Don Lewis, the founder of the AABA and formerly a Georgia-based boxing and wrestling promoter, responded by saying that he did not "hate anyone of color" but that he felt that white people should be given their own league to play "fundamental basketball, which they like" instead of the "street ball" he said is played by nonwhites. He claimed that "white basketball players are essentially 'shut out' of conventional professional basketball due to the proliferation of non-organized play on the court" and cited Gilbert Arenas' suspension for bringing guns into the Washington Wizards' locker room as an example of the way basketball was being run, commenting "That's the culture today, and in a free country we should have the right to move ourselves in a better direction." Lewis claimed to have received threats from people opposed to the AABA's whites-only policy. Besides Augusta, several other cities warned Lewis and the AABA to "stay out of town". Because of the negative attention toward the league, Don Lewis' nephew Ralph said that the physical address of its Atlanta, Georgia office would not be made public.
