The Post Ferry Autopsy

[Peoriabird]

Just now, KB21 said:

Al Horford also missed the majority of that season with a torn pectoralis major.

That wasn't his 1st pectoralis tear!

[Wretch]

2 hours ago, hawkman said:

Not misplaced values, just common sense. What I think he 'deserved' has nothing to do with it. I'm not his employer. If your employer(s) already don't like you, it's wise not to give them a reason to let you go. He flippantly used profanity and made disparaging remarks about a free agent's nationality during a presentation to his employers at a multi million dollar company. All he had to do was show some professionalism by proofreading and then paraphrasing the scouting report. I don't get why this is so hard for some people to understand. Forget the politics or social aspects of it. Be a professional in a professional setting. 

At the risk of adding more guns to the hijack...  There's like, a couple of different questions being tangled into one answer.

Did Danny Ferry mean what he said?  Or was he just "reading a scouting report." 

The report says:
"He's a good guy on the cover, but he's an African. He has a little two step in him = says what you like to hear, but behind closed doors he could be killing you. Con isn't bad, but it's there. African-like, store front looks great but there's a black market section in the back."

Ferry said:
"He's a good guy overall, but he's not perfect. He's got some African in him. And I don't say that in a bad way, other than....  He has a store front out front that's beautiful and great, but he may be selling some counterfeit stuff behind you. And when I say that, I mean for example he can come out and be an unnamed source for a story, and two days later come out and say that was absolutely not me, I can't believe someone said that. He could be the lawyer in the locker room when the coach is not around, but when the coach is around he's the greatest guy in the world."

Emphasis on Ferry's audio that is not in the scouting report.  My opinion is that he read the report beforehand, thought about what to say at the meeting, and offered his personal thoughts.  If he paraphrased, then he did so with his own ignorant opinion.  It's not racist, but it is seriously culturally insensitive.  The scouting report is borderline racist.

Did Danny Ferry deserve to be fired?

Guys have stayed on for saying/doing more than that.  I'm African American and I think the comments are dumb and offensive...but I've said worse in private.  In fact, I've been deployed to Africa and have made almost the exact same comments in private like he did...so who am I to judge?

On the other hand, as the face of the franchise, he has to be held accountable to a higher standard.  Termination seems a bit excessive...or did he step down? Can't remember.  Either way, our whole ownership was a mess from top to bottom...  So as far as I'm concerned, you could decide it with a coin flip.  I don't think he really deserved to be fired, but I don't know if you really want that guy as the face of the franchise when you already have problems attracting free agents.

[hawkman]

2 hours ago, bleachkit said:

Oh no, he didn't proofread and paraphrase! Fire him at once! Burn him at the stake! Who cares about the team he built, he didn't proofread and paraphrase for God's sake. 

That's way out of context and you know it. 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

4 hours ago, Wretch said:

Termination seems a bit excessive...or did he step down? Can't remember.  

He was NEVER terminated.  He was asked by the team to take a leave of absence.  He could've came back if he wanted to, but he chose to resign after we got knocked out of the playoffs in 2015.

For the people who believe that Ferry made a simple mistake, why didn't Ferry admit to this as soon as the story broke . . . on camera?  He could've lessened all of this if he'd just gone on camera and apologized for reading the report ( and adding things to it ).  A person making a mistake almost always gets a 2nd chance and forgiveness from the public, when they show a little bit of contrition in an on camera interview.   Heck, even Michael Vick had the balls to get on camera and admit what he did was wrong.

 

Did Ferry?   Nope. 

He released a written statement saying that he was going on a leave of absence.  Then he flat out disappeared for about 7 months, supposedly doing things behind the scenes involving racial sensitivity.  He even had a lot of blacks, both in the sports and political world, backing him and saying that he wasn't a racist.  And when he resigned, it wasn't a press conference.  It was another written statement.

At the end of the day, he didn't even have the balls to look Hawks fans in the eye, and offer some sort of contrition for his "mistake".  Had he did that in September 2014, he may have been right back in his GM spot by Christmas 2014.   But, like what some of you are saying about Bud, he put his head between his legs and ultimately ran away.

 

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

And let's not forget the Levenson 2012 e-mail to Ferry, about the crowd in Atlanta

https://www.ajc.com/sports/complete-mail-sent-levenson/GOSCdvuIDL9DH0geiLUpBO/

 

Also, Tommy Dortch, who wanted to build a statue for Dominique, but Ferry ( and probably Levenson, by Dortch's account ), "didn't believe in statues".

https://www.ajc.com/sports/complete-mail-sent-levenson/GOSCdvuIDL9DH0geiLUpBO/

Even Dominique's comments at his statue unveiling, when he gave Bud ALL of the praise for the success of the Hawks that season, was a clear indication that even Nique didn't see eye to eye with Ferry.

 

I personally don't think Danny Ferry was/is a racist.  I think he's a pompous ass who always did things "his way", regardless of what everyone else though.  And he didn't mind if anyone's feelings or ego's were bruised, as long as the decisions he made were implemented.

He made a mistake, and didn't have the guts to face everyone and own up to it.  So he ran away.

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 hour ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Also, Tommy Dortch, who wanted to build a statue for Dominique, but Ferry ( and probably Levenson, by Dortch's account ), "didn't believe in statues".

https://www.ajc.com/sports/complete-mail-sent-levenson/GOSCdvuIDL9DH0geiLUpBO/

 

 

My bad, wrong link.

https://saportareport.com/more-calls-for-hawks-gm-danny-ferry-to-step-down-as-focus-turns-to-star-dominique-wilkins/

[AHF]

This was all a Levenson / Gearon battle.  Ferry made the comment with Gearon on the phone and Gearon didn't speak up at all.  He saw ammunition.  Had he been offended he would have asked for a clarification or demanded an explanation.  Instead he released it to the media as a power play to recover his authority as he had gone from the owner exercising control over decisions with Sund as GM to the other owners led by Levenson pushing him into a minority position with no authority.  There was no moral outrage here.  He took a GM reading a boneheaded statement from a scout in a private meeting where the GM was asking for permission to spend tens of millions of dollars on signing the player and leveraged it for all the damage he could inflict.  

This type of infighting is one of those only in Atlanta things.  

[Buzzard]

What Ferry did was put us in a position to honestly say we were one player away from being a contender. How or if we could have acquired that player will never be known. What is known is our chances were squandered after he left.

[bleachkit]

15 hours ago, AHF said:

This was all a Levenson / Gearon battle.  Ferry made the comment with Gearon on the phone and Gearon didn't speak up at all.  He saw ammunition.  Had he been offended he would have asked for a clarification or demanded an explanation.  Instead he released it to the media as a power play to recover his authority as he had gone from the owner exercising control over decisions with Sund as GM to the other owners led by Levenson pushing him into a minority position with no authority.  There was no moral outrage here.  He took a GM reading a boneheaded statement from a scout in a private meeting where the GM was asking for permission to spend tens of millions of dollars on signing the player and leveraged it for all the damage he could inflict.  

This type of infighting is one of those only in Atlanta things.  

Why does Gearon get a free pass from Hawks fans? This guy was actively trying to sabotage our organization, willfully tracking in controversy and negative attention for his own petty personal gain. The man is a criminal as far as I'm concerned. 

Edited April 29, 2018 by bleachkit

[turnermx]

Why does Gearon get a free pass from Hawks fans? This guy was actively trying to sabotage our organization, willfully tracking in controversy and negative attention for his own petty personal gain. The man is a criminal as far as I'm concerned. 

 

Agreed 100%. This matter should’ve been handled internally as I guarantee you racist and sexist innuendo is going on in just about every front office. I’m not downplaying this just pointing out a fact on just about every corporate board in the business world whether sports, retail, industry, whatever. This was brought out to the public eye as a pure power play on Gearon’s part.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[TheNorthCydeRises]

2 hours ago, bleachkit said:

Why does Gearon get a free pass from Hawks fans? This guy was actively trying to sabotage our organization, willfully tracking in controversy and negative attention for his own petty personal gain. The man is a criminal as far as I'm concerned. 

Gearon doesn't get a free pass from me.   Because of Gearon's business success, he's the type that feels that his input should have some value to overall decision making, and not just summarily dismissed.  As an owner though, it's probably best to let the guys who make basketball decisions, do their job.   Two differences though between the two.

• His family had been involved with the team for decades and was extremely loyal to individuals in the franchise ( especially to Dominique )
• Unlike Ferry, Gearon wasn't viewed as an a-hole by others in the organization

This is a great article by ESPN, illustrating how everything basically crumbled between Gearon, Levenson, and Ferry.  I think this is the most unbiased look at everything that went on.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/13457071/nba-how-atlanta-hawks-regime-fell-apart

 

In our corporation, our core values are defined as Teamwork - Respect - Integrity - Courage and Innovation.   When you look at Ferry, I don't think that he was a team player, nor had much respect for people.  He was a "my way or the highway" type of guy. 

The integrity component can be seen both ways.  Those who didn't mind Ferry's personna would consider him a guy with integrity.  Those who had a problem with his personna wouldn't see him a a dude that had much integrity.

I do think he was excellent on the Courage and Innovation front.   Ferry was exactly right in wanting to expand the "infrastructure" of the Hawks, from a development and analytical standpoint.  So if Ferry worked in our corporation, he'd be strong in 2 of our core values, needed some work on the integrity front, but needed a lot of work on the teamwork and respect elements.

 

So as far as giving Gearon a pass, no.  But you can't give Ferry a pass in this either.  He wasn't an innocent bystander who made a simple "mistake".  A dude that is normally as meticulous about all other aspects, doesn't make "mistakes" like that.  Also, Ferry was linked to the guy who has always been viewed as the "outside owner" who hardly ever stepped foot in Atlanta and watched games.  Levenson, like Belkin before him, spent a lot of time outside of Atlanta, despite being majority owners. 

And like I said, Ferry's unwillingness to get in front of the camera and show some remorse in all of this, was something that his ego simply wouldn't allow him to do.  I think if Ferry tried to "fake it", it would definitely show.

Edited April 29, 2018 by TheNorthCydeRises

[KB21]

34 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Gearon doesn't get a free pass from me.   Because of Gearon's business success, he's the type that feels that his input should have some value to overall decision making, and not just summarily dismissed.  As an owner though, it's probably best to let the guys who make basketball decisions, do their job.   Two differences though between the two.

• His family had been involved with the team for decades and was extremely loyal to individuals in the franchise ( especially to Dominique )
• Unlike Ferry, Gearon wasn't viewed as an a-hole by others in the organization

This is a great article by ESPN, illustrating how everything basically crumbled between Gearon, Levenson, and Ferry.  I think this is the most unbiased look at everything that went on.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/13457071/nba-how-atlanta-hawks-regime-fell-apart

 

In our corporation, our core values are defined as Teamwork - Respect - Integrity - Courage and Innovation.   When you look at Ferry, I don't think that he was a team player, nor had much respect for people.  He was a "my way or the highway" type of guy. 

The integrity component can be seen both ways.  Those who didn't mind Ferry's personna would consider him a guy with integrity.  Those who had a problem with his personna wouldn't see him a a dude that had much integrity.

I do think he was excellent on the Courage and Innovation front.   Ferry was exactly right in wanting to expand the "infrastructure" of the Hawks, from a development and analytical standpoint.  So if Ferry worked in our corporation, he'd be strong in 2 of our core values, needed some work on the integrity front, but needed a lot of work on the teamwork and respect elements.

 

So as far as giving Gearon a pass, no.  But you can't give Ferry a pass in this either.  He wasn't an innocent bystander who made a simple "mistake".  A dude that is normally as meticulous about all other aspects, doesn't make "mistakes" like that.  Also, Ferry was linked to the guy who has always been viewed as the "outside owner" who hardly ever stepped foot in Atlanta and watched games.  Levenson, like Belkin before him, spent a lot of time outside of Atlanta, despite being majority owners. 

And like I said, Ferry's unwillingness to get in front of the camera and show some remorse in all of this, was something that his ego simply wouldn't allow him to do.  I think if Ferry tried to "fake it", it would definitely show.

He did nothing to show remorse for anyway.

[Royjr9]

46 minutes ago, KB21 said:

He did nothing to show remorse for anyway.

Nobody made him say those things.  And I don’t think anybody gave gearon a pass. Like I said ferry was just dumb enough to give them ammo on him when he was universally like by all his bosses. He prolly still would have kept his job had he got out front of it and put on the ole remorseful interview. But he dint he ran and hid took his buyout money. And I challenge anybody that didn’t see anything wrong with it. Go in to your job tomorrow and say deragatory statements about the people you work with see if it’s a problem.

[Wretch]

21 hours ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

And let's not forget the Levenson 2012 e-mail to Ferry, about the crowd in Atlanta

https://www.ajc.com/sports/complete-mail-sent-levenson/GOSCdvuIDL9DH0geiLUpBO/

 

Also, Tommy Dortch, who wanted to build a statue for Dominique, but Ferry ( and probably Levenson, by Dortch's account ), "didn't believe in statues".

https://www.ajc.com/sports/complete-mail-sent-levenson/GOSCdvuIDL9DH0geiLUpBO/

Even Dominique's comments at his statue unveiling, when he gave Bud ALL of the praise for the success of the Hawks that season, was a clear indication that even Nique didn't see eye to eye with Ferry.

 

I personally don't think Danny Ferry was/is a racist.  I think he's a pompous ass who always did things "his way", regardless of what everyone else though.  And he didn't mind if anyone's feelings or ego's were bruised, as long as the decisions he made were implemented.

He made a mistake, and didn't have the guts to face everyone and own up to it.  So he ran away.

 

Damn. I forgot about that email. 

 

19 hours ago, AHF said:

This was all a Levenson / Gearon battle.  Ferry made the comment with Gearon on the phone and Gearon didn't speak up at all.  He saw ammunition.  Had he been offended he would have asked for a clarification or demanded an explanation.  Instead he released it to the media as a power play to recover his authority as he had gone from the owner exercising control over decisions with Sund as GM to the other owners led by Levenson pushing him into a minority position with no authority.  There was no moral outrage here.  He took a GM reading a boneheaded statement from a scout in a private meeting where the GM was asking for permission to spend tens of millions of dollars on signing the player and leveraged it for all the damage he could inflict.  

This type of infighting is one of those only in Atlanta things.  

Everything you said is true AHF, but there are two issues that are not mutually exclusive.  Something was said that was bad and it was leaked as a part of a power play.

Whether or not outrage played a part is up for debate.  

31 minutes ago, Royjr9 said:

Nobody made him say those things.  And I don’t think anybody gave gearon a pass. Like I said ferry was just dumb enough to give them ammo on him when he was universally like by all his bosses. He prolly still would have kept his job had he got out front of it and put on the ole remorseful interview. But he dint he ran and hid took his buyout money. And I challenge anybody that didn’t see anything wrong with it. Go in to your job tomorrow and say deragatory statements about the people you work with see if it’s a problem.

My boss is from Senegal and there is no way that I could make any of those comments around her without getting fired.

I don't have much of an opinion on the punishment, other than Ferry's comments warrant it in some form. However, I have zero respect for anyone that refuses to see what's wrong here. Zero respect.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

6 minutes ago, Wretch said:

 

My boss is from Senegal and there is no way that I could make any of those comments around her without getting fired.

 

Exactly.

[parfait]

2 hours ago, KB21 said:

He did nothing to show remorse for anyway.

Even if a mountain was indeed made out of a molehill, the GM and Head of Basketball Ops is obligated to address them. Ferry just slinked away (Shouldn't one be calling HIM Slinky?!).

[parfait]

5 hours ago, bleachkit said:

Why does Gearon get a free pass from Hawks fans? This guy was actively trying to sabotage our organization, willfully tracking in controversy and negative attention for his own petty personal gain. The man is a criminal as far as I'm concerned. 

Gearon gets no free pass. Gearon was a total douche throughout all that time. But perhaps the view of him softens a bit because he was responsible for throwing the final molotov cocktail that brought down the House of ASG.

[Buzzard]

30 minutes ago, parfait said:

Even if a mountain was indeed made out of a molehill, the GM and Head of Basketball Ops is obligated to address them. Ferry just slinked away (Shouldn't one be calling HIM Slinky?!).

He did bow out rather quietly and in retrospect Ferry probably regrets that. He may have had enough of the zoo known as the ASG and said to hell with it in a quiet manner.

[bleachkit]

1 hour ago, Wretch said:

Damn. I forgot about that email. 

 

Everything you said is true AHF, but there are two issues that are not mutually exclusive.  Something was said that was bad and it was leaked as a part of a power play.

Whether or not outrage played a part is up for debate.  

My boss is from Senegal and there is no way that I could make any of those comments around her without getting fired.

I don't have much of an opinion on the punishment, other than Ferry's comments warrant it in some form. However, I have zero respect for anyone that refuses to see what's wrong here. Zero respect.

Luol Deng was not the owner of the Hawks, nor was he employed by the Hawks. In addition, those remarks were taken out of context. Ferry actually recommended signing Deng. Nice false equivalency. 

[bleachkit]

1 hour ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Exactly.

I didn't know Gearon was Sudanese.