Danny Ferry

[Don Wassall]

Danny Ferry in some ways was the Bill Schroeder of basketball, a fairly talented player but certainly no superstar who was the object of irrational hatred and ridicule from the media and fans.


Ferry's obtained revenge of sorts by being named the Cavaliers' new GM, signing a five-year $10 million contract:


http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2094976

 

[bigunreal]

Don,



As usual, we are in complete agreement. Danny Ferry was ridiculed by
every white announcer imaginable during his NBA career. John Thompson,
one of the great racists of our times, was a pathfinder in this regard;
he refused to even attempt to recruit Ferry to Georgetown, even though
he was the top high school prospect in the country, and was a hometown
kid to boot. Of course, if Thompson had recruited him, Ferry would have
been the first and only white to play for him in his long tenure at
Georgetown. Ferry was a great college player at Duke, and I suspect his
struggles in the NBA mirrored the struggles of so many other great
white players. First, both the fans and journalists were predisposed to
dislike him. Second, all coaches were predisposed to dislike him.
Third, he surely was the recipient of constant racial taunting on the
court by black players on every team (perhaps even his own black
teammates). It's hard to succeed under those circumstances. Let's hope
that Ferry doesn't follow the lead of so many white ex-pros, in both
the NBA and NFL, in continuing the racial caste system we all loathe.
However, I don't have high expectations here. Look at Kevin McHale and
especially Danny Ainge; have either of them brought a single white
player to their teams?

 

[GreatLakeState]

Poor Danny Ferry. Seemingly, his teammate, Mark Price, would
have faced the same obstacles as Ferry, playing under the
same skin tone, in the same city, at the same time. Somehow,
Price managed to play in four All-Star games.

Perhaps Ferry was unpopular because "black racist' general
manager Wayne Embry traded one of the Cavs' top three
players, Ron Harper, for a positionless former college star who
was playing in Italy. And gave him a 10-year deal. Harper went
on to average 19.1 points per game for the Clippers. During
that same time Ferry averaged 8.7 points for the Cavs.

 

[bigunreal]

Many of the white players who have done well in the past few decades
under the Caste system were not high #1 picks. Mark Price did not have
to live up to the same expectations that Ferry had. Another small
guard, John Stockton, came into the NBA even more unheralded than
Price, and we all know what he accomplished. Even as far back as Larry
Bird, he was not a high #1 pick, and no one really expected him to
dominate the way he did. Kevin McHale was not even a wel-known college
player, and he developed into a true star, with little or no pressure
on him, because no one anticipated anything like that from him. Ferry
is similar to another great player who followed him at Duke, Christian
Laettner. Laettner was nevef even given a chance to be a "franchise"
player, in spite of being one of the most successful college players of
all time. No black player with a similar pedigree in college, with the
exact same physical tools, would be treated like that. Any black with
Laettner's skills wouldl be given a chance to be "the man." Compare how
Ferry and Laettner were treated with how Sean May, North Carolina's
chubby, plodding star, is treated by whatever team drafts him. I
maintain that, if a white player acomplished what May did, but looked
and played like he does, he would never, ever have a chance at becoming
a star in the NBA. He would be bound for a Rafe LaFrentz-type of career
at best. Nobody is saying that the racists (and yes, they are
unquestionably bigoted against white players) who run these sports can
keep all white players from succeeding. They just make it extra hard on
them, especially the few, like Danny Ferry, who are potentially
"franchise" types of players.

 

[GreatLakeState]

Danny Ferry, Christian Laettener compared to Larry Bird,
Kevin McHale?

Laettner was the third pick overall by the Timberwolves, so
clearly they expected him to be a franchise player? He had his
chance. As a rookie he was second on the team in scoring,
third in minutes played, first in rebounding, first in turnovers.
Second year, first in scoring, first in minutes played, first in
rebounding, first in turnovers. Third year, second in scoring, first
in minutes played, first in rebounding, second in turnovers.

And the Timberwolves combined record ... 60-186!

Christian's best and only All-Star year came under "black racist"
coach Lenny Wilkins for the Hawks ... who also coached Mark
Price when he was an All-Star.

It's somewhat disengenuous to say Larry Bird wasn't a high
draft pick. He was No. 6 overall -- not bad considering he
couldn't even play in the NBA the following season. Surely after
the 1979 season, in which he took Indiana State to the NCAA
title game, Bird wouldn't have been anything less than the
No. 2 pick behind the man who beat him in the title game,
Earvin Johnson.

Kevin McHale was the No. 3 overall draft pick the next year.
That seems pretty high to me. Who knows, if Minnesota, and
not Purdue, had made the Final Four that year, maybe he
would have been the No. 1 pick, and not Joe Barry Carroll. Edited by: GreatLakeState

 

[whiteCB]

Mark Price was a great player and All-NBA 1st team in 1992. Two time 3 point shooting champ and here's this for a good trivia question: Mark Price is the all time leader in free throw perentage in NBA history.

 

[bigunreal]

Great LakeState-



You keep mentioining black coaches, when most of us here are of the
opinion that white coaches are the ones who really disciminate against
white players. After all, remember that K.C. Jones was the guy who
coached the great Celtics' teams in the '80s, which had more white
players than any team in many years. Sorry, I didn't realize McHale had
been drafted that high. As for Bird, I thought he was drafted lower
than 6th. I remember a lot of basketball "experts" thinking he was too
slow to be the kind of superstar he became.

 

[GreatLakeState]

I never thought Bird was that slow for 6-10. But he bought into
the media stuff and always reiterated that he was slow and
couldn't jump, like a mantra.