A racist comment about African-born British NBA standout Luol Deng made in a conference call reportedly triggered the chain of events that has forced the sale of the Atlanta Hawks.
A day after Hawks owner Bruce Levenson said he was selling the NBA club following racist remarks in an email he sent more than two years ago came to light, several US media outlets reported that a comment about Deng touched off the probe that uncovered the email.
Hawks chief executive Steve Koonin said that in a June conference call to ponder options for free agents to change the roster, general manager Danny Ferry read aloud a racist remark in an analysis of a player.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the player was Deng, who was born in what is now South Sudan.
Deng went on to sign with the Miami Heat as a playmaker to replace LeBron James after the superstar departed for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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After the meeting, which took place less than two months after NBA commissioner Adam Silver banned then Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life for making racist remarks, a Hawks co-owner asked for an internal investigation and an Atlanta law firm undertook the task.
In reviewing more than 24,000 documents, the email sent by Levenson was discovered. In it, the Hawks owner makes remarks regarding racial issues about spectators.
In the email, Levenson says he believes "the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season-ticket base."
The NBA was notified and began its own probe and Levenson, the team's majority owner since 2004, voluntarily decided to sell the Hawks rather than put the team through the legal wrangling and personal drama that stretched on for months when Sterling fought to keep the Clippers.
The Clippers were sold for $2 billion to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.
"I couldn't believe it," Koonin told CNN of his reaction to the email. "I had an audible gasp. There's no words to describe... mortified and angry."
Koonin described walking into a Sunday night meeting with Hawks players as "like walking into a funeral. These are young men who wear our city's name and our logo on their chest.
"They are supposed to be supported by their ownership. Ownership failed in supporting them."
The Hawks, whose sale will be handled by the NBA, have reached the playoffs for the past seven seasons, the longest streak of any NBA team in the Eastern Conference.
But the Hawks had the NBA's third-worst attendance last season and also have a home-arena lease that expires in 2018.
They are expected to draw several rich offers, although more likely in the range of the Milwaukee Bucks, who sold earlier this year for $550 million.
