Danny Ferry

Early life

Ferry was born in Hyattsville, Maryland to former NBA center and NBA executive Bob Ferry. The younger Ferry began his basketball career in earnest at DeMatha Catholic High School in Maryland where he excelled at the high school level under Morgan Wootten. The two-time All-American was ranked as one of the country's top high school basketball centers while at DeMatha and earned Parade Magazine's prep Player of the Year in 1985. Ferry was one of the most highly recruited high school seniors in the nation before committing to Duke University. Ferry is of Irish descent – his great great grandfather Peter Ferry was born in Ireland in 1828 and emigrated to St. Louis, Missouri.

College career

Ferry attended Duke University and played basketball for the school over four seasons from 1985 to 1989. During his college career, he helped lead the Blue Devils to the Final Four in 1986, 1988 and 1989, twice winning the MVP award for the East Regional. He was selected to the first team All-America in 1989 and second-team All-America in 1988. Ferry still holds Duke's all-time single game scoring record, scoring 58 points against Miami on December 10, 1988. He is among Duke's greatest players of all time, ranking 6th in career points, 8th in career rebounds, and 7th in career assists–the only player in the top 10 of all three categories. Ferry became the first player in Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) history to collect more than 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 500 assists in his collegiate career. He left Duke with several national player of the year awards under his belt, including the Naismith College Player of the Year, USBWA College Player of the Year (Oscar Robertson Trophy) and the UPI player of the year awards. Ferry's number 35 was retired in 1989 at the end of his senior season. In 2002, Ferry was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team honoring the fifty greatest players in ACC history.

Italy

After college, the Los Angeles Clippers drafted Ferry in the first round (second overall pick) of the 1989 NBA draft; he did not want to play with the Clippers, and Ferry soon afterwards accepted an offer to play for the Italian league's Il Messaggero (now Virtus Roma) instead. Ferry made a name for himself overseas as he averaged 23 points and six rebounds per game during the 1989–90 season, leading the Italian club into the playoffs. The Clippers traded Ferry's rights on November 16, 1989, along with Reggie Williams to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for high-scoring guard Ron Harper, two first-round draft picks and a second-round pick.

Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cavaliers signed Ferry to a 10-year guaranteed contract. He had a decent career in Cleveland, but he never became the type of star the Cavs were hoping for based on his outstanding play for Duke and Italy. His best season in Cleveland came in 1995–96, when he averaged 13.3 ppg. He had only one other season in which he averaged double figures.

San Antonio Spurs

The San Antonio Spurs signed Ferry as a free agent on August 10, 2000. Accepting a role as an off-the-bench shooter with the Spurs, Ferry played for San Antonio through the 2002–03 season, winning a title with the team before he retired later that year.

Management career

Ferry signed on to work at the middle management level in the Spurs' front office shortly after retiring as a player from 2003–2005. On June 27, 2005 the Cleveland Cavaliers signed Danny Ferry to a 5-year contract worth close to US$10 million as their eighth general manager. Ferry began his management tenure with the Cavaliers overseeing a series of less than optimal transactions. Nonetheless the team flourished with superstar LeBron James and newly installed head coach Mike Brown at the helm as the team made a series of serious postseason runs beginning in 2006. Ferry, Brown and Cavaliers' majority owner Dan Gilbert began to add talent and depth to the Cavs' roster, notably acquiring one-time All-Star guard Mo Williams, former All-Star center Shaquille O'Neal, starting shooting guard Anthony Parker, Leon Powe, former All-Star Antawn Jamison and re-signing veteran center Žydrūnas Ilgauskas between 2008–2010. The personnel shuffling paid off in the 2008–09 season when Cleveland not only won its first Central Division title since 1976 but also, for the first time ever, finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference as well as the league overall. In the 2009–10 season Cleveland repeated these feats, with the NBA's best record for the second consecutive season.

On June 4, 2010, it was announced that Ferry and the Cavaliers had come to a mutual agreement to part ways. Ferry had one month left on his contract. The Cavaliers went 272-138 under Ferry.

In late August, he returned to the Spurs as the vice president of basketball operations.

On June 25, 2012, he accepted a position as the president of basketball operations and general manager for the Atlanta Hawks.

On June 18, 2015, Ferry reached a buyout agreement with the Atlanta Hawks.

Controversy

In June 2014, Ferry "read aloud verbatim an 'offensive' comment written in a scouting report" during a conference call about Miami Heat player Luol Deng. Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. called for him to resign or be dismissed. On September 9, Hawks' CEO, Steve Koonin, announced that they had decided not to dismiss Ferry and that they were instead going to discipline him. A few days later, Ferry asked to take—and was approved for—an immediate, indefinite leave of absence from his duties. An independent investigation resulted in Ferry being absolved of any racial or ethnic wrongdoings. "The investigation, which included 19 witness interviews and reviewed the contents of more than 24,000 emails, made clear that the offensive language was not Ferry's and none of Ferry's remarks or behavior during the call were motivated by racial or ethnic animus, or by a person's country of origin. To the contrary, the investigation found Ferry shared his own opinion of Deng, recommended him both personally and professionally and ultimately tried to sign him to the team."