NBA has announced the cancellation of a promotional collaboration between Atlanta Hawks and Magic City, a famous strip-club, due to numerous protests from fans and some players, including San Antonio Spurs’ Luke Kornet.
Atlanta Hakws announced late February that the match on Tuesday March 17 against Orlando Magic would pay tribute to Magic City, described as “an iconic cultural institution” of the city. Magic City is a stripc club opened in 1985, but made famous for its ties with rap and hip hop scene: if a rap song is chosen by Magic City’s DJ, it can “made you a star overnight”, said a five-part documentary released in Starz last year.
The match would have featured the logo of the club everywhere, would have sold exclusive merchandise, and the famoust chicken wings would have been served in the bar of the stadium. But that promotional event has been called off (although they will still sell the wings, even without the strip club’s logo, and will keep the performance of rapper T.I. in halftime).
“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“, said Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, after numerous protests.
Luke Kornet’s open letter said that “allowing this to go ahead tonight without protest would reflect a negative image of us as an NBA community, specifically by making us complicit in the potential objectification and mistreatment of women in our society.” The Hawks have said that they are “disappointed”, but fully respect the decision.
