Hawks GM Danny Ferry to take an indefinite leave of absence, effective immediately
Danny Ferry will be taking an indefinite leave of absence from his post as general manager of the Atlanta Hawks, effective immediately.
The team announced the move - which came at Ferry's own request - in a press release Friday, written by CEO Steve Koonin and provided in full below:
This afternoon, Danny Ferry requested, and I have approved, taking an indefinite leave of absence, effective immediately. This has been an incredibly difficult time for him and his family and it is my hope that this time away from the Hawks organization allows him the privacy he needs to listen to the community, to learn about his mistakes, and to begin the long process of personal healing. As a human being, manager and friend, I wish him well as he undergoes this process.
While the issues related to race are deeply troubling, at the heart of this dispute is an unfortunate disagreement amongst owners. That said, we have taken several steps to address what we can do as an organization to be better and stronger, including working with a diversity consultant to examine us and to train us to ensure something like this never happens again, we are committed to hiring a Chief Diversity Officer, and we have and will continue to meet with community leaders in an ongoing way to ensure our values reflect the community in which we play and work. The process of selling the team, which is to remain in Atlanta, is already underway.
Effective immediately, our Head Coach, Mike Budenholzer, will assume oversight of the basketball operations department. He will report directly to me.
I am deeply saddened and embarrassed that this has put a blemish on our team and our city, which has always been a diverse community with a history of coming together as one. We should build bridges through basketball, not divide our community or serve as a source of pain.
To summarize, head coach Mike Budenholzer will lead the team's basketball operations department while Ferry is on his leave, and the Hawks will hire a Chief Diversity Officer to improve their corporate culture.
Ferry had previously been given discipline that the organization kept internal, with NBA commissioner Adam Silver suggesting Ferry's comments did not warrant him losing his job. Obviously, with the story becoming as big as it has, Ferry has deemed it the proper time to take a sabbatical.
He released the following statement Friday:
No words can adequately describe my remorse for the hurt that I have caused many people through the statements I repeated, most importantly Luol Deng.
Luol is a good man who I have known for many years and he has done a tremendous amount of good for his country and around the world. I apologize to Luol and I apologize to all that I have offended. As I have said, while these were not my words, I deeply regret repeating them. Almost all the background information I provided during the lengthy presentation regarding Luol was positive and my personal and professional recommendation during the call was very much in favor of adding Luol to our team but I never should have uttered those offensive remarks and for that I apologize.
My focus moving forward is to tirelessly work to rebuild trust with this community and with our fans. I realize that my words may ring hollow now and my future actions must speak for me. I will maximize my time during this leave to meet with community leaders and further educate myself and others on the extremely sensitive issues surrounding race, diversity, and inclusion. I will find a way to make a positive difference in this area, and further learn from the sensitivity training that I will go through.
Ferry's removal stems from racially insensitive comments he made on a team conference call in June, during which he said free agent Luol Deng has "some African in him." Audio of the conference call later surfaced, as has the full report from which Ferry was said to be reading the comments.
You can catch up on the entire situation in the storyline below.