After Atlanta Hawks’ owner Bruce Levenson made racist comments about the people of Atlanta in an e-mail and announced he would be selling the team, things got even worse for the Hawks.
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Hawks’ general manager Danny Ferry, who has done a good job of getting the Hawks out of an awful salary cap situation, described current Miami Heat forward Luol Deng as a player with “some African in him.” The Hawks were reportedly pursuing Deng in free agency during the process. It has created a bit of a storm and there are accusations of Ferry being a racist.
Ferry will now be taking a leave of absence from the team.
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.”
This is a tough situation – many have come to the defense of Ferry and he seems to be known as a good guy – but he was obviously in the wrong here.
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