When news first emerged of the race controversy involving the Atlanta Hawks, it seemed that Danny Ferry was just a figure in the background. He appeared almost like an innocent bystander, the guy who was copied into the email out of his control. As it has since transpired, the reality of the situation was very different. In fact, if it wasn’t for a comment Ferry made about Luol Deng in June, there’s every chance that Bruce Levenson wouldn’t be selling his team.
The Hawks finished last season on a wave of optimism, and the franchise seemed to be building back towards genuine hope for the future. Without their main man Al Horford, the Hawks pushed the number one seeded Indiana Pacers to seven games.
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They did so in front of some of the loudest crowds Philips Arena had seen in a number of years, and with a new CEO, Steve Koonin, who’s passionate about engaging with the fanbase, things were looking pretty rosy.
A scandal like this one was the last thing the Hawks needed, but now that it’s in their lap they have to deal with. Yesterday, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports exclusively reported details from a transcript of the phone conversation during free agency in which Ferry made his comments, and that did little more than add even more mud to the waters for Atlanta.
According to Wojnarowski’s report:
"Once he started talking on the call about Deng, it wasn’t long before Ferry marched himself directly into a foolish, ignorant riff of African stereotypes. On and on, Ferry started about how Deng “has got some African in him” and proceeded to make a comparison to Africans with phony facades selling counterfeit goods."
That’s not a good look for Ferry, or the Hawks. The ownership themselves knew it too, and that was the reason an outside law firm was brought in to conduct a full investigation throughout the organization. Levenson’s pending departure is a result of that report, but could it end up being the end of Ferry’s time in Atlanta too?
Ferry’s defense is that he was purely repeating verbatim what he had read from one of the many scouting reports he had obtained while doing due diligence on Luol Deng. The only problem with that is, once again, according to Wojnarowski, that is not necessarily how it reads in the transcript.
"Ferry’s clinging to the story that the racially charged words belonged to someone else – that a riff connecting Africans to a con man stereotype weren’t his words at all. In context of the transcripts, it appears that those had been Ferry’s own interjections on the call, somehow supporting the intel culled outside of the Hawks."
The whole situation may not be as simple, as viewing it within the context of this race controversy either, as in the whole way the story has unfolded there has been and underlying tone of politics below the surface. With the Hawks owned by an ownership group whose reign has been marked by frequent in-fighting, Wojnarowski revealed that minority owner and whistleblower, Michael Gearon Jr “disdained” Ferry, and has long wanted his removal as general manager.
This leads us into situation where it grows almost impossible to know who to believe. It’s very difficult to cast a definitive verdict on Ferry, and his role in the whole controversy, as there’s a lot of information that doesn’t seem clear cut.
What Ferry said was completely wrong, and horribly insensitive towards Deng (one of the league’s great humanitarians), and those of African descent on a greater scale. He should never have said it, or repeated it as the case may be, but when question marks remain over the authorship of the comments, it makes it tough to pass a definitive judgement.
Figures from around the NBA have so far weighed in to have their say on the Hawks situation. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar doesn’t feel that Levenson’s letter was racist. Magic Johnson believes that Danny Ferry should be fired, and in conversation with USA Today’s Sam Amick, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has stated that he believes Ferry should stay in his job.
In the post-Donald Sterling NBA landscape, there’s an uneasiness, and a quickness to judge which has the potential to become very unhealthy. Ferry has spent the bulk of his life coming through the NBA, from player to executive, and never before has there been even a whisper of racism. According to Adam Silver, that should stand to Ferry, and in many ways that should be a relief to NBA fans.
Although the NBA needs to continue to police it’s league, and stomp out racism and other unsavory behaviors, they can’t implement a one-and-done policy. If they build an environment of instant judgement, without context or consideration of character, it would all start to feel uncomfortably draconian.
In regards to this case, it still doesn’t feel like there’s enough to make a final decision, or judgement, either way.
At the moment, the Hawks as an organization seem happy to stand by Ferry, who has been an excellent GM when it comes to basketball. Much like Silver, they feel without the lack of any further evidence of racism from Ferry, and going by their own knowledge of his character, they deem the internal punishment they have already given him to be severe enough.
In many ways, that’s a brave and admirable strategy for the franchise to take, but my question would be more about it’s feasibility.
The Hawks now face the challenge of regaining the trust of the Atlanta community, and as good as he is at is job, I’m not sure if it will be possible to do that with Ferry at the helm. People have long memories, and whether innocent, guilty, or some place in between, Ferry’s name will always be associated with this scandal.