Unlike Levenson and Donald Sterling: White GM Danny Ferry may not get Richer off his racism

From [HERE] Days after the Atlanta Hawks majority owner Bruce Levenson announced his intention to sell his share of the team over a racist email he authored in June 2012, the organization finds itself mired in another controversy.

In a June conference call with team owners and staff, Hawks General Manager Danny Ferry said that free agent forward Luol Deng “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.” The comments were described by Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. as a “racial slur.”

Gearon then consulted with lawyers who advised him that, as a result of Ferry’s statements the team faced “significant exposure, possibly in the courts, but certainly in the court of public opinion, and, as we all know, within the league.”

Gearon also noted that the “racial diversity of our management team has changed for the worse since Ferry took over.” Gearon called on Ferry to be fired.

In a subsequent investigation of Ferry’s comments, the law firm of Alston and Bird reviewed 24,000 documents, eventually turning up the email that forced Levenson out.

In a statement released Tuesday morning, Ferry claimed that he was simply “repeating comments that were gathered from numerous sources during background conversations and scouting about different players” and apologized. He also called Deng personally to apologize.

The incident is a small window into the fraught world of NBA scouting and player evaluation. Throughout the league, a predominantly white cadre of scouts and front office staff evaluate a predominantly minority talent pool. (Deng was born in Sudan and became a naturalized British citizen in 2006.)

Ferry’s comfort with making the comments about Deng in a conference call with broad participation suggests a much deeper problem in the world of NBA scouting. But according to several well-sourced NBA reporters, that world is about to change forever: