Report: Danny Ferry read from report that stated Luol Deng has 'some African in him'

General Manager Danny Ferry's comments about Luol Deng, which started the Hawks down a path that eventually led to the discovery of an offensive email sent by owner Bruce Levenson and ultimately to Levenson's decision to sell the team, have been publicized.

Citing league sources, Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Monday what Ferry is believed to have said about Deng during a July conference call meant to inform Atlanta's ownership group (seven owners, including Levenson) about possible free agent options.

Via Wojnarowski:

"He's still a young guy overall," Ferry said, league sources with direct knowledge of the probe told Yahoo. “He's a good guy overall. But he's not perfect. He's got some African in him. And I don't say that in a bad way."

Deng was born in Sudan before his family moved to Egypt and then England.

During the conference call, Ferry was reportedly reading from a report prepared for him based on what Wojnarowski refers to as "a network of information sources from around the league."

As Wojnarowski reports, "the disparaging racial reference to Deng triggered at least one team owner on the call to pursue an independent investigation into how the organization operated in regard to race."

It was during that investigation that an email Levenson sent in 2012 was discovered, in which the owner discussed offensive stereotypes and comparisons between the team's black fans and white fans (you can read details of the email in the story stack below).

Following that discovery, Levenson was reportedly convinced by the league and Hawks officials to sell his majority share of the team.