It was a background report on Luol Deng that reportedly set the investigation of Atlanta Hawks co-owner Bruce Levenson into motion, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
The Hawks were among the teams that pursued Deng in free agency this offseason, and although he ultimately signed with the Miami Heat, it was a meeting about the small forward which ultimately led to Levenson announcing Sunday that he would be selling his controlling interest in the team.
According to the paper, Hawks officials convened in early June to talk about potential free agents. When Deng’s name was brought up, general manager Danny Ferry read a scouting report on him aloud that raised some eyebrows. The report included an “offensive and racist” remark about Deng, according to Hawks CEO Steve Coonin.
“Instead of editing it, he said the comment,” Koonin said.
Following the meeting, members of the ownership group who were bothered by the comment called for an internal investigation. Although it is not known specifically what the comment was, Koonin told the paper that it was not “appropriate.”
“This is wrong,” Koonin said. “This should not be said. It’s not appropriate in any world but not a post-(Donald) Sterling world.”
The team hired an Atlanta law firm to perform the investigation, which led to the discovery of Levenson’s inflammatory email he wrote to the team’s co-owners and Ferry more than two years ago.
