Ahead of their March 16 matchup with the Orlando Magic, the Atlanta Hawks announced that they would be partnering with Magic City, a strip club located one mile from the basketball team’s home at State Farm Arena. On Feb. 26, the team advertised the night as including a merchandise collaboration, Magic City’s lemon pepper wings being served during the game and a halftime performance from Georgia rapper T.I. Melissa Proctor, the executive vice president of the Atlanta Hawks, stated “From the food to the music and the exclusive merchandise, we are excited to team up with Magic City to create an authentic, true-to-Atlanta-inspired game experience.” The promotion was advertised without mentioning that Magic City is primarily a strip club, instead referring to it as an “iconic cultural institution.”

The Atlanta Hawks have historically been indirectly connected to the club. Former Hawks player and Atlanta native Lou Williams famously frequented the club — so much so that the club serves a special “Louwill Lemon Pepper BBQ” flavor of wings. Regardless, Magic City and the Atlanta Hawks had never partnered from a business perspective until the upcoming promotion was announced.

The collaboration caught the attention of San Antonio Spurs player Luke Kornet. In a post on Medium, Kornet expressed surprise that the promotion was allowed to occur at all and began a petition with other members of the NBA objecting to “Magic City Monday” and encouraging that the franchise cancel their partnership with the club. In the same post, Kornet states “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 also pointed out that the night’s theme is unsafe for fans under the age of 18, which goes against the intended family-friendly atmosphere the NBA seeks to provide even if none of the night’s content contains any explicit material. The former Celtic also pointed out the injustices women in adult entertainment face: “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.”

The promotion is the latest in a string of events that has called into question the team’s relationship with explicit content. In 2023, the Atlanta Hawks posted an advertisement for their In-Season Tournament themed around OnlyFans, a subscription service used mostly for posting pornography. The ad remains public on the NBA’s website over two years later, despite pushback from players on the team.

This promotion’s controversy boils down to a question of marketing ethics. The main problems with the promotion, as identified by Kornet, are that Magic City Monday glorified the adult entertainment industry and deceptively omitted the fact that Magic City is a strip club. Magic City Monday pushes the boundaries of what is and is not acceptable for sports franchises to associate themselves with, for better or worse. Tickets for the game have sold well, but that comes at the expense of fans and sponsors who do not approve of a team promoting a strip club, particularly during International Women’s Month. 

On March 9, NBA commissioner Adam Silver stepped in and cancelled the promotion despite the Atlanta Hawks’ wishes to allow the promotion to continue. In a press release, Silver explained that the league received “significant concerns from a broad array of league stakeholders, including fans, partners, and employees.” The Hawks have since changed the night to include only the halftime performance from T.I. and removed all Magic City branding from their online schedule.