Plan to sell Hawks approved

— -- ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Hawks are on the market.

In a three-sentence statement, the Hawks' owners announced Thursday that they have unanimously approved a plan to sell all shares of the team. The sale is to include operating rights to Philips Arena, the Hawks' home facility.

The announcement was expected following reports last week that the full ownership group would join co-owners Bruce Levenson and his Washington partner, Ed Peskowitz, in the sale. Levenson and Peskowitz control 50.1 percent of the team.

The Hawks say the sale "will commence immediately."

The team is expected to remain in Atlanta.

Hawks spokesman Garin Narain says that CEO Steve Koonin had no comment.

An internal and unexpected chain of events stemming from a June conference call looking ahead to free agency led to Levenson putting controlling interest in the team up for sale Sunday, ESPN.com reported in September.

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 background report on free-agent target Luol Deng that was read aloud by team general manager Danny Ferry, who did not fully edit the remark as he read it off the report.

The co-owner was identified as Michael Gearon by WSB-TV in Atlanta. The station, which obtained a two-page letter from Gearon to Levenson, reported that Gearon called for Ferry to be fired. Ferry took an indefinite leave of absence in mid-September.

On the court, the Hawks have won six straight and, at 27-8 overall, have the best record in the Eastern Conference.

Information from The Associated Press was included in this report.