NBA Cancels Hawks’ Magic City Promotional Night After Player Criticism

The Hawks’ Magic City promotional night is no more after NBA leadership stepped in and nixed the event, citing “significant concerns from a broad array of league stakeholders, including fans, partners and employees.”

“When we became aware of the Atlanta Hawks’ scheduled promotion, we reached out to Hawks leadership to better understand their plans and rationale," league commissioner Adam Silver wrote in a statement on Monday. "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.”

Adam Silver statement on the Hawks now canceled Magic City night: “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…
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) March 9, 2026

The Hawks then released a statement of their own shortly after:

"While we are very disappointed in the NBA's decision to cancel our Magic City Night promotion, we fully respect its decision. As a franchise, we remain committed to celebrating the best of Atlanta—with authenticity—in ways that continue to unite and bring us all together."

Initially slated for March 16, the Hawks' so-called “Magic City Monday” event was intended to honor Atlanta’s Magic City strip club, one of the area’s “iconic cultural institutions,” per the team's Feb. 26 press release. (You may have also heard of Magic City because of its famous wings, which are supposedly so good that they notably derailed Lou Williams’s time in the NBA bubble back in 2020.)

But it was not Magic City's kitchen people had a problem with; rather, it was the venue's strip club roots that invited the criticism. In early March, Spurs center Luke Kornet penned an open letter to the league asking it to cancel the Hawks' promotion, lest it “reflect poorly” on the NBA community.

“I and others throughout the league were surprised by and object to the Hawks’ decision,” Kornet wrote on his Medium.com-hosted blog. “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.”

League veteran Al Horford agreed with Kornet in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Well said Luke. pic.twitter.com/pGHxezOC1b
— Al Horford (@Al_Horford) March 3, 2026

The Hawks had planned a variety of different tie-ins for the evening, including a conversation about the STARZ docuseries Magic City: An American Fantasy, a halftime performance from Atlanta-born rapper T.I. and some wings from Magic City Kitchen itself.

Now, however, the show will not go on.

Is Magic City really an “iconic cultural institution” in Atlanta?

For those unfamiliar with the club scene in downtown Atlanta, the language used to describe Magic City in the Hawks' press release may have seen a bit ... cheeky. Even so, it is true. Indeed, as reported by The Athletic's David Aldridge and Law Murray, Magic City is a strip club, yes, but it also boasts a connection “with just about all aspects of Atlanta’s modern cultural life.”

It's also an ever-crucial fixture of the city’s rap and hip-hop scene, and played a big role in the careers of genre heavyweights like Migos, Drake, 2 Chainz, Big Boi and Future, among others.

So although “strip club” is perhaps the easiest and fastest way to describe it, Magic City is far more enmeshed in and important to Atlanta than such a term might have the average out-of-towner think.

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