{"id":629186,"date":"2026-02-27T23:22:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T23:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/629186\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T23:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T23:22:18","slug":"stephen-a-smith-endorses-atlanta-hawks-celebrating-magic-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/629186\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith endorses Atlanta Hawks celebrating Magic City"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s not just Deion Sanders, Shannon Sharpe, Shaquille O\u2019Neal, and nearly every other famous athlete who has frequented Magic City in Atlanta. Stephen A. Smith wants you to know he\u2019s enjoyed the fruits of their labor as well.<\/p>\n<p>The Atlanta Hawks announced an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/hawks\/news\/hawksto-celebrate-atlantas-iconic-cultural-institution-magic-city-during-the-teams-magic-city-monday-game-against-the-orlando-magic-on-monday-march-16\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">unusual promotion<\/a> for next month, as they plan to celebrate Magic City, the area\u2019s famous strip club. When the Hawks take on the Orlando Magic on Monday, March 16, the arena will pay tribute to the adult entertainment club with exclusive merchandise, Magic City\u2019s famous lemon pepper wings, and a halftime performance by Atlanta native T.I. And Friday morning on First Take, Stephen A. Smith endorsed the collaboration.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u201cI\u2019ve been there, I can confirm that their lemon pepper wings are delicious, and that the scenery is fabulous\u201d \u2013 Stephen A. Smith has high praise for Magic City <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/f38gUlBYPA\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/f38gUlBYPA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/awfulannouncing\/status\/2027462597218332884?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 27, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt ain\u2019t just the basketball players that have frequented that in the past,\u201d Smith said of his own personal exploits at Magic City. \u201cI\u2019ve been there. I can confirm that their lemon pepper wings are delicious and that the scenery is fabulous. And that it is an iconic cultural landmark. I understand its celebration, I have no problem with it whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Smith might be in favor of the celebratory night, the partnership between the Hawks and Atlanta\u2019s most famous strip club seems to put Shae Cornette in an awkward position, with the First Take host noting that her husband, Jordan Cornette, is scheduled to work the Hawks-Magic game for NBC that night.<\/p>\n<p>Magic City garnered national attention in 2020, when Lou Williams, then a member of the Hawks, was granted permission to leave the bubble to attend his grandfather\u2019s funeral. And while outside the bubble, Williams was seen at Magic City, where he later claimed he was picking up some lemon pepper wings.<\/p>\n<p>Now everyone will have a chance to taste the famous wings inside the Hawks\u2019 State Farm Arena. Although, as Stephen A. Smith can attest, most of age people in the arena have likely <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/podcasts\/shannon-sharpe-after-dark-nightcap-magic-city.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">already had opportunities<\/a> to order those famous wings. But if this celebration ends up being as successful as Smith expects, maybe it will open the door for a swell of creative partnership and sponsorship ideas for the rest of the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not just Deion Sanders, Shannon Sharpe, Shaquille O\u2019Neal, and nearly every other famous athlete who has frequented&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[676,208,3874,7,5177,677,20953,6,2603],"class_list":{"0":"post-629186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-atlantahawks","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-first-take","13":"tag-hawks","14":"tag-magic-city","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-stephen-a-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116145169755346379","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}