Am I the only one who sees these comments about Luol Deng to be much worse than the comments the owner made about the Hawks fan base?
This is terrible and even if Danny Ferry didn’t write the words, he must have believed them to be true because he read it out loud. One of the Hawks Co-Owners found it very offensive and wanted him to be fired. Here are the details via SI.
With respect to one potential free agent, a highly-regarded African-American player and humanitarian, Ferry talked about the player’s good points, and then went on to describe his negatives, stating 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.” Ferry completed the racial slur by describing the player (and impliedly, all persons of African descent) as a two-faced liar and cheat.
We were appalled that anyone would make such a racist slur under any circumstance, much less the GM of an NBA franchise on a major conference call. One of us can be heard on the tape reacting with astonishment. Our franchise has a long history of racial diversity and inclusion that reflects the makeup of our great city. Ferry’s comments were so far out of bounds that we are concerned that he has put the entire franchise in jeopardy.
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. 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.
If Ferry’s comments are ever made public, and it’s a safe bet they will someday, it could be fatal to the franchise.
Ferry of course wasn’t fired and they have no plans to fire him.
Stay woke.