Report: Audio contains Ferry's remarks

Sep 12, 2014 - 12:51 AM Atlanta, GA (SportsNetwork.com) - A newspaper says it has obtained audio of Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry making racially charged comments about NBA player Luol Deng.

The partial recording of a June 6 conference call was posted online Thursday evening by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Speaking to Hawks ownership and management, Ferry says of Deng: "He's a good guy overall but he's not perfect. He's got some African in him, and I don't say that in a bad way other than he's a guy that ..."

At that point someone in the room where the tape was made, apparently Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr., talks over Ferry and mentions former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, saying: "That's going to be on TMZ tonight."

Ferry continues talking about Deng: "He has a nice store out front that's beautiful and great but he may be selling some counterfeit stuff behind you," Ferry says.

"When I say that I mean, for example, he could come out and be an unnamed source for a story and two days later come out and say, 'That was absolutely not me. I can't believe someone said that.' But talking to reporters, you know it's him."

Ferry says: "He could be a lawyer in the locker room when the coach is not around. Yet when the coach is around he's the greatest guy in the world."

Hawks co-owner Bruce Levenson announced Sunday that he was selling controlling interest in the team in the wake of a racially insensitive email he wrote two years ago about issues related to low attendance that he self-reported to the NBA.

In a letter obtained by Atlanta TV station WSB and dated June 12, Gearon wrote to Levenson about Ferry's statements and asked for Levenson to fire him or ask for his resignation.

Ferry issued a statement on Tuesday saying that he was repeating comments from scouting reports.

"I repeated those comments during a telephone conversation reviewing the draft and free-agency process," Ferry said. "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 the snippet posted online by the Journal-Constitution, which lasts two minutes and 22 seconds, Ferry does not mention that he is using notes from a report.

Deng was born in what was then part of Sudan and is a member of the Dinka tribe. When he was five, his family fled to Egypt to escape the civil war in that country.

He played college basketball at Duke and spent his first 10-plus NBA seasons with the Chicago Bulls, who traded him to Cleveland in January. He was a free agent when Ferry made his comments but has since signed with the Miami Heat.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling for life and forced him to sell the Clippers after audio surfaced of him telling a female acquaintance not to bring black people to games.

Gearon has said he thinks Ferry's comments were worse.

"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 his 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."