Hawks’ strip club collaboration ‘Magic City Monday’ draws heat from Spurs’ Luke Kornet. Draymond Green disagrees
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- Spurs center Luke Kornet opposes the Atlanta Hawks’ ‘Magic City Monday’ promotion, warning it objectifies women and falls short of NBA values.
- The Hawks’ celebration includes merchandise, a T.I. performance and food from the adult club.
An NBA player is asking the Atlanta Hawks to call off their promotional night paying tribute to the famous Magic City adult entertainment club during their game on March 16 against the Orlando Magic.
“In its press release the Hawks failed to acknowledge that this place is, as the business itself boasts, ‘Atlanta’s premier strip club.’” San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet wrote in a statement posted Monday on Medium. “Given this fact, I would like to respectfully ask that the Atlanta Hawks cancel this promotional night with Magic City.”
A Hawks spokesperson told Front Office Sports on Tuesday that the team has no plans to alter the promotion. The NBA did not immediately respond to The Times’ requests for comment.
The Hawks announced its “Magic City Monday” promotion last week. Hawks principal owner Jami Gertz was a producer on the docuseries “Magic City: An American Fantasy” that aired last year on Starz.
“This collaboration and theme night is very meaningful to me after all the work that we did to put together ’Magic City: An American Fantasy,’” “The Lost Boys” actor said in a statement last week. “The iconic Atlanta institution has made such an incredible impact on our city and its unique culture.”
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Atlanta-based artist T.I. will perform at halftime. A collaborative hoodie will be available for purchase, and some of the club’s well-known wings will be served — including the lemon-pepper wings named after former Hawks player Lou Williams.
In 2020, while he was playing for the Clippers during the pandemic, Williams made headlines for visiting Magic City during an excused absence for personal reasons to return home to Atlanta. The NBA was finishing its season in a so-called bubble in Orlando meant to protect against COVID-19. Williams has said he was at the club just to pick up food.
“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,” Kornet wrote. “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.”
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In expressing his objection to the promotion, Kornet stressed that NBA teams should be held “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,” Kornet wrote. “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.”
At least one other player appears to agree. Golden State Warriors center and 19-year NBA veteran Al Horford reposted his former Boston Celtics teammate’s statement Tuesday on X and wrote, “Well said Luke.”
Horford’s teammate Draymond Green offered an opposing view on his podcast this week.
“I think to point out that [women] have esteem issues because that’s the line of work they chose, I actually think is less protective of women because you’re condemning something, as if — it’s actually an art,” Green said. “Like, I don’t know if you’ve ever been but like, if you see it in action, it’s actually a form of art that some choose to indulge in and some choose not to indulge in.”
He added: “Magic [City] is also a big part of Atlanta culture — huge, huge, huge part of Atlanta culture. To say that a huge part of Atlanta culture reflects poorly on the NBA as a community, I completely disagree, because the NBA as a community is a very inclusive community. So why this particular night is bad for the community, I don’t quite understand in a very inclusive community.
“By the way ... what happens at that establishment won’t be happening at the Hawks game. There won’t be pictures of it on the Hawks’ Jumbotron, because that’s a choice that one must make to go to that establishment and see. But that’s not quite how this would be marketed. So I completely and wholeheartedly disagree with Luke Kornet. I respect how Luke Kornet feels. I respect that he made his feelings known, but I disagree with them wholeheartedly.”
