Congratulations to former Devil Danny Ferry, who was named Atlanta's GM on Monday. He's got a six-year deal and, according to ESPN, was the only candidate the Hawks interviewed.
He says he wants a "value-based" approach with "good guys," which sounds a lot like his experience in San Antonio and also his earlier days in Cleveland when Wayne Embry did such a brilliant job building that franchise.
Here's hoping he can pull it off, but Atlanta has been, typically, a mess for, well forever. They had a reasonable run with Dominique Wilkins and Kevin Willis & co., but otherwise the franchise has defined mediocrity since moving from St. Louis. They had Pete Maravich; didn't matter. David Thompson was drafted in 1975 but chose the ABA.
Even as far back as the year Bill Russell was drafted, the Hawks were suckered by Red Auerbach and traded the soon-to-be-legendary star (as unhappy as Russell was with racism in Boston, though, he would have lost his mind in St. Louis) for, well, basically a bag of magical beans.
They lost the con flip for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar too.
On the other hand, the Jazz were long a snake-bit franchise but they became respectable. So maybe Ferry sees something there that a lot of people miss. We sure hope so.