By Ira Winderman/Sun Sentinel

By the time the racially insensitive comment read by former Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry surfaced just over a year ago, Luol Deng already was a member of the Miami Heat.
A year later, the scouting report that Ferry cited during a Hawks conference call prior to 2014 NBA free agency, the one that included the condescending description that Deng “has a little African in him,” comes off as demeaning only in tone.
Because this summer, Deng showed he had a lot of African in him, not only spending a significant portion of his offseason travelling the continent, including the NBA’s highly publicised Africa Game in Johannesburg, but also lobbying President Obama and others in Washington for the end of oppression in his native South Sudan.
Sunday, Deng is back in Atlanta, this time for an exhibition game against the Hawks. Gone is Ferry, as is the previous ownership group that dragged Deng’s name through the media for months amid their own infighting.
Now, as then, Deng said it is an episode neither of his making nor worthy of his attention.
“I said it many times, I don’t really care what was said,” he said this past week during a break in the Heat’s preseason. “Everyone that heard of me knows how proud I am to be African. It’s not the first summer that I did anything. It’s just the game highlighted everything.”
The follow-up to the Hawks’ controversy showed just how heightened Atlanta’s focus was on Deng heading into the 2014 offseason, of how he potentially could have been targeted for the very roll that instead went to DeMarre Carroll, one of prized perimeter defender and spot-up 3-point specialist.
Instead, Deng fell into the lottery after signing with the Heat.
Carroll, by contrast, rode the Hawks’ 2014-15 success to the best record in the Eastern Conference during the regular season and then a trip to the Eastern Conference finals before succumbing to a knee injury.
In the wake of that heightened attention, Carroll this summer parlayed his breakout season into a four-year, $60 million free-agent deal with the Toronto Raptors.
Deng, by contrast, bypassed his opportunity to enter free agency, instead opting into the $10.1 million he had remaining on his Heat contract for this season.
Deng said there have been no second thoughts, of what might have been with the Hawks.
“I know I made the right decision,” he said “What happened last year was a lot of injuries and ups and downs. I’m happy where I’m at. I love the organization. I love my teammates and I love Miami.”
Even with Carroll gone, some still forecast the Hawks to finish ahead of the Heat, potentially again putting Deng in chase mode of the team that had considered chasing him a year ago.
“It’s not like I went somewhere and I’m miserable,” he said. “I’m really not at all. Atlanta had their great season. It didn’t work out for them in the playoffs because they had injuries, but that’s what we dealt with all year.”
That, Deng said, is among the reasons he’s still with the Heat. He wants to make it right. And then he will make his own move into free agency, with Atlanta, this time without Ferry but with new ownership, still a potential landing spot.
“I don’t, at all, think about that I could have been where DeMarre was.” Deng said. “Not at all. Whatever happens for anyone in this league, I’m happy for them. I think you work hard, you get what you deserve and go on.”
Just as Deng moved on from his Hawks controversy of 2014 to his humanitarian work in Africa this summer. Just as he hopes the move to the Heat on a two-year contract pays its dividends in its second season.
“I’m very happy that I’m here,” he said. “I’m really happy about this year. I think we have the mindset of winners.”