Daniel John Willard Ferry was born October 17, 1966, in Hyattsville, Maryland, and grew up on Barrister Lane in Bowie. His father, Bob Ferry, was a former NBA center — ten seasons with the St. Louis Hawks, Detroit Pistons, and Baltimore Bullets — and the longtime general manager of the Washington Bullets. During Bob’s 17-year tenure as GM, the Bullets won their only NBA championship in 1978, and Bob won the NBA Executive of the Year Award twice. Danny’s mother was Rita Ferry.
Basketball, in the Ferry household, wasn’t a hobby. It was the family business. Bob built a court in the side yard of the Bowie house and hung a light so Danny could shoot at night. NBA players and executives passed through the Ferry home regularly. Red Auerbach was a friend of the family. Wes Unseld was a presence. Danny grew up watching his father navigate the front-office politics of professional basketball — the drafting, the trading, the firing, the salary negotiations. He absorbed all of it.
He enrolled at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland — one of the most legendary basketball programs in the country. Under head coach Morgan Wootten, who won more than 1,200 games over five decades, DeMatha had produced an extraordinary lineage of talent. Danny’s junior-year team was voted the No. 1 high school team in the nation. By graduation in 1985, Ferry was the most heavily recruited high school player in America. Parade Magazine named him Prep Player of the Year. Two-time All-American. McDonald’s All-American. At 6-foot-10, he could shoot from the outside, rebound, handle the ball, and see the floor like a point guard.
He chose Duke. This was one year before the Godfather Class seniors would take Coach K to the championship game. Ferry arrived as a freshman and immediately joined a team that was about to make history. His classmates included Quin Snyder from Mercer Island, Washington. Together, Ferry and Snyder represented the second wave — the class that bridged the Foundation era to the dynasty that followed.