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Washington Wizards owner and Bethesda resident Abe Pollin died on Tuesday, according to a statement from the team.

Pollin, 85, had been battling a brain disease, according to colleagues. It is not known whether that disease led to his death.

The release from the team did not specify how Pollin died and a man who answered the phone at an address registered to the Pollins in Chevy Chase said he was not authorized to speak about Pollin's death.

Pollin and his wife, Irene, purchased the Baltimore Bullets, later to become the Washington Wizards, in 1964. In 1973, the Pollins opened the Capital Centre in Landover, where they moved the Bullets, and later formed the Washington Capitals hockey franchise. The two teams moved in 1997 to what is now known as the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. The move contributed to a revitalization of the Chinatown neighborhood.

Longtime Washington, D.C., sportswriter and Potomac resident John Feinstein said he knew Pollin well professionally, and that in recent years Pollin's health had faded.

"I remember seeing him at Red Auerbach's funeral a few years ago and he did not look good," Feinstein said, recalling the service for the Hall of Fame Boston Celtics coach.

Feinstein said Pollin loved the opera, and was closer with his father, former Washington Opera Director Martin Feinstein.

In addition to his sports life, Pollin was active in the philanthropic world, serving as the honorable chairman of the Salvation Army's Leadership Committee for Centers of Hope and recently donating $1 million to the Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, among other things.

Born in Philadelphia in 1923, Pollin and his family moved to the District when he was 8 years old, according to a Verizon Center biography. He graduated from The George Washington University in 1945.

No information has been released about funeral arrangements for Pollin.