Atlanta Hawks hire Danny Ferry as GM
Danny Ferry has accepted the Atlanta Hawks' offer to become their general manager job, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
Ferry replaces Hawks GM Rick Sund, who had been leaning toward retirement or taking on an advisory role with his contract expiring after Thursday's NBA draft.
A front-office executive with the San Antonio Spurs, Ferry also had extensive talks with the Philadelphia 76ers on their GM position. Ferry traveled to Philadelphia to meet with Sixers ownership two weeks ago, but the 76ers broke off talks with him in recent days, when they were unable to come to terms on a deal, a league source said. Philadelphia will take its time to find a successor to GM Rod Thorn, and Thorn will continue to oversee basketball operations through Thursday's draft and likely the July 1 start of free agency. Ferry was a candidate that coach Doug Collins had pushed to ownership, but the two sides were never able to agree to contract terms.
Between two stops as an assistant GM with the Spurs, Ferry spent 2005-10 as the GM of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Under Ferry, Cleveland advanced to the 2007 NBA Finals and twice had the NBA’s best regular-season record. Ferry worked closely with coach Mike Brown and constructed a roster around star LeBron James that included deals for Mo Williams, Shaquille O’Neal and Antawn Jamison. After parting ways with the Cavaliers in June of 2010, Ferry returned to the Spurs' front office as the vice president of basketball operations under RC Buford and Gregg Popovich.
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