Report: Hawks GM's joke about angry black wife at team event leaves fans 'livid'

After three years as the Atlanta Hawks’ assistant general manager, Wes Wilcox got bumped up to the big chair in the summer of 2015, as the team shook up its power structure following the revelation of racially insensitive comments made by part-owner Bruce Levenson and relayed by GM Danny Ferry. Now, some 18 months after his promotion, Wilcox has found himself in hot water over a joke he attempted during a recent meeting with fans that at least two black attendees found inappropriate.

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The joke in question came during a Dec. 7 “chalk talk” event during which a crowd of about 200 season-ticket holders and team “members” had the chance to ask Wilcox about a variety of topics related to the Hawks’ on-court product, according to Deadspin’s Patrick Redford, who has the scoop:

Crawford told Deadspin that he and his wife Deborah, who was also in attendance, were “livid” at Wilcox’s remarks, especially in the context of the Hawks’ recent past of racial turmoil.

Levenson announced his intention to sell his stake in the Hawks in September of 2014 following the revelation of an email he’d written two years earlier to then-GM Ferry in which he theorized that “the black crowd [at Philips Arena] scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a signficant [sic] [enough] season ticket base” to support the team. He also wrote about prior complaints to Atlanta’s game operations staff about wanting “some white cheerleaders,” wanting music played in the arena “to be music familiar to a 40 year old white guy if that’s our season tixs [sic] demo[graphic],” and wanting more non-black fans picked out of the stands to participate in shooting contests during timeouts, among other things: “I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black.”

Levenson’s 2012 email came to light as part of an internal investigation into a reference made by Ferry to Sudanese forward Luol Deng as “having some African in him” during a conference call with ownership and management about prospective free-agent targets, a reference apparently intended to conflate something about Deng with African merchants who sell counterfeit goods. That investigation was reportedly triggered by minority partner Michael Gearon Jr., who wrote a letter pressuring Levenson “to ask for Ferry’s resignation, and if he refuses, to terminate him for cause.”

Ferry asked for and was granted an indefinite leave of absence as the franchise picked through the fallout. In late April of 2015, with the Hawks having just turned in the most successful season in franchise history, winning a team-record 60 games and earning the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, a group led by businessman Tony Ressler agreed to buy the franchise for $850 million. Two months later, following an internal investigation that “cleared Ferry of racial animus” in connection with his relating of the remarks in the Deng scouting report, the Hawks agreed to terms on a buyout of the final two years of his contract. He returned to the NBA this season as a special advisor for the New Orleans Pelicans, reporting to general manager Dell Demps, who is black.

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Crawford emailed Hawks CEO Steve Koonin to express his displeasure at what he felt were dismissive responses by Wilcox to several basketball-related concerns — the coaching aptitude of Mike Budenholzer, the prospect of All-Star power forward Paul Millsap leaving the team in free agency, an imbalance in roster construction, etc. — as well as Wilcox’s “angry and argumentative” joke, which Crawford said was followed by Wilcox turning “to the other white gentleman with him and ask[ing] if what he said was okay.” Koonin promptly responded to the basketball issues without addressing the joke, prompting Crawford to press the issue and strenuously object to “the stereotypical comments that singled out black women.”

Koonin eventually arranged a meeting with the Crawfords and Nzinga Shaw, hired by the Hawks in December of 2014 to serve as the NBA’s first diversity and inclusion officer, in which Koonin apologized on Wilcox’s behalf.

The Hawks have yet to release any official statement on the matter beyond one issued by Wilcox to Deadspin.

“At an early December chalk talk, I made a self-deprecating comment at my own expense regarding my family, which is multi-racial,” Wilcox said in a statement to Deadspin. “This joke offended Mr. Crawford and his wife and for that, I apologize.”

As was the case with Ferry, the question of whether he’s actually racist or just said something objectionable quickly arose:

In a practical sense, though, the comments and the fallout might be seen as an indicator of iffy judgment from one of executives charged with leading an organization still very much in the midst of repairing its reputation after a high-profile and highly charged public scandal in the heart of a majority black city.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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