When the Cleveland Cavaliers acquired Luol Deng in a January trade with the Bulls, they received a player who had been run "into the ground" by Chicago, according to a leaked scouting report used by the Atlanta Hawks.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Atlanta's WSB-TV released the Hawks' now-infamous scouting report on Deng via their websites Friday.
The then-unseen report was made famous by Hawks general manager Danny Ferry's comments, heard in a leaked audio recording in a talk with team owners, using Deng's African ethnicity as a negative. This has led to Hawks co-owner Bruce Levenson selling his share in the team and making public his own email in which he makes critical comments about African-American fans in Atlanta.
According to the redacted five-page paper scouting report, which includes media stories as well as interviews with people connected to Chicago and Cleveland, that description of Deng originally came from someone in the Cleveland Cavaliers organization, to which Deng was traded in January. Ferry, who has taken a a leave of absence, apparently repeated it in a conference call with the Hawks' ownership group.
While the Hawks were interested, Deng wound up signing a two-year, $20 million free-agent deal with the Miami Heat. Deng has a player option after the first year.
In the report, dated June 6, 2014, the Cleveland front-office member notes, "From a physical, when we got him, Chicago had run him into the ground."
This is what follows:
"He's a good guy on the cover, but he's an African. He has a little two-step in him = says you like to hear, but behind closed doors he could be killing you. Con isn't bad, but it's there. African-like, store front looks great but there's a black market section in the back."
The Cleveland source said he heard Deng was well-liked in Chicago, but "complained about things like not enough jerseys in the team store, or that his bobble head was last during the year."
But in at least eight reports from people with Chicago connections, Deng, drafted by the Bulls in 2004, was praised as an ideal teammate and a hard worker.
Before this physical scouting report was released, Bulls vice president of basketball operations John Paxson was asked Friday about the situation at the opening of the team's new training facility, but wouldn't comment.
While most of the Bulls' sourcing was positive, there was a retelling of two messy situations between Deng and the team that had been widely reported on over the past couple of years: the 2012 wrist injury and the spinal tap situation from the 2013 playoffs.
In one scouting report, a Bulls staff member is quoted in an in-depth report: "He's a great guy, as good as you've heard, guys loved him in our locker room. A lot of stuff with us was medical related and distrust between (redacted). The spinal tap issue was a big one. He didn't need it and they convinced him to get it. Things went wrong (redacted), Luol called me and told me he was really sick and had to go to the hospital. This was when we were in Miami in the playoffs ... soon after I get off the phone with Luol (redacted) play, that he's on his way to Miami. I told Thibs there is no way, he's on his way to the hospital, it was a bad situation. He blamed the team and they put pressure on him to play when he was seriously sick."
Initially, coach Tom Thibodeau said the flu kept Deng out of Games 6 and 7 of the Bulls' first-round playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets in 2013. But eventually it was revealed that Deng had to undergo a spinal tap and was very sick. Deng tweeted that he "suffered the worst headache I've ever experienced and been the weakest I've ever felt." He later said he lost 15 pounds during his ordeal, which also kept him out of the Bulls' second-round series against the Heat.
Paxson said in January soon after trading Deng to the Cavaliers that the Bulls could have handled the situation better.
"You learn a lot from situations," Paxson said on Jan. 8. "We did not handle that as well as we could have and should have. I guess we didn't understand the gravity of it in that moment from his perspective. And that's on us. But over the summer we talked to both Lu and [agent] Herb [Rudoy]. We apologized. That's something we dropped the ball on and hopefully learn from, but in terms of injuries and things like that over Lu's career, I think we've been really supportive of how he's gone about things."
The source in the scouting report goes on to talk about a fissure between the team and Deng over his left wrist, which he injured in a Jan. 21, 2012, game. It states "management convinced him not to get surgery until after the season. Luol did what they asked. That summer, Luol wanted to play for the English National Team and put off surgery and (redacted)."
The source said the Bulls gave him "mixed messages" on playing for the national team and "this really bothered him." The source then went on to discuss how the recent lack of contract talks bothered Deng, and reiterated what Deng has said, the Bulls gave him only a "take it or leave it offer" before they traded him to the Cavs. "The coaches wanted him here."
Another apparent Bulls source (listed under "staff change") said, "Tibbs (sic) loves him...admires him. Lou is his guy."
One ex-teammate noted, "I love him. I can't say enough good things about him. He is such a smart player, plays the game the right way & is SUCH A GOOD DUDE. He's a culture setter. He's a leader."
Another ex-teammate is quoted as saying, "He would sing, dance, crack jokes, play soccer in practice, just an all-around happy guy and he's another great teammate that I've played with."
A former coach noted, "He's a very proud person. Very proud. Wants to do everything the right way. Perfect fit for the organization in that way. Physically he is a lot stronger than he looks."