SI

Is Luke Kornet Right to Call Out the Hawks for Their Controversial Promotion?

The Spurs center penned a blog post asking Atlanta to cancel its upcoming ‘Magic City Monday’ night.
Jimmy Traina|
Spurs center Luke Kornet wants the Hawks to cancel their upcoming “Magic City Monday” promotion.
Spurs center Luke Kornet wants the Hawks to cancel their upcoming “Magic City Monday” promotion. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

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Atlanta Hawks

1. There are so many layers to Spurs center Luke Kornet writing a blog post suggesting that the Hawks cancel an upcoming promo night to celebrate a local strip club.

Personally, my biggest takeaway was that I was in complete shock that a current athlete was blogging on Medium. I feel like nobody blogs anymore. Everyone just writes lengthy Instagram captions.

I also thought it was surprising that Kornet would call out another team. If he played for the Hawks, I could understand him being embarrassed or concerned about the promotion. But he’s on the Spurs. It’s kind of gutsy to get involved in another organization’s business.

Now, let’s dive into the actual content.

Last week, the Hawks announced “Magic City Night” for the team’s March 16 game against the Magic. The press release for the event was downright bizarre, although, this paragraph explains why the Hawks would have this night:

“Prior to the game, the Hawks’ Principal Owner, filmmaker, and actor Jami Gertz will present a special introduction of the Hawks AF Podcast. Last year, Magic City celebrated 40 years with a five-part STARZ docuseries, ‘Magic City: An American Fantasy’ produced by Gertz alongside Grammy Award-winning music mogul and Atlanta native Jermaine Dupri.”

In addition to the podcast, Magic City Kitchen will serve two versions of their famous lemon pepper wings at the game.

But here’s how you know the Hawks are probably trying to get away with something a little shady here: Nowhere in the lengthy press release does it mention that Magic City is a strip club. Having a night to celebrate a strip club without mentioning the place you’re honoring is a strip club is quite a tell.

What makes this a perfect topic for content creators and those active on social media is that there are merits to both sides.

Should an NBA team hold a promotion to honor a strip club? Probably not, just because of optics. Yet, outside of some parents at the game having to explain to their kids what Magic City is, there really isn’t anything nefarious going on during this event.

Kornet’s point, though, at least to me, seems more about gentlemen’s clubs than what the Hawks are doing.

“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,” wrote Kornet. “We should promote an atmosphere that is protective and respectful of the daughters, wives, sisters, mothers, and partners that we know and love.”

Kornet ended his blog post with, “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.”

This is where he lost me. This was a tad over the top and dramatic. There will be absolutely nothing unsafe about the Magic-Hawks game. It’s going to be like any other NBA game.

In addition, Kornet calling out the Hawks for something that will ultimately be harmless is a little hard to take given the, let’s say, off-the-field proclivities of a massive number of athletes across sports, but that’s a whole other issue.

2. The Cardinals recently announced that they are now offering a ticket package starting at $29 called “Coca-Cola Unlimited.” The plan will allow fans to have bottomless access to three items from the following list: soda, hot dogs, chicken tenders, bratwurst, nachos, french fries, popcorn, peanuts, kettle chips and ice cream.

This is obviously a great thing for St. Louis fans. It’s nothing but a positive.

But I do have a take: Why do we have to have extremes at sporting events? Why do we have to have $8 bottle of waters or bottomless food? Why not just charge normal, reasonable prices everywhere?

3. Aaron Judge has been getting mocked on social media for a low-energy speech to Team USA in preparation for the World Baseball Classic.

As a Yankees fan, I love it. Save everything you have for the Yankees. I don’t even want Judge playing one inning in an exhibition series. In fact, I want Team USA eliminated as early as humanly possible so Judge doesn’t play another inning for a team that is not the Yankees.

4. If you’re a fan of Good Morning Football’s Kyle Brandt you absolutely must check this out. GMFB better give him some sort of regular singing segment after this.

5. This is not an accusation. Just an observation.

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with Puck sports media reporter John Ourand.

Ourand explains what’s going on with the NFL television rights deals, which are expected to be reopened later this year. Is there any chance CBS or Fox could lose their Sunday packages? How much more of the pie will streaming services get? Will the NFL diminish Sunday Ticket? Are we going to see more playoff games on streaming platforms?

In addition, Ourand shares his thoughts on what ESPN will do with the NFL Network, the NBA’s new deal with Amazon, where things stand with Fox keeping the World Series and much more.

Following Ourand, Peter Schrager from ESPN fills in for Sal Licata and joins me for the weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. Topics covered with Schrager include the nonstop NFL schedule, his best celebrity interaction during Super Bowl week, dealing with the big blizzard that hit the East Coast, a couple of Larry David-esque moments, his iced coffee addiction, television recommendations and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: In honor of NBC airing a throwback broadcast tonight when the Spurs visit the Sixers, with Bob Costas on the call and Doug Collins as analyst, here’s some vintage NBA on NBC.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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