When current embattled Hawks GM Danny Ferry — who is facing a lot of calls to end his tenure with Atlanta after his comments about Luol Deng joined the Spurs as the VP of basketball operations in 2010. Ferry had played the last three seasons of his career San Antonio and it was his interim home before he took over his current Hawks role in 2012. Consequently, former teammate Tim Duncan defended Ferry in a radio interview with The Hardline 1250 am on Wednesday, telling listeners, “he’s not a racist.”
By way of the San Antonio Express-News‘ Jeff MacDonald and Dan McCarney, comes Duncan’s thought-provoking thoughts on his former teammate:
Duncan: We both know Danny (Ferry). He's a jokester. He took it obviously too far, but he's not what everyone is calling him.
— Dan McCarney (@danmccarneyNBA) September 24, 2014
Duncan: "I don't think he's a racist in anyway. He said something that was absolutely wrong, but he's not a racist."
— Dan McCarney (@danmccarneyNBA) September 24, 2014
Duncan isn’t the first person to speak up about Ferry. Nets general manager Billy King and Turner sideline reporter and NBA.com writer, David Aldridge have both come to his defense, saying claims of racism are false.
Wayne Embry, the first African-American general manager in NBA history (with the 1971 Bucks) also stepped up to defend Ferry as did agent Bill Duffy.
Still, the audio of Ferry reading the comments about Deng is pretty damning evidence, even though it originated from a scouting report done by someone in the Cleveland Cavaliers organization.
On a lighter note, it’s pretty remarkable Duncan said anything, especially when you consider he was a couple days away from the Spurs media day; as mentioned by McCarney, it’s always a tall task getting the five-time champion to open up:
Granted, it's for an ex-teammate. But holy ***, Tim Duncan is doing a radio interview before media day.
— Dan McCarney (@danmccarneyNBA) September 24, 2014
Duncan also said he’s happier about his appearance on the upcoming cover for the Punisher comic (Duncan is a big-time comic geek because of course he is) than he is by Sports Illustrated recently ranking him as the No. 5 player in the NBA today.
Duncan, asked by @arisports, whether its more special to be considered Top 5 candidate, or be on Punisher cover. He chose, of course, cover.
— Dan McCarney (@danmccarneyNBA) September 24, 2014
Duncan is also unsure what he’ll do when he finally decides to retire, saying that he’ll probably just putter around his body shop (he’s also a big fan of automobiles, specifically restoring old ones).
Duncan says he has no idea what he's going to do post-playing career. "Working in my shop, hanging out, playing with my cars."
— Dan McCarney (@danmccarneyNBA) September 24, 2014
What do you think?
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