in August 2012 to the team’s general manager, Danny Ferry, and other members of the club’s ownership, complaining about the team’s struggle to “get 35-55 white males and corporations to buy season tickets”.

“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,” Levenson wrote in the email.

Levenson, who announced on Sunday that he would sell his stake in the Hawks, complained that his franchise was drawing an “overwhelmingly black audience”.

He complained that most of the Hawks cheerleaders were black, that the music played in the arena was hip-hop or gospel, and that “there are few fathers and sons at the games”.

Why the NBA did not want the Donald Sterling case to go to trial was, at the time, perhaps explained by an unwillingness to follow the truth to where it really led.

Now it should.

In light of this second embarrassing disclosure, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver should conduct an investigation to find out how many other Donald Sterlings and Bruce Levensons are among the league’s owners and top executives. Who are the racists, the sexists, the homophobes?

The reality is that Levenson will make plenty of money from the sale of the Hawks, but the deeply rooted problem of racism will persist and again rear its head somewhere down the line.

“We all may have subtle biases and preconceptions when it comes to race,” Levenson said in his predictable sham of a letter of apology.

Perhaps. But we’re all not multibillionaires whose wealth and power can transform dinner table bigotry into large-scale policy and practices that affect the course of human events. Levenson is a sharp operator who knew exactly what he was saying and why he felt the need to say it.

Silver said in a statement that Levenson had notified the league in July of his 2012 email. The NBA subsequently started an investigation into the context of the remarks. But on Saturday night, without prompting from the league, Levenson decided the best move would be to sell the team.

Silver’s statement added, “Prior to the completion of the investigation, Levenson notified me that he had decided to sell his controlling interest in the Atlanta Hawks.”

Silver commended Levenson for self-reporting, for cooperating with the league’s investigation and, of course, he criticised his remarks as being in “stark contrast to the core principles of the NBA”.

Really?

Dan Lebowitz, executive director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University, said he hoped Levenson’s admission and its ramifications would help more Americans understand the level of racial inequality in the nation.

“Because it’s happening in the NBA, and that’s a celebrity platform with a ubiquitous spotlight, I think that it has the potential to not only start that national conversation, but to inform people about what reality really is,” Lebowitz said.

“It’s easy for people to just point at a Donald Sterling or point at a Bruce Levenson and say, we live in a post-racial world, and I wouldn’t have said that.”

During the 2012-13 season, 76.3 per cent of the NBA’s players were African-American, the highest percentage of the four major United States sports leagues, based on the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports’ annual studies. The league also had the highest percentage of black coaches and executives.

Perhaps then, the most distressing aspect of Levenson’s comments is that they reflect a deep-seated bias toward blacks that has nothing to do with content of character, but rather their existence and proximity to whites.

Racism in the US is as virulent as ever. Or didn’t you get the memo? AGENCIES.

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