Ferry used African stereotypes in a conversation with limited ownership partners. In that talk, Ferry discussed health problems and promoted the idea that the concept of African’s peddling counterfeit goods. Further comments made by Ferry were revealed in a transcript obtained by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
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And while the secondary comments were less about Deng’s heritage and more about his character, they still come off as insulting. Ferry mentioned the positives about Deng, a player who is known as a good locker room guy and good with the media. But he also mentioned him as a possible risk to team chemistry, because of his concern with certain issues.
Comments that the public have become more familiar with were also in the transcript, as Wojnarowski described the approach of Ferry and the reaction of minority owner Michael Gearon Jr., whose vendetta against Ferry streamlined a heightened reaction to the racist remarks. Gearon sent an e-mail to owner Bruce Levenson, who also made racist remarks in a 2012 e-mail, requesting that Ferry be fired.
“But talking to reporters, you know they can [believe it].”
Ferry kept going on Deng: “… 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.”
As soon as those words left Ferry’s mouth on the call, Gearon responded in a dramatic way in the background of the tape recording, according to a partial transcript of the call obtained by Yahoo Sports.
“Oh my God, that comment sounds like Sterling on TMZ,” Gearon said.
