Audio of Danny Ferry's racially insensitive comments released, report says NBA has heard tape

Audio of the conference call on which Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry made racially insensitive comments about free agent Luol Deng has surfaced, courtesy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Over 2:22 of recording, Ferry questions signing Deng, saying that "it doesn't come without the risk," before later making the statements that caused an internal organizational investigation and ultimately led to Ferry being issued undisclosed discipline and principal owner Bruce Levenson selling his share of the team.

The audio provides more context for Ferry's comments, which he prefaces by saying "The wrap on him is..."

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 other than he's a guy who would have a nice store out front but sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back.

For example, he can come out and be an unnamed source for a story and two days later come out and say, 'That absolutely was not me. I can't believe someone said that.'

But talking to reporters, you know they can [believe it]... 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.

Commissioner Adam Silver has already come out and said he does not believe that Ferry's comments "merit his losing his job". According to a report from USA Today Sports, an NBA investigator had previously heard the recording. ESPN's Arash Markazi further reports that Silver himself has heard the tape, too.

You can read more about this situation in the storyline below.