Luol Deng doesn’t believe Hawks GM Danny Ferry is racist

The Miami Heat kicked off their media day on Friday. Newly minted Heat forward Luol Deng commanded a lot of media attention. The question on everyone’s mind, what were his thoughts on the situation with estranged Atlanta Hawks GM Danny Ferry.

Ferry made inappropriate comments regarding Deng during a Hawks conference call regarding free agents last June. He’s now on leave from the franchise. Deng spoke with Ferry and shared his thoughts with the media.

After talking with Ferry, he doesn’t believe the Hawks’ general manager who took a leave of absence is racist and Deng would love to make this a positive learning experience for everybody to benefit from.

“I really think one of the hardest things to do as a human being – and something we should do more often – is to forgive,” Deng said at the Heat’s media day. “I do forgive Danny. It’s not something that I want to hold onto for the rest of my career and the rest of my life. I had the chance to speak to Danny and I really believe he’s sorry for what he said.

And whether it came from him or wherever it came from, the main focus really should be how we move on forward. What are we going to do about it? Instead of just pointing fingers and trying to go after each other and be mad at each other, I think everything happens for a reason and we could turn this situation of something so negative and something bad that words that were used to describe me and describe where I came from and really turn it into something positive.”

I agree. All the emphasis can’t be on “punishment.” The reality is, life has to move on from that moment at some point. And the goal is to be in a better place than where you started and learn something in the process.