CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The man who assembled the first Atlanta Hawks team ever to make the Eastern Conference Finals doesn't go to the arena to watch his own team play.
That man is Denny Ferry, who is on "an indefinite leave of absence" from his job as the the Hawks general manager.
The former Cavaliers player and general manager has turned the Hawks into one of the top teams in the NBA after only three seasons. His team won a franchise-record 60 games. The only players still with the Hawks from before Ferry took over are Al Horford and Jeff Teague -- and he even matched the offer sheet given Teague by Milwaukee in 2013 to ensure the point guard remained with the Hawks.
Why was Ferry suspended? He isn't and wasn't suspended by the NBA. He is still being paid by the Hawks. The "leave of absence" came about as part of a dysfunctional ownership group.
Ferry caused some of his own problems because he made some dumb and racially insensitive remarks about Luol Deng during a conference call with the Hawks owners. Ferry read a scouting report stating that Deng "has a little African in him ... he's like a guy who would have a nice store front and sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back."
That was only a small part of what Ferry said about Deng. He praised Deng's leadership ability, and how the players and coaches in Chicago "loved him." He talked about Deng's injury history. He talked about how he liked Deng.
Deng was one of several free agents that Ferry discussed during that conference call. Carmelo Anthony also was discussed.
FERRY TRIED TO SIGN DENG
Here's a point that many missed: Ferry made those dumb remarks from a scouting report that he should have paraphrased on June 6, 2014. But when the free agent period opened on July 1, 2014, Ferry made Deng one of his top targets to bring to Atlanta.
That's right, the scouting report was not Ferry's way of dismissing Deng. He offered a two-year, $20 million deal. He believed it was his job to give a full picture of Deng to the owners -- and saying he still planned to bid for him.
USA Today and others reportedhow Atlanta pursued Deng, who signed a two-year, $20 million deal with Miami. The difference is that Deng can opt-out of the contract this summer after one season. Ferry refused to give the opt-out. His reasoning was if Deng played poorly or was injured, they had to pay him for two years. If he played well, then he could leave after one season.
He viewed the Miami contract as one that favors Deng, who followed the lead of LeBron James. It was James whose agents went with the one year, plus one-year option demand when he signed with the Cavs. Paul Pierce signed the same kind of contract with Washington.
That's because the salary cap is expected to take big jumps in the next few seasons -- meaning more money for the players.
But this is an important point -- Ferry wanted Deng, who is from the Sudan.
As he was negotiating with Deng, Ferry signed Thabo Sefolosha to a three-year, $12 million deal. A former member of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Sefolosha's father is South African, his mother is Swiss.
Some critics have said the harsh report on Deng actually was Ferry's own words.
"I never believed that," said Mike Brown, the former Cavs coach. Brown talked about how he has known Ferry since 1997. They became close friends. When Ferry was the Cavs' GM from 2005-10, Brown was his coach. Brown visited Ferry last month in Atlanta.
"The moment I heard about this, I knew Danny was reading a scouting report," said Brown. "That's not how he talks. That's not him."
Ferry's mistake, other than reading verbatim from the scouting report, was that he didn't say, "That's garbage." He left it hanging out there, and one of his enemies would eventually use it to try and hang him.
NO NBA PENALTY
Ferry is not under any NBA discipline. When the story broke in early September about Ferry's comments in a private meeting, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said at the time that there was no cause for Ferry to be fired.
On April 20, 2015, Silver appeared on WFAN'S Boomer and Carton show to talk about a variety of NBA topics. The Hawks were mentioned, and Silver said the following:
Silver said the league is not preventing Ferry from doing his job, it's the leave of absence that was worked out with ownership.
The Hawks are in the process of being sold and it's up to the new ownership group to determine if Ferry should return to his job. Silver also praised the job done by Ferry.
HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED
One of the Hawks' owners is Michael Gearon Jr. He doesn't like Ferry and believes Ferry was given too much power by fellow owner Bruce Levenson, who hired Ferry. The GM believed he only had to report to Levenson. This didn't thrill Gearon. He taped part of the call where Ferry discussed Deng.
Eventually, that was leaked to the media in September.
Ferry had made some enemies with the Hawks. He fired some popular people. He made gutsy trades and decided not to bring back Josh Smith, who was one of the team's best players and had grown up in the Atlanta area.
But the real battle was between Levenson and Gearon. The investigation was conducted by the Atlanta law firm of Bird and Alston. They went through all of Ferry's emails with the Hawks. They read thousands of documents and interviewed 19 people.
Nothing else negative was discovered about Ferry. But the investigation found a 2012 email from Levenson that was racially charged.
He wrote: "I think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority. ... I have been open with our executive team about these concerns. I have told them I want some white cheerleaders and while I don't care what the color of the artist is, I want the music to be music familiar to a 40 year old white guy if that's our season [tickets] demo. I have also balked when every fan picked out of crowd to shoot shots in some timeout contest is black. I have even [complained] that the kiss cam is too black."
Embarrassed, Levenson has put up the team for sale. He is the majority owner. The Hawks have been been purchased by a group headed by Anthony Ressler. Former Duke player Grant Hill is part of the group.
THE FALLOUT FOR FERRY
Ferry apologized twice about the comments. He reached out to Magic Johnson, who initially believed Ferry should be fired. Johnson has since changed his mind.
Ferry would not comment for this story, but others close to him spoke out.
"This is the team that Danny built," said former Cavalier GM Wayne Embry. "I know Danny well. He is not a racist and deserves to be back (as general manager)."
Embry traded for Ferry in 1989, bringing the former Duke star to Cleveland. Embry has been a mentor during Ferry's front office career.
Embry mentioned that former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young has supported Ferry.Young told WSB-TV that "h**l no," Ferry should not lose his job. He's not excusing Ferry's comments in the meeting, but it's "unfair" to judge Ferry solely by this one incident.
Ferry was the Cavs GM from 2005-10. Because Ferry found himself in a racial firestorm, it's worth noting that he had minorities in key positions with the Cavs. In addition to Brown, one of his assistant general managers was Lance Blanks. He hired Max Benton as the head trainer.
"What happened to Danny was most unfortunate," said Blanks. "It happened with the backdrop of the Donald Sterling (racist comments) and other (racial) things happening in our country. I've known Danny since 2000. In Cleveland, he had one of the best work environments (for minorities) that I've ever been in."
Blanks was a scout with the Spurs when Ferry was the assistant general manager. He was an assistant to Ferry with the Cavs (2005-10). Blanks then was the Phoenix Suns GM for three seasons. He now works for the Longhorn Sports network and still stays in contact with Ferry.
"What Danny said was insensitive," said Blanks. "I talked to him about it. He explained about the scouting report. He gave the entire context, talking about how he actually wanted to sign Luol, but was giving the full report that he had. He has a lot of respect for Luol."
Deng told reporters he has talked to Ferry and accepted his apology: "I talked to Danny and really believe he is sorry for what he said."
This has been very hard on Ferry and especially his family. Once labeled a racist, it's almost an impossible tag to shake.
Ferry likes Atlanta. His five children want to stay in the city and he wants to continue his work with Hawks.
The new ownership group hasn't made a decision on Ferry. If you take a close look at the events, it's clear Ferry made some mistakes -- but after a year on shelf, Ferry deserves to have his job back.
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/index.ssf/2015/05/cleveland_cavaliers_playing_at.html
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