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The NBA has reportedly stopped investigating the Cleveland source of the nasty Luol Deng comments

The NBA has reportedly stopped investigating the Cleveland source of the nasty Luol Deng comments

Buried near the end of a (very good) notes piece from Cleveland Cavaliers beat writer Jason Lloyd were a few depressing tidbits about the NBA’s approach to the furor that erupted after Danny Ferry was documented signing off on a horribly misguided scouting report on Luol Deng.

Ferry, as you likely know by this point, paraphrased a line that equated being of African heritage as also being prone to acting as a duplicitous two-face, never once pausing to pass on relaying that sort of “information” to his bosses with the Atlanta Hawks, never thinking twice about how this execrable nonsense ended up in a scouting report in the first place.

The report was later leaked, showing that a former Cleveland Cavaliers employee was behind the words, though that knowledge doesn’t absolve Ferry (and whatever Hawk employee saw fit to copy and paste the ex-Cleveland source’s thoughts into the report) for his glaring lack of leadership.

No matter, a few weeks later. The NBA is moving on. Sadly. From the Akron Beacon-Journal:

17. The NBA has poked around and asked some questions about the Luol Deng scouting report that was leaked recently, a league source with knowledge of the situation said. But it’s an overstatement to categorize the league’s involvement as an active investigation.

18. The league seems to be approaching this just as the Cavs are: The redacted report clearly seems to indicate it’s a former employee, so there isn’t much that can be done at this point.

19. One thing that seems clear from a number of people I’ve spoken with around the league: Many are upset with the way the Atlanta Hawks, from ownership to the front office, etc… have handled this whole debacle.

What this does, sadly, is speak to what we’ve all feared in the wake of Donald Sterling’s banishment from the NBA. Danny Ferry’s absence of leadership won’t cost the NBA any endorsements, or flood the league with bad press and nasty headlines. Sterling’s illegally-recorded words did, and this is why the NBA (correctly) moved in with swift alacrity in ousting the longtime Los Angeles Clippers owner.

Of course, it only counts as “alacrity” if you ignore the NBA’s stone feet and silent mouths as it watched Sterling’s uncomfortable at best and discriminatory at worst practices when it came to engaging with minorities both within and outside of the Los Angeles Clippers organization for three decades prior. Once the bad press and lost money hit, the NBA (a private league with collectively bargained bylaws) was more than within its legal right to force a weak link out of the club.

That right was proven in a court of law, which eventually led to Sterling’s sale of the Clippers (even if his estranged wife, with her dubious discriminatory past, is still involved with the NBA). The NBA has no current tangible link to the jobless ex-Cavalier executive, and it may have no such legal recourse with Ferry, as his future lies in the hands of the Hawks’ ownership.

It’s whether or not they care enough to, is the damning question.

Ferry should be out in Atlanta. As Yahoo Sports Adrian Wojnarowski explained, he sold out just about every unnamed executive and/or scout that could have been associated with this report, doubling down on miserable leadership before silently skulking away to the realm of the indefinite hiatus-takers. I would not go as far as to want to blackball Ferry from the league, I don’t think he’s a racist and believe his only initial crime was to enable the work of people that said and signed off on some very dumb things.

Ferry made things worse, however, by effectively signing off on and rubber-stamping the report out of Cleveland – in his words, no less. And then running from those words, claiming innocence under the cloak of the redacted name of an ex-Cleveland executive. While leaving his second-year coach and scouting staff to clean up the mess during this hiatus, with the team’s ownership still in flux.

Ferry’s history as an NBA GM has not been stellar, but he certainly has enough basketball acumen up there to rightfully keep and sustain a job in an NBA front office (though not at the top) after this. It’s his lack of leadership, especially in this (ongoing, mind you) incident that is the problem.

What’s a bigger problem is that the NBA has reportedly determined that the damage has already been done, and that with pro football taking all the sporting flack and the baseball playoffs about to start, they don’t need to investigate further, as that redacted Cavalier employee is no longer with the team.

In the absence of their interest, the Atlanta Hawks need to take charge.

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Kelly Dwyer

is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!