The Danny Ferry era in Atlanta is officially over. Last week, it was announced that head coach Mike Budenholzer would be promoted to President and that assistant GM Wes Wilcox would resume the GM duties of Danny Ferry.
The Atlanta Hawks parted ways with Ferry in the aftermath of the GM reading a scouting report of free agent Luol Deng last summer. Part of the report read was that Deng "has a little African in him." Ferry took a leave of absence for the entire 2014-15 season as he watched his Hawks win 60 games and make an apperance in the Eastern Conference Finals.
In a recent interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Ferry said that he was "relieved" now that this dreadful saga is over. He gave an insight on the Bernard Taylor investigation that recently cleared him of any wrong doing of his comments regarding Luol Deng.
Ferry said on his comments about Deng that were not really appropriate for him to say but felt relieved. He wantes the organization to get the results of the Taylor Invesitgation out so everyone could have those facts. However, the team waited until after the season ended to release the results, refusing when he asked. The results of the investigation included 19 interviews of Hawks employees and owners, a review of 24 thousand e-mails, including all the ones Ferry wrote as a general manager. Through the Taylor Investigation and a parallel independent investigation by the National Basketball Association showed no negative information about Ferry and not a single incident where showed racial bias. Ferry said, "Now, does that make my comments about Luol okay? Absolutely not. The words I used from the scouting report came out of my mouth and they were totally inappropriate. I am deeply sorry and take full responsibility."