Hawks ownership feud uncovered Danny Ferry-Bruce Levenson scandal

(Photo: David Tulis, AP)

Within the past year, Atlanta Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. approached fellow co-owner Bruce Levenson about selling the franchise, two people familiar with the situation told USA TODAY Sports.

Levenson wasn't interested in selling but is going to do that now, and with NBA now in a seller's market, Gearon will be in position to cash in on his investment — despite financials losses in the past decade. Gearon understands that if he wants to capitalize, he needs to sell more than just his stake. The Hawks are worth more when a majority of the team is sold.

So for the second time in the past few months, an ownership group mired in a controversy over the use of racial language could stand to make a significant amount of money selling the team. In the case of the Hawks, how they got here is a decade of poor judgment, mismanagement and a power play among owners.

When Hawks general manager Danny Ferry made racist comments about Luol Deng during a free-agent conference call in June, the team hired Atlanta law firm Alston & Bird to conduct an independent review. That investigation uncovered a 2012 e-mail from Levenson that used racially insensitive and crude language to describe Hawks