Good morning, we have a Donald Sterling sequel in Atlanta

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

’LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I AM A RACIST.’ In one of the more bizarre situations in memory, Atlanta Hawks controlling owner Bruce Levenson has agreed to sell his share in the team after self-reporting a race-tinged email sent to team execs in 2012. In the email, which you can read in full here, Levenson explains why ATL’s ticket sales are low, blaming the absence of white fans on the presence of black fans, black cheerleaders, black music, etc.

The official line says that Levenson told the NBA about the email in July, and decided this week to sell his share while the league was still “investigating.” Understandably, there are some who doubt the story and wonder if Levenson -- whose Atlanta Spirit ownership group tried to sell to California business Alex Mereulo in 2011 -- just wanted an excuse to sell to an out-of-towner. (Now the rich dudes are just lining up, apparently.)

Meanwhile, the Hawks say they discovered Levenson’s email while conducting an internal investigation into a racist comment from a team scouting report that GM Danny Ferry read out loud in June. (That scouting report has not been released.) The team will punish Ferry for reading the comment and not self-editing, even though it doesn’t appear he wrote it. Ferry also happened to be the recipient of Levenson’s email. HMM.

Meanwhile x 2: Woj reports that all the franchisees are panicking about whether they are next. The long shadow of Donald.

Stay tuned.

WORLD CUP THRILLERS: Brazil finally beat Argentina, signifying the era of Argentina’s golden age and perhaps the start of Brazil’s. Meanwhile, Turkey knocked out Australia at the buzzer. (So much for tanking to avoid Team USA, Aussies!) Here are the quarterfinal matchups, which are played Tuesday and Wednesday:

Slovenia vs. United States
Lithuania vs. Turkey
France vs. Spain
Serbia vs. Brazil

Those are all good matchups. Crank the tournament up to 11.

TY LAWSON IS TOO COLD: He killed the Cowboys and James Harden in one blow.

GREG MONROE STICKS AROUND: Moose signed the qualifying offer as threatened. Did Stan Van Gundy make his first mistake at the helm of the Pistons?

GOT THAT TV MONEY: John Ourand reports that the league is nearing completion of a deal with ESPN and Turner to extend the current broadcast set-up, but more than double the NBA’s revenue to more than $2 billion per year. That means there’s no space for a third broadcast partner. Fox Sports had been pushing hard for inclusion. The big deal basically means that beginning in 2016-17 players will split an extra $500 million per year.

BOOGIE UP: Marc Stein on the indispensible DeMarcus Cousins, who is shooting 70 percent in Spain. Plus Zach Lowe has 13 pre-knockout observations from the World Cup.

Happy Monday. See you next time.