NBA Commissioner Adam Silver urged the Milwaukee Bucks to hire former Cavaliers and Hawks GM Danny Ferry as general manager to replace John Hammond, per ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and Zach Lowe:
With the search bogged down and complicated, NBA commissioner Adam Silver advised the Bucks, according to sources, to consider former Cavs and Hawks GM Danny Ferry, who is currently a consultant for the Pelicans. The Bucks reached out to Ferry, and he was open to discussing the job, but a formal interview was never scheduled, sources said.
Ferry infamously resigned from the Hawks after making racist comments about Luol Deng.
The Bucks had reportedly narrowed down the search to three candidates: Assistant GM Justin Zanik, Arturas Karnisovas and Wes Wilcox. The Bucks hired neither of these three, nor did they take the advice of Commissioner Silver. They hired then-Director-of-Basketball-Operations Jon Horst.
At the time of Ferry’s racially-charged remarks, Silver voiced his belief that Ferry shouldn’t be fired.
This isn’t the first time that Commissioner Silver has interfered in a team’s hiring process; it was Silver who helped Jerry Colangelo find his way to the Philadelphia 76ers in 2016.