Law firm finds 'no evidence' Danny Ferry was motivated by negative bias against Luol Deng

After scanning 24,000 documents and conducting 19 witness interviews, Atlanta law firm Alston & Bird found no evidence of negative bias by former Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry against Luol Deng.

The firm's findings were detailed in a letter to Ferry by Alston & Bird partner Bernard Taylor, which was obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

We reported the results of our work to the Hawks. In summary, the facts indicated that you repeated comments that were not your own about Mr. Deng from a scouting report during the call, and there was no evidence to indicate that during the call you acted in a manner motivated by negative bias toward Mr. Deng, his race or his country of origin.

In fact, you strongly recommended Luol Deng and attempted to sign him for the team. Based on the materials reviewed within the scope of the investigation, we did not uncover facts indicating that your repetition of words contained within a scouting report was improperly motivated by race, ethnicity, or country of origin.

Ferry made derogatory comments about Deng during a conference call on June 6, 2014. Ferry said that Deng "has a little African in him" and added, "He's like a guy who would have a nice store out front and sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back."

Ferry insisted that he was reading from a third party's scouting report, but the fallout from his comments eventually led to his dismissal from the Hawks' organization.

Alston & Bird reported an overview of their findings to Hawks ownership on Sept. 10, 2014. Taylor's letter was produced as a condition of Ferry's parting settlement to buy out the remaining three seasons on his contract.