Hawks racism scandal began with Luol Deng scouting report

If there's one lesson Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry learned this summer, it's "Think before you speak."

On Sunday, the team's owner, Bruce Levenson, announced his intent to sell controlling interest of the team after revealing he sent an email to colleagues that contained racist statements.

The email was discovered as part of an investigation that was launched after Hawks general manager Danny Ferry read aloud an offensive and racist statement that was listed in the background report on a free agent. According to ESPN.com, that free agent was Luol Deng, who is now on the Heat.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Ferry made the remark in a June meeting when the team was discussing potential free agents.

"Instead of editing it, he said the comment," Hawks CEO Steve Koonin told the newspaper.

"This is wrong," he added. "This should not be said. It's not appropriate in any world but [especially] not a post-Sterling world."

Luol Deng was being discussed by the Hawks as a free agent this summer.Photo: Charles Wenzelberg

Ferry will be disciplined, but will be allowed to keep his job.

After the aforementioned meeting occurred, one of the team's stakeholders called for an investigation into the matter, and an Atlanta law firm conducted 19 interviews and turned up more than 24,000 internal documents, including the email that Levenson cited when he announced his decision to sell the team.

The email, which was sent to Ferry and partners of Levenson, discussed ways in which Levenson felt the team should try to attract more white fans to Hawks games.

"I think [Southern] whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority," one passage said.

Another passage read: "I have told them I want some white cheerleaders and while I don't care what the color of the artist is, I want the music to be music familiar to a 40-year-old white guy if that's our season [tickets] demo. I have also balked when every fan picked out of [the] crowd to shoot shots in some timeout contest is black. I have even [complained] that the kiss cam is too black."

Following the investigation, Levenson decided to be proactive and sell the team, convinced the e-mail would eventually be made public and damage the team's business.

The NBA will be in charge of the process to find the Hawks a new owner. It could move quickly — the Bucks and Clippers, two teams that recently changed ownership, received multiple bids.

As is the case with every ownership change, there is speculation that new ownership will attempt to move the Hawks to Seattle, which has been without an NBA team since the 2007-08 season. The Hawks' lease with Philips Arena runs through the 2017-18 season.

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