Atlanta Hawks GM Danny Ferry Apologizes for Reading Offensive Scouting Report on Luol Deng

The current state of media in 2014, calls for analyzing every bit of information to see if there’s a story or find something that you can turn into one. Atlanta Hawks brass are currently front and center in the news following majority owner Bruce Levenson revealing that he sent a racially charged e-mail in 2012. Levenson turned the e-mail into the NBA and announced he would be selling his portion of the team.

One of the items that has come out from the fallout was that Hawks GM Danny Ferry read a scouting report on a conference call that contained the reference, “he’s got some African in him” from a scouting report on Luol Deng.
Ferry was reported for this by one of the minority owners of the Hawks, which is what spurned Levenson to present the e-mail to the league office. Domino effect.

“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.” Gearon’s memo continued, “Ferry completed the racial slur by describing the player (and impliedly, all persons of African descent) as a two-faced liar and cheat.”

Ferry was allegedly reading from a scouting report from another team. Several GM’s have spoken up on Ferry’s behalf. The NBA has no plans to further discipline Ferry. Ferry has issued an apology saying those were not his words or feelings and acknowledging it being a bad choice of language. The next question is, should Ferry be fired. He’s never been accused of any type of inappropriate behavior.

The times are changing, everyone is on the edge of a slippery slope. Do you feel Ferry should be punished from reading a scouting report?