Atlanta Hawks owner, Bruce Levenson, announced that he will be selling his shares of the team after he himself admitted that he sent out a racist e-mail.

According to TMZ, Levenson sent the controversial correspondence two years ago which urged team executives to have more "white fans" during their games. TMZ added that he listed the following on his e-mail:

"It's 70 pct black, the cheerleaders are black, the music is hip hop, at the bars it's 90 pct black. There are few fathers and sons at the games. The concerts [after games] are either hip hop or gospel."

In the e-mail, he also wrote, "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."

A copy of the e-mail can be found here.

USA Today said that the sent e-mail was only reported by Levenson to the NBA this July, two years after it was sent and during the time when the league was under investigation for the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers, formerly owned by Donald Sterling, who was also slammed for his racist comments.

Levenson, at one point, strongly criticized Sterling for his actions and remarks and now the tables have turned.

The Hawks owner has already apologized to basketball fans saying: "If you're angry about what I wrote, you should be. I'm angry at myself too."

In his apology posted by Yahoo Sports  in an article, Levenson stated that he observed the "low attendance" in the games of the Hawks and noted that it needed to increase its ticket sales through a strategy.

"Over that time, I've talked with team executives about the need for the Hawks to build a more diverse fan base that includes more suburban whites, and I shared my thoughts on why our efforts to bridge Atlanta's racial sports divide seemed to be failing," he explained.

He added that in his effort to address the issue, he drafted the e-mail which he admitted was indeed "inappropriate and offensive. "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). By focusing on race, I also sent the unintentional and hurtful message that our white fans are more valuable than our black fans."

Hawks CEO Steve Koonin said that they are currently looking for a buyer of the team just like what happened to the Clippers which was purchased by resigned Microsot CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.

In a statement quoted by USA Today, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that he received prior notification from Levenson expressing his intention to sell the team.

"As Mr. Levenson acknowledged, the views he expressed are entirely unacceptable and are in stark contrast to the core principles of the National Basketball Association. He shared with me how truly remorseful he is for using those hurtful words and how apologetic he is to the entire NBA family - fans, players, team employees, business partners and fellow team owners - for having diverted attention away from our game," Silver said.