A former employee of the Atlanta Hawks is suing the organization for racial discrimination, per Raisa Habersham of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The lawsuit states that Hawks external affairs director, David Lee, discriminated against white employees — particularly women. Lee is black. The woman suing the Hawks, Margo Kline, is white.

Per Habersham:

Kline alleges that Lee was dismissive and exclusionary toward white employees and would often make jokes about “white culture,” hiring and promoting black employees — who Kline said were less qualified — over white people, according to the lawsuit.

Kline said the organization ignored her complaints and instead unfairly scrutinized her work and impeded her ability to do her job, often gossiping and ridiculing her. The lawsuit also alleges white coworkers were told not to speak with Kline or they could lose their job.

This is not a good look for the Hawks or the NBA. Not long ago, the Dallas Mavericks were accused of having a corrosive workplace culture rampant with sexual harassment, and now there's this.

For now, it's just an allegation. But the NBA certainly does not need any more negative public relations problems, especially in regards to the Hawks.

If you remember, former Hawks general manager Danny Ferry resigned due to backlash he received after saying Luol Deng had “some African in him” when discussing the player in a conference call. So the Hawks don't have the best track record when it comes to issues of race relations.

The Ferry incident happened four years ago, and every indication was that issue was resolved. But with this new lawsuit coming to light, there is now reason to believe that it is a systemic issue in the Hawks organization.

And that's the biggest problem. It's one thing if a GM or other employee utters a racial slur once and is then removed or removes themselves. But for something involving race to surface multiple times is a deeper issue that needs to be addressed immediately.