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76ers Executive Elton Brand Reportedly Withdraws His Name From Consideration For Hawks Front Office Job

Brand was reportedly a candidate to become the Hawks president of basketball operations, but has withdrawn his name

Jackson Caudell

Feb 7, 2020; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers general manager Elton Brand speaks with the media before a game against the Memphis Grizzlies at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
Feb 7, 2020; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers general manager Elton Brand speaks with the media before a game against the Memphis Grizzlies at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
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The Atlanta Hawks are still searching for a president of basketball operations, but one candidate has reportedly withdrawn his name from consideration. According to NBA insider Jake Fischer, 76ers executive Elton Brand has withdrawn his name from consideration for the job.

Brand had been linked to the Hawks as soon as it was announced that former GM Landry Fields was being let go and replaced by Onsi Saleh and Atlanta would look for a new president of basketball operations.

Brand has not been the only candidate mentioned however.

Last Friday, Zach Klein of WSB-TV in Atlanta reported "The Atlanta Hawks are casting a very wide net in their search for a team president" and mentioned former Hawks GM Danny Ferry, former Nuggets GM Calvin Booth, former Kings GM Monte McNair, Shareef Abur-Rahim, and ⁠Elton Brand.

Ferry was the GM for the Hawks and was hired in 2012, but then stepped down in the summer of 2015. From ESPN, " Ferry's departure ends a 10-month indefinite leave of absence that followed the release of an audio recording of a conference call with ownership in which Ferry was heard repeating culturally insensitive comments from a scouting report about Miami Heat forward Luol Deng. ESPN reported this past weekend that the law firm hired by the team -- Alston & Bird LLP -- conducted 19 witness interviews and reviewed the contents of more than 24,000 emails and found no evidence that Ferry's comments on Deng were motivated by bias."

Ferry has been working in the NBA since his departure from Atlanta. He was a special advisor to the general manager for the Pelicans from 2016 to 2019 and has been a consultant for the San Antonio Spurs since 2020.

McNair was hired by Sacramento before the start of the 2020-21 season and helped put together the team that ended a decade-plus playoff drought in 2023 when it went 48-34 to finish third in the Western Conference. McNair won NBA Executive of the Year in 2022-23.

Booth was promoted to be the Nuggets' GM for the past three seasons after Tim Connelly left for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Booth's first season was Denver's championship season in 2022-23, but he drew a lot of ire from Nuggets fans due to his lack of re-signing key players from their championship run such as Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. He was often criticized for not putting a better team around three-time MVP Nikola Jokic.

Shareef Abdur-Rahim is the president of the NBA G League.

Earlier in the process, former Warriors GM Bob Myers and current Timberwolves GM Tim Connelly were mentioned as names the Hawks were interested in, but they do not appear to be serious candidates at this time.

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Jackson Caudell
JACKSON CAUDELL

Jackson Caudell has been covering Georgia Tech Athletics For On SI since March 2022 and the Atlanta Hawks for On SI since October 2023. Jackson is also the co-host of the Bleav in Georgia Tech podcast and he loves to bring thoughtful analysis and comprehensive coverage to everything that he does. Find him on X @jacksoncaudell

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