Cleveland Cavaliers: Racial Comment Used By Danny Ferry Traced Back To Cavs

Late Friday, Atlanta Hawks general manager, amid controversy which now traces back to the Cleveland Cavaliers, announced that he would be taking a leave an absence.

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The Hawks PR department released a statement from CEO Steve Koonin regarding Ferry’s leave of absence on Friday.

"“This afternoon, Danny Ferry requested, and I have approved, taking an indefinite leave of absence, effective immediately. This has been an incredibly difficult time for him and his family and it is my hope that this time away from the Hawks organization allows him the privacy he needs to listen to the community, to learn about his mistakes, and to begin the long process of personal healing. As a human being, manager and friend, I wish him well as he undergoes this process.While the issues related to race are deeply troubling, at the heart of this dispute is an unfortunate disagreement amongst owners. That said, we have taken several steps to address what we can do as an organization to be better and stronger, including working with a diversity consultant to examine us and to train us to ensure something like this never happens again, we are committed to hiring a Chief Diversity Officer, and we have and will continue to meet with community leaders in an ongoing way to ensure our values reflect the community in which we play and work. The process of selling the team, which is to remain in Atlanta, is already underway.Effective immediately, our Head Coach, Mike Budenholzer, will assume oversight of the basketball operations department. He will report directly to me.I am deeply saddened and embarrassed that this has put a blemish on our team and our city, which has always been a diverse community with a history of coming together as one. We should build bridges through basketball, not divide our community or serve as a source of pain.”"

Ferry’s leave of absence stems from a racial remark he made during a conference call with Atlanta Hawks owners as they pursued Luol Deng during free agency. Ferry reportedly said Deng has “some African in him.” Co-owner Bruce Levenson announced his intentions to sell his share of the team after an “inappropriate and offensive” email was “self-reported” to the NBA. The email contained details, including the racial remark, from the said conference call.

In an apology letter, Ferry stated that he was simply regurgitating a comment (the racial remark) that he had previously heard. And apparently, he isn’t wrong.

According to Jason Lloyd, of Ohio.com, that racial comment about Deng can be traced back all the way to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

"A racially charged comment uttered by Atlanta Hawks General Manager Danny Ferry regarding Luol Deng seems to trace back to the Cavaliers organization, according to the scouting report obtained Friday by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.Parts of the report are redacted, including the author’s name, but an entry dated June 6, 2014, refers to Deng as “a good guy on the cover but he’s an African. He has a little two-step in him = says what you like to hear, but behind closed doors he could be killing you. Con isn’t bad but it’s there. African-like, store front looks great but there’s a black market section in the back.”The report is labeled as coming from a 2013-14 Front Office and the word “Former” is legible, but the rest of the name and title is blacked out. The report begins “From a physical when we got him, Chicago had run him into the ground. We tried to correct and manage it when we got him. People say that he is worn down but I disagree and think there is more left in his body.”"

In summary, the report shows evidence that Ferry was indeed reading off a scouting report that he got from Cleveland. He isn’t lying. The problem now is, though, we still don’t know who the author of said remark is.