Danny Ferry on ESPN

[PandaKidd]

Havent listened to it yet but apparently he was on ESPN with Russilo and Kanell

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=15154748

[Jamaaliver]

Major Points:

[*]He expected to come back to work for the Hawks
[*]He and Luol are on good terms and have some projects in the works
[*]He's been exonerated many times by everyone who investigates
[*]He expects to get back into the league...eventually

[HMFFL]

I'd welcome him back.
He really helped us establish the team that we currently have so I credit him for much of our success.

[HMFFL]

Danny Ferry: The diagnosis that has affected his family

http://www.myajc.com/news/sports/basketball/danny-ferry-the-diagnosis-that-has-affected-his-fa/nq2BQ/

[PandaKidd]

I thought it was telling though that at some point he said he was kind of upset the Hawks held onto that investigation that cleared him for months. Kind of hurt his stock

[Jamaaliver]

I thought it was telling though that at some point he said he was kind of upset the Hawks held onto that investigation that cleared him for months. Kind of hurt his stock

Yeah, I can get how that would be frustrating to have to sit through. especially once the story went national and he was demonized repeatedly.

I still don't get how naïve he was, though. Once the story went public, and the outrage grew, and the owner stepped down, and the team went up for sale...how did he still think he was getting his job back?

In the wake of the Donald Sterling saga, he had to understand the optics of the situation. Had he stepped down immediately, "to avoid becoming a distraction", the story likely would have faded more quickly.


Just look at Bruce Levenson. He owned up and walked away with no fuss. And people have largely forgotten his role in this whole fiasco.

[PandaKidd]

well it makes me wonder did the Hawks withhold the report TO LET THAT HAPPEN, so he would leave. It almost sounded to me like Koonin held that report back UNLESS he quit.......... I dont think Ferry had any intention of leaving ever. I think they drove him into the ground so he had no choice but to quit.

[Jamaaliver]

I think they drove him into the ground so he had no choice but to quit.

Definitely sounds that way...


From the CLAWS OUT feature from ESPN on the whole fiasco:

Taylor's report was delivered verbally to the Hawks in September, and it essentially cleared Ferry of being racist. Eager to run an NBA team again one day, Ferry agitated for a written version of the report to be made public. Levenson didn't object but stalled for time, wanting to first secure the sale of the team. The Hawks could only ignore the suspended Ferry for so long, however, because his employment remained unresolved with the potential to become a messy wrongful termination lawsuit if they didn't part ways amicably.

Ferry had leverage over Levenson, again. In the 11th hour of Levenson's tenure as owner...the Hawks satisfied Ferry on June 22 by releasing both the written Taylor report and a flowery press release in which Hawks CEO Koonin was quoted saying, among other things, that "Danny Ferry is not a racist."

[PandaKidd]

SO BEEF until the very end. Levenson wanted to sell the team and having Ferry reinstated may have driven off prospective buyers?

[Jamaaliver]

SO BEEF until the very end. Levenson wanted to sell the team and having Ferry reinstated may have driven off prospective buyers?

More likely, having any links to the scandal that consumed the team months after the Donald Sterling saga, may have driven down the market value of the team.

The potential to be sued by Ferry for wrongful termination was a sticky situation that no new owner wanted to touch. But everyone else had to know that Ferry was untouchable in Atlanta at that point.

With the franchise in the midst of "the greatest season in Atlanta history", firing Ferry or returning him to the fold would be a distraction no one wanted.

So they kept him in limbo and then overpaid him after the season to sweep it all under the rug.