In my opinion Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry was insensitive with his previous comments, however; I never thought what he said alone should’ve been grounds for him to lose his position or need to resign. Discipline? Sure, but anything more would be overkill.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver feels the same way. He made the following statements regarding Ferry’s comments to USA Today upon his arrival in Barcelona for the FIBA World Cup:
“The discipline of a team employee is typically determined by the team, and in this case the Hawks hired a prestigious Atlanta law firm to investigate the circumstances of Danny Ferry’s clearly inappropriate and unexpected remarks,” Silver said. “In my view, those comments, taken alone, do not merit his losing his job. It’s a question of context … These words, in this context, understanding the full story here, the existence of the scouting report, the fact that he was looking at the scouting report as a reference when he was making these remarks, what I’m saying is – and frankly my opinion — is that this is a team decision in terms of what the appropriate discipline is for their employee. But if I’m being asked my view, I’m saying that, based on what I know about the circumstances, I don’t think it’s a terminable offense.”
Although the NBA (and really entire country) is in an extremely sensitive state when it comes to racism, I don’t believe Danny Ferry to be of the same ideologies as someone such as a Donald Sterling. He was being informal yes, however there is a difference between insensitivity and flat out racism and I don’t sense the former in this situation.
[h/t USA Today]