A letter summarizing the investigation by the Atlanta law firm Alston & Bird was obtained Saturday by The Associated Press, as was a letter from Hawks co-owner Todd Foreman to Ferry.

The Hawks agreed to a buyout of the final two years of Ferry’s contract on Friday. Ferry spent this season on an indefinite leave of absence following his racially derogatory comments about potential free agent Luol Deng.

Alston & Bird partner Bernard Taylor said in the letter the review of more than 24,000 documents and 19 interviews provided no evidence of ”negative bias toward Mr. Deng, his race or his country of origin.”

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The person says the buyout will be paid by the current ownership group, which has reached a deal to sell the team for $850 million to a group led by billionaire businessman Antony Ressler. The person spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because the agreement has not been announced.

The Hawks won a franchise-record 60 games and lost to Cleveland in the Eastern Conference final. Ferry spent the season on an indefinite leave of absence following racially derogatory comments he made last year.

The buyout was first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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“I’m just trying to stay out of the way and focus on what’s in front of me and not worry about anything else,” Smith said at the team’s shootaround Wednesday.

Smith denied having any conversations in the past 24 hours with his agent or with a Hawks front office led by general manager Danny Ferry, who made waves this past offseason by trading Joe Johnson to the Brooklyn Nets. Smith insists he’s concentrating on Wednesday night’s game against the Miami Heat, which could be his last game playing for the team that drafted him.

Selected out of high school at No. 17 overall in the 2004 draft, Smith has become a star in Atlanta. He is averaging 17.4 points, 8.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 48 games this season.

Sources told ESPN on Tuesday that the Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics are three teams known to be in talks with Atlanta about the athletic forward ahead of Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline.

In conversations with the Bucks, the Hawks’ interest is believed to start with Monta Ellis, sources told ESPN on Tuesday, at least in part because Ellis could play next to point guard Jeff Teague.

Barring a deal that featured three or more teams, Boston likely would need to part with Paul Pierce to acquire Smith, which could well rule the Celtics out of the chase for Atlanta’s versatile forward, ESPN.com’s Marc Stein reported.

Sources told ESPN that the Phoenix Suns, who had shown interest in Smith, are not out of the running.

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