What? Ferry took a stereotype of Africans and placed it upon a player he had no prior experience with because of his ethnicity. That's like a hiring manager talking about me after an interview: "He's great but he's got some Vietnamese in him. That means that he's a communist" People make mistakes all the time but for Ferry to say all of this about Deng on a conference call it doesn't matter if it was his words or not--it shouldn't have been stated/generalized. And since he's in a leadership position it definitely shouldn't have been intimated in the first place.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The AJC and WSB Ch. 2 have jointly obtained the official Luol Deng background report. Does mention African comment. MORE TO COME.</p>— Chris Vivlamore (@CVivlamoreAJC) <a href="https://twitter.com/CVivlamoreAJC/status/510488067786813440">September 12, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ferry misread it. The report says "...he's an African. He has a two step in him..." Those scouting reports are crazy. Teams care more about the character stuff than I thought, and share with other teams way more than I thought. Fascinating read.
So I may have misspoke above. Perhaps Ferry was reading off a scouting report(albeit not word for word but still...) That scouting report was from Cleveland. Chris Grant? "He's 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. Chicago thought he was good for their culture but an outlier. Teammates liked him but he...less impact on the locker room than you would think. He complained about things like not enough team jerseys in the team store or that his bobble head was last during the year...has some con and a sense of entitlement. Luol kind of treated Cleveland like a pit-stop after the trade, where he probably became more protective of his body and focused on the contract because he didn't know his long term plan. He said some things privately to media but denied them publicly and said it wasn't him. He's not terrible but you've got to know that stuff is there with him.
Danny Ferry taking a leave of absence according to Yahoo. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>During Danny Ferry's leave of absence, the Hawks announce that head coach Mike Budenholzer will lead the bball operations department duties.</p>— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpearsNBAYahoo/status/510520242678681600">September 12, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The following statement was released by President of Basketball Operations/General Manager Danny Ferry: "No words can adequately describe my remorse for the hurt that I have caused many people through the statements I repeated, most importantly Luol Deng. Luol is a good man who I have known for many years and he has done a tremendous amount of good for his country and around the world. I apologize to Luol and I apologize to all that I have offended. As I have said, while these were not my words, I deeply regret repeating them. Almost all the background information I provided during the lengthy presentation regarding Luol was positive and my personal and professional recommendation during the call was very much in favor of adding Luol to our team but I never should have uttered those offensive remarks and for that I apologize. My focus moving forward is to tirelessly work to rebuild trust with this community and with our fans. I realize that my words may ring hollow now and my future actions must speak for me. I will maximize my time during this leave to meet with community leaders and further educate myself and others on the extremely sensitive issues surrounding race, diversity, and inclusion. I will find a way to make a positive difference in this area, and further learn from the sensitivity training that I will go through.”
Am I the only one that feels like this "coaching" stuff is complete BS? You need a coach to teach you not to say racist things that hurt and put down people from another ethnicity? You are either racist or not, coaching just means you avoid putting out racist remarks in the future, it doesn't change your mentality.
Danny Ferry's problem is that he has a little too much Duke in him. The Dookies in the NBA tend to look better than they really are. They present themselves well and get themselves drafted high and paid a ton more than their talent level warrant. One of those Dookies was compared to Larry Bird in college, got himself drafted 2nd overall and was a big enough prima Donna that he refused to play for the team that drafted him, opting to go to Italy to force the team to trade him. He then signed a 10 year guaranteed contract and went on to average double figures for only 2 years. Talking about selling counterfeit goods!
So Ferry lied when he said he was reading a report. Sounds like he summarized it in his own words. Duke grads I assume know the difference.