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Pelicans hire Danny Ferry as special advisor

Daniel Shirey / USA TODAY Sports

The New Orleans Pelicans hired former Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry as a special advisor, the team announced Wednesday.

The move was first reported by ESPN's Marc Spears.

Ferry's hiring was reportedly at the behest of Pelicans GM Dell Demps, who worked closely with Ferry during their time with the San Antonio Spurs. Demps is one of two African-American general managers in the NBA.

After rising through the ranks of the Spurs' organization, Ferry was the GM in charge of constructing the mid-2000s Cleveland Cavaliers, and most recently the architect of the present-day Atlanta Hawks.

However, Ferry and the Hawks parted ways in 2014 after an audio recording surfaced in which Ferry read aloud verbatim racist comments written in a scouting report about Luol Deng.

An independent investigation of 24,000 documents and 19 eyewitness interviews conducted by Alston & Bird found no evidence of negative bias by Ferry.

With his name in the clear, Ferry opened up in an NBATV interview, saying the ordeal had "humbled" him and he would endeavor to become a better person - both as an executive and in his personal life.

Ferry has since reportedly interviewed for GM vacancies in Philadelphia and Brooklyn, but those spots were filled by Bryan Colangelo and Sean Marks, respectively.

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