Atlanta Hawks CEO and co-owner Steve Koonin stopped in to discuss the Bruce Levenson and Danny Ferry emails and comments with Rick Kamla. 92-9 The Game is the official home of the Atlanta Hawks Radio Network.

An email has surfaced, obtained by WSB-TV, showing that at least one of the owners of the Hawks wanted Ferry fired after Ferry read aloud a racially charged segment of a scouting report described free agent target Luol Deng “he has a little African in him, not in a bad way, but he’s a guy who would have a nice store out front, but sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back.”

Ferry says he was, “repeating comments that were gathered from numerous sources during background conversations and scouting about different players. Those words do not reflect my views, or words that I would use to describe an individual and I certainly regret it. I apologize to those I offended and to Luol, who I reached out to Monday morning,”

Koonin says that he “exceeded the punishment recommended by the law firm” hired to investigate this. This law firm consists of one of the top civil rights lawyers in the country. This leads us to believe that the law firm obviously did not recommend that Ferry be fired.

Koonin says that “People are wounded. People are hurting. We have to earn people’s trust.” He continues, “Please don’t hold this against our players, they are hurting too.” Koonin says he has spoken to the players and he let them speak honestly and openly.

Kamla says “That is a great man right there. That is a great man we just had in here. Atlanta Hawks fans you should be proud to have that man at the helm.”

Listen to the full interview below. The full video of the interview will be posted shortly.