The wild, promotional night for the Atlanta Hawks is no more.
In case you didn’t hear, there was somewhat of a controversy brewing in the NBA in recent weeks, and it all revolved around a game promotion. It’s not out of norm for sports franchises to partner with other organizations for special, promotional nights. Stuff like that often helps get fans through the doors, and at the end of the day, the Atlanta Hawks are just trying to sell tickets.
The only issue with the specific promotion that Atlanta was trying to pull off? The business the Hawks tried partnering with is a famous, Atlanta strip club.
March 16 was originally set to be “Magic City Monday” at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena. For the uninitiated, “Magic City” has nothing to do with magic tricks or magicians. It’s actually a reference to the Magic City Adult Entertainment Club (A.K.A. strip club) that is famous in the ATL – and became world famous when an NBA player broke COVID protocol to go there for some chicken wings (shoutout Lou Williams).
Magic City and the Atlanta Hawks have always been unofficially affiliated… but this promotional night was going to mark the first time that the two organizations – an NBA franchise and a strip joint (that also sells wings) – went official with their relationship. Here’s the graphic from the original announcement:
“Magic on a Monday? Featuring T.I. halftime performance, Magic City Kitchen’s ‘World Famous’ wings, pregame set by DJ Esco, co-branded hoodie, and a live recording of the Hawks AF podcast.”
Obviously, the Hawks weren’t planning on having strippers do anything as a part of the promotional night. As you saw in the post above, it’s the wings that Magic City serves that were set to be highlighted on March 16.
But just days before the promotional night (one week to be specific), the NBA and Commissioner Adam Silver swooped in to axe the partnership. NBA Communications released this official statement from Silver earlier today:
“When we became aware of the Atlanta Hawks’ scheduled promotion, we reached out to Hawks leadership to better understand their plans and rationale. While we appreciate the team’s perspective and their desire to move forward, we have heard significant concerns from a broad array of league stakeholders, including fans, partners, and employees. I believe canceling this promotion is the right decision for the broader NBA community.”
Can’t say that I’m surprised… though I’m pretty shocked that the promotional night made it this far. An NBA team was only seven days away from an in-arena promo with an Atlanta-area strip club. That’s some Jackie Moon-Flint Tropics type stuff.
It’s not like the announcement of the promotional night was originally and widely supported. There were many concerned about the idea of the partnership, and an active NBA player – Luke Kornet of the San Antonio Spurs – even penned an open letter to the NBA last week asking that the league step in and cancel the promotional night:
“This week the Atlanta Hawks ‘announced a special one-night collaboration to celebrate the city’s iconic cultural institution Magic City’ during the team’s home game against Orlando on Monday, March 16. In its press release the Hawks failed to acknowledge that this place is, as the business itself boasts, ‘Atlanta’s premier strip club.’ Given this fact, I would like to respectfully ask that the Atlanta Hawks cancel this promotional night with Magic City.
The NBA should desire to protect and esteem women, many of whom work diligently every day to make this the best basketball league in the world. We should promote an atmosphere that is protective and respectful of the daughters, wives, sisters, mothers, and partners that we know and love.
Allowing this night to go forward without protest would reflect poorly on us as an NBA community, specifically in being complicit in the potential objectification and mistreatment of women in our society.
Regardless of how a woman finds her way into the adult entertainment industry, many in this space experience abuse, harassment, and violence to which they should never be subjected.
I’d like to encourage the league, its owners, employees and fans to hold the Atlanta Hawks to a higher standard of what they find worthy of promoting.
I and others throughout the league were surprised by and object to the Hawks’ decision. We desire to provide an environment where fans of all ages can safely come and enjoy the game of basketball and where we can celebrate the history and culture of communities in good conscience. The celebration of a strip club is not conduct aligned with that vision.
Please join me in petitioning the Atlanta Hawks to cancel this promotion so as to ensure that the NBA remains a safe, respectful, and welcoming environment for everyone involved.”
Well, we know that Luke Kornet will be happy about the cancellation.
The same can’t be said about the Atlanta Hawks and the Atlanta community as a whole… but you have to think that Commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA made the right call on this one.
