John Thompson Endorses Danny Ferry For Wizards GM

Well this is nice to see and unexpected: former Blue Devil Danny Ferry is up for the Washington GM position (that would make three Duke GMs this year, by the way, with the other two being Elton Brand and Trajan Langdon in Philadelphia and New Orleans, respectively) but he is still somewhat hindered by the nonsense that happened in Atlanta.

If you’ll recall, in a meeting with the Atlanta brain trust, Ferry read some scouting notes about Luol Deng that said he had “too much African” in him.

He didn’t write those words. He read them and for that was forced out of his position. At the time there was a power struggle going on between factions in the ownership and Ferry to an extent became a pawn in those machinations.

He’s now up for the Washington GM position, where his father once ruled the roost, and this is obviously coming up again.

In DC though Ferry has a somewhat surprising defender: former Georgetown coach John Thompson Jr. (aka Big John), who issued a ringing endorsement of Ferry on a local radio show and also explicitly said that Ferry was “absolutely not a racist.”

He also said this: “I’ve been around him and I know” he’s not a racist. I’m sick of these people, that when somebody says something, it’s interpreted conveniently for people who dislike him to start labeling him. There’s enough sick racists on the planet than to call this boy a racist, and he absolutely is not. Anybody who knows me knows I am racially conscientious, and if I thought he was [a racist], I would say that, but that is the meanest thing that I have heard.”

Ferry may or may not get the job, but it was pretty decent of Thompson to do this and without being asked. And in DC, his word means a great deal.