Sept. 13, 2014 3:43 p.m. ET
ATLANTA—The Atlanta Hawks appear an accessible letter of acknowledgment to admirers and the burghal of Atlanta on Saturday, adage the alignment "did not do the appropriate thing" to actual racially anarchic words and innuendos "over a aeon of years."
The apology, active by CEO Steve Koonin, was appear one day afterwards the aggregation appear accepted administrator Danny Ferry was demography an broad leave of absence afterward his racially answerable comments about Luol Deng.
Last Sunday, co-owner Bruce Levenson appear he'd advertise his authoritative allotment of the aggregation afterward the absolution of his racially anarchic comments in an email to Ferry and the team's added owners.
"We are actual sorry," Koonin said in the letter.
"Over the advance of the aftermost week, the Hawks accept let bottomward our players, our employees, our admirers and the burghal we love. Our shortcomings accept been broadly shared—including how we accept bootless to accomplish able-bodied internally and externally. It has been abject and, while we accept read, apparent and appear to apperceive abounding things about ourselves, our learnings accept aloof begun."
Ferry declared Deng, who is from South Sudan, in a appointment alarm with the Hawks' buying accumulation as addition who "has a little African in him."
"He's like a guy who would accept a nice abundance out advanced and advertise you affected being out of the back," said Ferry during the June call, which was recor ded.
An centralized analysis into Ferry's comments baldheaded an email beatific two years ago by Levenson, who theorized that "the atramentous army afraid abroad the whites and there are artlessly not abundant flush atramentous admirers to body a cogent season-ticket base."
Koonin said the Hawks' failures weren't bound to Ferry's comments or Levenson's email.
"We apperceive abundant today, based on investigations conducted by the league, by alien acknowledged admonition on account of the team, and advice that has appeared in the media, that our shortcomings are above a distinct email, a distinct being or a distinct event," Koonin said. "To the contrary, over a aeon of years, we accept begin that there accept been anarchic words, phrases, inferences, and innuendos about race. We as an alignment did not actual these failures. We did not do the appropriate thing."
Koonin said the Hawks "must own these shortcomings and failures."
"To be clear, I am aff ronted that this has happened," he said. "I am acutely afflicted and ashamed that this has put a birthmark on our aggregation and our city, which has consistently been a assorted association with a history of advancing calm as one. We should body bridges through basketball, not bisect our association and serve as a antecedent of pain.
"I am committed to seeing the Hawks change because of these accomplished shortcomings. It starts by demography a adamantine attending at ourselves, which in this case has been a decidedly difficult affair to do."
Koonin said the aggregation will assignment with a assortment adviser and appoint a arch assortment officer.
On Wednesday, Koonin canceled a appointed affair with civil-rights leaders, and the leaders said they were offended.
Koonin said in the letter the aggregation additionally will ability out to association leaders "not aloof now, but in an advancing way to ensure that our ethics reflect, in the broadest sense, the association in which we comedy and work."
Copyright 2014 the Associated Press.