Will the Cavs get caught in the Ferry undertow?

[theSTEREO.]

The consipracy theory here is inside the Hawks organization.

I can't find it now, but there was some insinuation on Twitter that one of the other 6 people in the ownership group may have brought it to the surface. Apparently there is a lot of bad blood within the group.

 

[QuadrupleDouble]

Letter was to Ferry, was he the snitch?

The "self reporting" thing was false as Silver responded to a question refuting that statement as "semantics."

Nothing overtly or obscenely racist about the letter. It's not like it was with the Sterlings who were known racists who faced many lawsuits because of it, this was a conversation about money and demographics and southern attitudes and perceptions.

This is fine worthy and no more. Maybe a little to the wanting to sell and drum up the price stuff.

 

[Tornicade]

if discussing racial demographics for marketing is fine worthy. they might as well fine all the NBA .This basic marketing taught at every school from Harvard to Grambling State

 

[The Oi]

Everything he said is accurate and reasonable. I'd think less of an owner if I thought he wasn't considering every avenue to sell tickets.

Something's up. I expect there's probably more damning info he's been threatened with.

 

[QuadrupleDouble]

if discussing racial demographics for marketing is fine worthy. they might as well fine all the NBA .This basic marketing taught at every school from Harvard to Grambling State

I guess I should rephrase that it isn't really worthy of a fine, but that should be the max to come of it as there is some questionable language and assumptions he is making. I even found it unsettling how many times he used the word "blacks."

Really though, nothing wrong here that should cause a forced sale.

 

[kookoo]

This is a joke, isn't it? If that email was racist, it was the nicest racism I've ever read. Not once does he actually insult the 'blacks' (I find that term the only really racist part of the email). He was making assumptions based on the geographic location and its history. Also, it's not about race, it's about money. If it was the other way around in his thought (the white people were driving away the black people at games), he'd probably have written the same email.

My conspiracy theory is he wants out as an owner ASAP. He wants his shares sold now. And because of Sterling, the league is still super sensitive, so they're willing to do anything and everything to get it done fast. Why else would a two year old email be the sole reason for someone to be forced out? There were no disgruntled employees sending out this email either. It's all a ploy. /theory

 

[brownindian]

I call this business model - The Sterling Model. Try to put your self in a position to sell your product and use the free market to sell your product for a neat profit. Ponzi will be proud of him.

 

[Tornicade]

speaking of atlanta marketing..

this
"The buzz around our offseason is more than heating up. With massive cap space, 4 draft picks, and free agency rapidly approaching, we sit in the best position in the NBA. Player interest is skyrocketing as the possibilities of landing Chris Paul & Dwight Howard become more and more of a reality."

this

I call this business model - The Sterling Model. Try to put your self in a position to sell your product and use the free market to sell your product for a neat profit. Ponzi will be proud of him.

The Atlanta marketing department has committed alot of egregious acts.. such as name dropping and other things .

nice phrase with the sterline model but Atlanta actively marketed and sought out black fans.

the owner was advocating making some changes for a broader market appeal and address some potential concerns. it was somewhat working as box sells increased over the last two seasons.

Maintaining a position that basketball teams should only market and cater towards blacks ...

 

[brownindian]

I'm sure he could have worded his intention better to make this a non-issue. Again, seeing the Clippers being bought out for 2 bill - Im sure a consistent team like the Hawks who are regular playoff teams will surely be sold for a good price. Maybe there is a russian investor or a chinese investor or a retired american CIO who wants to shell out cash in order to make himself feel good who will be willing to fork the money ....

 

[Tlyons]

The Blacks scared away the Whites. Expert analysis there

 

[Tornicade]

The Blacks scared away the Whites. Expert analysis there

its a theory and he spent two and half paragraphs stating why the theory wasnt backed with facts.
so they promoted the safety and made changes to make the venue appealing to a broader demographic.

 

[Pioneer10]

An internal and unexpected chain of events stemming from a June free-agent meeting led toAtlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson putting controlling interest in the team up for saleSunday, multiple officials told ESPN.com.

A racially insensitive email written by Levenson more than two years ago came to light only after one of his co-owners called for an investigation because of something that was included in a potential free-agent target's background report that was read aloud by team general manager Danny Ferry.

During the meeting, Ferry read a comment written by a source outside the organization that included a racist remark. According to multiple sources, Ferry did not fully edit the remark as he read it off the report.

This meeting took place less than two months after NBA commissioner Adam Silver banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life and started proceedings to force him to sell his team when racist comments he made became public. Levenson himself had been one of the most outspoken owners against Sterling's actions.

Following the meeting, one of the Hawks' stakeholders called for an internal investigation based on the remark being in the team's research of a player


The team hired an Atlanta law firm to perform an internal investigation, which included 19 interviews and a review of more than 24,000 documents, according to the team.

It was in the review of these documents that Levenson's email was discovered.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11486641/atlanta-hawks-upheaval-3-months-making

Atlanta organization has had issues: Levensohn not an Atlanta resident, they've been multiple lawsuits against co-owners.

 

[Andrew]

Makes me wonder if, in fact, he is selling on his on free will or trying to save face because players got wind of it and didn't want to play for a racist. No one sells a sports franchise if they are racist behind closed doors.

 

[upper lip]

.

 

[Tornicade]

Am I the only one who doesn't see a problem with his email, in this sugar coated, fairy land, extremely politically correct world we now live in? I thought the points he brought up were all valid.. And he even stated in the email that he thought the people that suggested why there wasn't a bigger 35-55 year old white make demographic was racist.. Idk.. I think this is being blown out of proportion. Just like the people who are making michael brown out to be such an innocent victim. Yes, of course he didn't deserve to get killed, but he was a criminal who beat the piss out of the officer and reached for his gun for christs sake! Eh, I digress ..

yes your the only one who doesnt see a problem with this e mail. disregarding the other 5 posters who said they saw no problem with this email that is/ not to mention the various skeptical twitters springing up all over the place.

and of course being the only one who doesnt have a problem with the email give you the perfect opportunity to lecture people about the Michael brown tragedy. .

Michael brown was killed by a police officer under questionable circumstances.
people protested.
A police action took place
this is certainly comparable to a majority owner agreeing to sell his NBA team due to the content of an email.