COSTELLO: The controversy surrounding racially charged e-mails sent by Atlanta Hawks owner, Bruce Levenson is getting worse for the franchise. Another executive has been accused of making racist remarks about one of the team's former stars. CNN's George Howell is here with more on that. George, good morning.</s>HOWELL: Carol, good morning. This is sort of a triangle so follow this with me if you can. We've all read that e-mail from Bruce Levenson saying that the Hawks Phillips arena is too black and that would scare away southern white fans. Well, that letter came to light because of an internal investigation into the Hawks and to documents and e-mails basically from another owner, a co-owner, Michael Guerin, who basically sent a letter to Levenson demanding that the GM and president of basketball operations, his name is Danny Ferry, that he be fired for comments that he allegedly made about a free agent, Lowell Deng. This letter was obtained by CNN affiliate WSBTV here in Atlanta and CNN has been able to confirm with the Hawks the authenticity of the letter. In the letter, Guerin says that Ferry made the following comments about Deng who, again was a prospective player. Quote, "That 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 in the back." So those comments, obviously, insensitive, offensive, but we did get this response from Danny Ferry basically apologizing for the statement. And also saying that he was simply, quote, "repeating statements that others made to him." We learned from the team's CEO, Steve Koonin, that a severe punishment has been levied against Ferry, but we don't know what that is. The organization is keeping it private, saying it's a private matter. So it's caused a lot of outrage in the community and certainly Hawks fans around the country. Here's what Atlanta's mayor, Kasim Reid, had to say all of it. Listen.
Another Hawks Executive Accused of Making Racist Remarks