The Hawks today announced that GM Danny Ferry has officially stepped down following an indefinite leave of absence that began in August. The leave was triggered by the unauthorized release of an audio recording containing a brief portion of a lengthy conference call with team ownership and others during which Ferry repeated and paraphrased language from a third-party scouting report that contained a culturally insensitive characterization of a player (Hawks). In Atlanta, Chris Vivlamore noted the move is the "last of the ownership group known as the Atlanta Spirit," which is selling the Hawks and Philips Arena. Ferry had "two years remaining" on the six-year, $18M contract he signed in '12. Ferry will "receive substantially more than was due in the final two years of the deal" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 6/20). Meanwhile, Vivlamore cited a summary letter of an independent investigation performed by Atlanta-based law firm Alston & Bird as stating that Ferry's comments last year about free-agent F Luol Deng "were not motivated by racial bias" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 6/21). USA TODAY's Jeff Zillgitt noted investigators "combed through more than 24,000 documents, including all of Ferry's work emails, interviewed 19 witnesses and scoured background materials on free agency discussions of Deng and other players" (USATODAY.com, 6/20).
