More of the racist remarks Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry read aloud about Luol Deng emerged Wednesday. Despite the Hawks' situation, NBA commissioner Adam Silver believes Ferry shouldn't be fired.
After some of the remarks Ferry made about Deng in a June free agency meeting were revealed Tuesday, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports published a partial transcript that contained more remarks, including:
"... For example, (Deng) can come out and be an unnamed source for a story and two days later come out and say, 'That absolutely was not me. I can't believe somebody said that.' But talking to reporters, you know they can [believe it]. ...
"Good guy in Chicago. They will tell you he was good for their culture, but not a culture setter. He played hard and all those things, but he was very worried about his bobble-head being the last one given away that year, or there was not enough stuff of him in the [team] store ... kind of a complex guy."
Deng issued a statement on Tuesday, in which he stated being proud of his African heritage and commended those in the Hawks organization who spoke out against the racially insensitive scouting report on him.
Atlanta said Ferry, who apologized Tuesday and emphasized he only read what was written in the scouting report, wouldn't be fired. While some were upset by the Hawks' decision, Silver didn't have a problem with it.
"The discipline of a team employee is typically determined by the team, and in this case the Hawks hired a presitigious Atlanta law firm to investigate the circumstances of Danny Ferry's clearly inappropriate and unacceptable remarks," Silver told USA Today Sports on Wednesday. "In my view, those comments, taken alone, do not merit his losing his job.
"It's a question of context ... Those words, in this contect, understanding the full story here, the existence of the scouting report, the fact that he was looking at the scouting report as a reference when he was making these remarks, what I'm saying is - and frankly my opinion - is that this is a team decision in terms of what the appropriate discipline is for their employee. But if I'm being asked my view, I'm saying that, based on what I know about the circumstances, I don't think it's a terminable offense."
The Hawks disciplined Ferry but did not disclose what it entailed.
