Raptors President of Basketball Operations & GM Masai Ujiri pens an op-ed in Friday's GLOBE & MAIL on the controversy surrounding the Hawks and GM Danny Ferry's comments about former free agent Luol Deng. Ujiri: "Danny Ferry thinks Luol Deng 'has a little African in him.' … When I first heard it, I wondered, 'What does that mean?' I am an African from Nigeria. ... His fellow NBA players have named him the NBA’s top sportsman. Last year, his work for charity earned him the league’s J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship award. Is that the 'African' he means? I’ve known Danny Ferry for a few years. ... I’ve always thought he carries himself well. He’s tough. I respect that." Ujiri adds, "We are all human. We are all vulnerable. We all make mistakes. You discover a person’s true character in their ability to learn from and then move on from those mistakes. One of the truly important things we must learn is how to forgive. Danny’s mistake will remain tied to him for a long time. What he’s said can’t be unsaid." Ujiri: "My hope is that we will soon see Danny Ferry at a Basketball Without Borders camp as well, so that he may come to know us. Because when we know better, we do better" (GLOBE & MAIL, 9/12).
MORE SUPPORT FOR FERRY: NBA.com's David Aldridge wrote Ferry "often, can be a jerk," but he "is not a racist." Aldridge: "We're not friends, but I don't think that you have to be to know something of a person's character after all those years. And I do not think Danny Ferry is racist. Is he occasionally abrasive? Most certainly. But that is a different character trait." However, Aldridge wrote it is "harder to believe" that outgoing Hawks Managing Partner Bruce Levenson is an "innocent, benign character." But Aldridge wrote the racially charged e-mail that Levenson sent "asks some fair questions." Regardless, "perhaps the next owner will seek out the support of the entire Atlanta community" (NBA.com, 9/11). NBA TV's Dennis Scott said, "Do I change my outlook on Danny as a person? No, I don’t change. I still don’t think Danny is racist. Did he make poor judgment in a business setting? Yes, he did and I think that's what's going to maybe hurt him in the long run. … It will get messier , it has to, to get all the truth out and get all cleaned up and then maybe we can move on” (“NBA GameTime,” NBATV, 9/11).
