During a high-level meeting to discuss free agents back in June, Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry stunned his colleagues by reading aloud a player’s background report that included a racist remark. (The free agent in question was reportedly Miami Heat forward Luol Deng.)
This triggered an internal investigation that eventually led to the revelation of a racially-charged 2012 email from majority team owner Bruce Levenson, who announced Sunday that he’s selling his share of the franchise. Per the AJC:
According to CEO Steve Koonin, the Hawks held a meeting in early June to discuss free agency. At that meeting, a player was being discussed and Ferry cited a background report that included an “offensive and racist” remark. […] “Instead of editing it, he said the comment,” Koonin said.
Following the meeting, Koonin said members of the Atlanta-based ownership group raised a red flag regarding the comment and said: ‘This is wrong. This should not be said. It’s not appropriate in any world but not a post-(Donald) Sterling world.”
In the wake of the incident, it was decided that there would be an internal investigation conducted by council. The law first of Alston and Bird conducted 19 interviews and examined 24,000 documents. During that search, the Levenson email was discovered, according to Koonin. […] According to Koonin, Ferry will be disciplined for the incident. He met with representatives of the law firm Alston and Bird late Sunday afternoon and said the undisclosed discipline exceeded their recommendation. “This is a discipline matter,” Koonin said. “He will be punished. It will remain private.”
Find it hard to believe he sold his shares just off this e-mail. There is something hidden.
“Furthermore, Steve Koonin himself can expect to be reprimanded for having a racist-sounding last name.”
Um…shouldn’t the person who made the report be held responsible? Not the guy who read it?
Ferry’s punishment will include having to eat a bar of soap while wearing a funny hat.
Yep… I think he just wanted out…. Perfect way… Email may be fine-worthy but not a “team-selling” caliber email…
Simple, it’s cause he wants to make more money due to generated controversy. Like how Donald Sterling made $2 billion off the Clippers.
Exactly.. I’m confused… Seems like witch-hunt behavior..
When political correctness goes too far.
Some people read EVERYTHING they see on the teleprompter.
I’m with you but I guess it depends on the context. Maybe in reading it he somehow outwardly cosigned the comment? Who knows.
My old friend Ernest LeConte grew up in DC and played ball against Len Bias and Danny Ferry in High School and played pick up games in the parks with both of them, and he told me those two were the best of friends, and that Len’s death hit Ferry pretty hard, which may not prove that Ferry isn’t racist but gives some sense of where he comes from. Nothing in Ferry’s character, that I’ve heard of, could ever be construed of as racist, and it sounds as if he was quoting the statement of a racist scout and that people have lost all sense of irony in this bizarre culture where racist entities like Fox News are used as official sources in Wikipedia articles exonerating the likes of Prescott Bush while a guy like Ferry is fined for a racist comment that wasn’t his.
Yes, the person that made the report should be held responsible, but how did Ferry not realise that before presenting the information to his bosses? Right, he didn’t see anything wrong with it. Let me know when you can present a report to your boss with offensive material and blame it on someone else.
So he didn’t realise what he was reading? So, if I go out and present a racist diatribe, it’s not my fault I did it? Ok.
Not at all, it would depend entirely on why you were quoting it and how you stood in relation to it (whether you agreed with it or not.) People quote things for a great variety of reasons. I hardly think he read it unconsciously. I mean from what I’ve heard of him, that doesn’t sound like him.
yea that too lol
Tits McGee is on vacation.
So then he either didn’t read the report himself prior to presenting it to his bosses or he read it and didn’t think it was a big deal.
agreed. sounds like we arent getting the full story.
Shout outs to Ron Burgundy.
Yea I haven’t heard anything of him being racist in the past or anything like we heard rumbles of Sterling’s racism over the years. I think reading the report as it was submitted doesn’t sound terrible to us here, but I’d be curious as to what the racist comment was and how he read and reacted to it. It would make a world of difference.
Hearing that he read the report as is doesn’t sound horrible, but I’m curious to what the statement was, how he read it, and what his reaction was afterwards. If this information isn’t brought forth, on how the story is being presented here, he gets a pass from me.
edit: Having read the comments, I can say that they were ignorant generalizations, but they weren’t racist.
Or maybe he didn’t read the report in his entirety before the meeting? I mean it’s just a scouting report that he read out loud, perhaps for the first time. Reading something racist doesn’t make you a racist.
Then right there is the reason he should be fired. He wasn’t paid to present racist remarks. And lets not play dumb here. He read the report before.
He was paid to present the scout’s findings. If he did that, he did his job. The scout isn’t paid to make racist remarks. If anyone should lose their job, it’s them.
He’s paid to present the scouts findings. Not racist remarks.
If he presented the racist remarks that were found in the scouting report, then he shouldn’t be disciplined at all. You think these reports just go from a scout’s hands straight to the GM. A bunch of eyes probably fall on them before Ferry even touches it. If Ferry is reprimanded, every single one of those people before him should be as well. Blaming the last link of the chain is stupid.
The GM is a position of power. He’s a leader. It got to him and he’s paid to be in a position where he shouldn’t be regurgitating someone elses garbage. I didn’t say ferry was the only one to be blamed, but I did say he wasn’t blameless. If you present racist comments to your boss in the form of a presentation written by someone on your team…..do you think pointing the finger will save you? Accountability, sir. And these scoutng reports go to a select few. The GM’s essentially head these few and is the main link between the owners. If those under him are so free to do such things..it also falls on him.
It’s a scouting report. It essentially points out the pros and cons of a player that they’re interested in. If under the cons it says, “got some African in him”, it’s not bad to say it. After that you can discuss the terminology all you want, it’s meaning and it’s moral implications at length. Reading the words of a report to your group isn’t a controversy.
If i own shares of the hawks, i will sell them too
just before I looked at the receipt 4 $6940 , I have faith that…my… neighbour was actualie earning money part-time at their computer. . there neighbour has been doing this 4 less than seven months and just took care of the depts on there villa and got a great Ford Focus. ……
see here now…. http://WWW.CASHCASH90.COM
This is getting ridiculous