Congratulations to Danny Ferry, who
will be the new G.M. for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Ferry, who played for the
Cavaliers for a decade and won enduring respect from the franchise despite not
becoming the great player many thought he would be in the NBA, will obviously
try to a) make LeBron James want to stay in Cleveland, and b) build a contender
around him. James has made it clear he'd like some input into personnel
decisions.
Ferry has a huge basketball pedigree. Aside from learning from his
father, Bob, who was the G.M. for the Washington Bullets for years, he also
played for the legendary Morgan Wooten at DeMatha High, for the also now
legendary Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, and then got to learn from Wayne Embry, who
did a very solid job at Cleveland back in the day, and now with the Spurs, where
they have done a brilliant job building a dynasty.
It's more impressive than it looks. When the Spurs first got Tim
Duncan, their roster was full of guys well into their 30's. They
overhauled that in short order and have stayed highly competitive ever since.
So while there is no guarantee that Ferry will be as good as his mentors,
Cleveland is getting a guy who has been thoroughly exposed to some of the great
minds in the game who is only 38. High expectations seem reasonable, don't
they?