One of the fun things about sporting events is the promotions. But more than just fun, a promotional event can honor the culture of the city, state, or region that a team belongs to. For example, the Atlanta Braves honored hip-hop legends OutKast a couple of years ago, and it became one of the most popular promotions in franchise history. The Braves also partner with the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation to honor native American culture.
The Atlanta Hawks — who I just discovered are on a major winning streak (I don’t follow the NBA) — announced a promotion that was supposed to take place on March 16. “Magic City Monday” would honor the famous Magic City club, which has played a key role in Atlanta’s hip-hop scene.
“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,” Hawks Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Proctor said when she announced the event.
There’s a massive problem with Magic City Monday. Magic City is a strip club. So this past Monday, the NBA canceled the promotion.
“When we became aware of the Atlanta Hawks’ scheduled promotion, we reached out to Hawks leadership to better understand their plans and rationale,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “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,” Silver added.
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The Hawks responded to the cancellation on X:
— Atlanta HaWWWWWWWks (@ATLHawks) March 9, 2026
The team’s X account added:
WHAT TO EXPECT AT THE GAME:
- Legendary rapper and ‘King of the South’ T.I. will perform at halftime as scheduled.
- The limited-edition Peachtree-themed hoodie will no longer be available for purchase at the game on March 16th. All pre-ordered merchandise will be honored and delivered as previously scheduled.
- The live recording of the Hawks AF Podcast, including Hawks’ Principal Owner, filmmaker, and actor Jami Gertz, T.I., and Magic City founder Michael “Mr. Magic” Barney, has been cancelled. Fans who purchased tickets to the recording will be contacted directly.
- The full array of award-winning culinary options available at State Farm Arena for Hawks games will be available, including wings.
One commenter asked, “I had tickets for the Magic City night. I was hoping my 7 year old son would see some t*****s and twerking. Is there any procedure for a refund??”
It might be easy to assume that the team’s owners, husband and wife Tony Ressler and Jami “I can’t spare a square” Gertz, were only aware of Magic City’s connection to Atlanta hip-hop culture and had no clue what Magic City really is, but it turns out that Gertz produced a documentary about the club. ESPN reports:
The Hawks have ties to the club. Gertz was a producer for a five-part docuseries that explored the club’s history, its place in [black] and hip-hop culture, and what it means to the city.
“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,'” Gertz, who is also a filmmaker and actor, said when the promotion was announced. “The iconic Atlanta institution has made such an incredible impact on our city and its unique culture.”
This might be the only good move Silver has made as NBA commissioner. The NBA often promotes itself as a league deeply connected to urban culture, hip-hop, and local identity, but Magic City is part of that ecosystem in Atlanta. In other words, the NBA loves Atlanta culture — right up until the moment Atlanta culture becomes inconvenient.
The objectification of women isn’t something that a professional sports team should celebrate. One NBA player pointed that out.
“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,” said Luke Kornet of the San Antonio Spurs. “We should promote an atmosphere that is protective and respectful of the daughters, wives, sisters, mothers, and partners that we know and love.”
“Explicitly or not, the event was in incredibly poor taste,” writes Alejandro Avila at Outkick. “It was championed largely by mouth-breathing fans rather than true fans of the game, a sentiment shared by several players who actively objected to Atlanta’s ridiculous idea for a promo night. Letting an NBA franchise officially celebrate strip-club culture as a marketing gimmick would have been beyond tacky; it would have been an institutional embarrassment.”
It’s true that Atlanta is an important hotspot for black culture, particularly Southern hip-hop. But a promotion honoring Magic City is a bad look for a league that’s trying to position itself as family-friendly. (And what would be next? The Braves hosting Clermont Lounge Night?)
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I asked PJ Media’s resident expert on public relations, Scott Pinsker, for his thoughts, and he said:
Brands have a vested interest in growing their audience, but doing so at the expense of their existing audience isn’t growth — it’s cannibalism. You’re sacrificing one for the other. For a brand like the Atlanta Hawks that overtly markets itself as a family-friendly destination for kids of all ages, aligning itself with, ahem, a “gentleman’s club” is so obviously counterproductive that it borders on absurdity. Look, the cheapest, most cost-effective way for brands to reach millions of eyeballs is to buy ads on adult websites — but most won’t do that, because it associates the brand with trash and smut. It’s a crime against the brand.
It’s puzzling why the Hawks approved this promotion, but I suspect plenty of the players — plus, probably, quite a few team executives — were patrons of that club. In lots of sports, it’s pretty common for the players to frequent strip clubs. But it’s usually not the kind of thing ownership likes to promote — especially to kids and families.
At the end of the day, Magic City Monday flies in the face of a team that markets itself as a family destination. Cultural significance doesn’t magically sanitize what Magic City is — a strip club. There’s a time and place for everything, but an NBA promotion night aimed at fans and their kids isn’t it. You won’t hear me say, “good on Adam Silver” very often, but in this case, good on Adam Silver.
Even the NBA occasionally stumbles into the right decision — though it sometimes takes a public relations disaster to get there.
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