The controlling owner of National Basketball Association (NBA) team Atlanta Hawks has said he is selling his shares in the franchise after admitting to composing and sending a racist email in 2012.
In a statement released on Sunday, team owner Bruce Levenson said he sent an email to Hawks general manager Danny Ferry and his co-owners in which he said its largely black fan base made Southern whites uncomfortable, a report by New York Daily News says.
"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.
The businessman said in his Sunday statement that he self-reported the email incident to the NBA in July because it was his opinion that the league should have a "zero tolerance for racism."
He expressed the same sentiment in an interview earlier this year with CNN when he talked about LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling, who was embroiled in the same controversy. Sterling has sold his controlling stake in the Clippers.
Levenson also said in his 2012 email that he had communicated to executives his concerns regarding attendance.
"I have told them I want white cheerleaders and while I don't care what the color of the artist is, I want the music to be music familiar to a 40 year old white guy if that's our seasons tixs demo," he said.
He continued, "I have also balked when every fan picked out of the crowd to shoot shots in some time out contest is black. I have even bitched the kiss cam is too black."
In his statement, published in full on Basketball Insiders, he said, "I'm truly embarrassed by my words in that email, and I apologize to the members of the Hawks family and all our fans."
"I trivialized our fans by making clichéd assumptions about their interests (i.e. hip hop vs. country, white vs. black cheerleaders, etc.) and by stereotyping their perceptions of one another (i.e. that white fans might be afraid of our black fans)," he said.
"By focusing on race, I also sent the unintentional and hurtful message that our white fans are more valuable than our black fans," Levenson continued.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in his own statement that Levenson's views are entirely "unacceptable and are in stark contrast to the core principles" of the league, reported Time.
He, however, commends Levenson for "putting the best interests of the Hawks, the Atlanta community, and the NBA first."
An investigation into the email had been mounted before Levenson decided to resign and sell his interests, Silver said.