Hawks minority owner wanted GM Ferry fired for Deng comments

Sep 9, 2014 - 3:24 PM Atlanta, GA (SportsNetwork.com) - A chain of events involving general manager Danny Ferry led to Atlanta Hawks majority owner Bruce Levenson selling his controlling interest in the franchise.

Levenson made the shocking announcement Sunday in the wake of a racially insensitive email he wrote two years ago about the team's struggle to attract fans and sponsors from the white community.

The pieces to the puzzle have started to come together since Sunday.

In a letter obtained by Atlanta TV station WSB, dated June 12, Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. writes to Levenson about a racist statement made by Ferry when discussing an unnamed free agent. The player was Luol Deng, who was born in South Sudan, according to sources. Deng ended up signing with the Miami Heat.

Ferry referred to Deng as a "highly-regarded African-American player and humanitarian." After discussing positives of the player, Ferry went on to say that he "has a little African in him. Not in a bad way, but he's like a guy who would have a nice store out front but sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back."

According to the letter by Gearon, "Ferry completed the racial slur by describing the player (and impliedly, all persons of African descent) as a two-faced liar and cheat."

Gearon wanted Levenson to either ask for Ferry's resignation or fire him. Neither happened and Ferry released the following statement Tuesday morning:

"In regards to the insensitive remarks that were used during our due diligence process, I was repeating comments that were gathered from numerous sources during background conversations and scouting about different players. I repeated those comments during a telephone conversation reviewing the draft and free agency process. Those words do not reflect my views, or words that I would use to describe an individual and I certainly regret it. I apologize to those I offended and to Luol, who I reached out to Monday morning.

"In terms of the email that Bruce sent, the situation is disturbing and disappointing on many levels and I understand Bruce's words were offensive.

"I am committed to learning from this and deeply regret this situation. I fully understand we have work to do in order to help us create a better organization; one that our players and fans will be proud of, on and off the court, and that is where my focus is moving forward."

The league, of course, dealt with racially insensitive comments earlier this year when NBA commissioner Adam Silver banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life and forced him to sell the franchise.

Gearon thinks that Ferry's comments were far worse than Sterling's.

"We believe these comments by Ferry were far worse than Sterling's because they were not from a private personal conversation -- they were in a business environment on a business matter in front of a dozen or more people," Gearon said in the letter.

"If Ferry would have made such a slur in a semi-public forum, we can only imagine what he has said in smaller groups or to individuals. We also note that the racial diversity of our management team has changed for the worse since Ferry took over. The media (and any savvy lawyer) would have a field day with that fact."