The NBA announced Monday that the in-arena promotion the Atlanta Hawks had planned for March 16 at State Farm Arena will be cancelled.<\/p>\n
The Hawks announced on Feb. 26 that they would have a promotion night to celebrate Magic City, Atlanta\u2019s premier strip club, when the Orlando Magic visited. The event was not to include dancers, and the Hawks did not mention Magic City being a gentleman\u2019s club, calling Magic City an \u201ciconic cultural institution\u201d while emphasizing \u201cthe history, cultural impact and influence\u201d of an \u201cAtlanta landmark.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom 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,\u201d said Hawks Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Proctor.<\/p>\n
The league permitted the event insofar that the Hawks did not need to get approval to proceed with the announcement. But after days of feedback, including from San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet, the NBA decided the Hawks should not go forward with their version of Magic City Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we became aware of the Atlanta Hawks\u2019 scheduled promotion, we reached out to Hawks leadership to better understand their plans and rationale,\u201d NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement released Monday. \u201cWhile we appreciate the team\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
In acknowledging the NBA\u2019s decision, the Hawks also released a statement Monday regarding the cancellation of Magic City Monday at State Farm Arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we are very disappointed in the NBA\u2019s decision to cancel our Magic City Night promotion, we fully respect its decision,\u201d the Hawks said. \u201cAs a franchise, we remain committed to celebrating the best of Atlanta \u2013 with authenticity \u2013 in ways that continue to unite and bring us all together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The theme night was set to feature a special live podcast recording with Magic City founder Michael \u201cMr. Magic\u201d Barney and rapper T.I., who was also set to perform at halftime. The Hawks were set to sell a limited-edition Peachtree-themed hoodie with \u201cMagic City\u201d across the front in bold text. The Hawks were going to collaborate with Magic City Kitchen to serve two versions of the latter\u2019s lemon pepper wings, a traditional version as well as the \u201cLouwill Lemon Pepper BBQ\u201d named after Georgia native and three-time Sixth Man of the Year award recipient Lou Williams.<\/p>\n
In 2020, Williams had to quarantine for 10 days before returning to the NBA bubble because he was found to have been at Magic City following the funeral of Atlanta businessman Paul Williams. After the service, Williams went to get wings from Magic City. When asked about the Hawks\u2019 promotion night, Williams told The Athletic, \u201cThat ain\u2019t got nothing to do with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hawks will no longer have the pregame podcast featuring Barney, T.I. and principal owner Jami Gertz, who was a driving force behind the Magic City collaboration with the Hawks due to her involvement in the five-part STARZ docuseries \u201cMagic City: An American Fantasy.\u201d The limited-edition hoodies will no longer be available for purchase at the Magic-Hawks game on March 16, though the Hawks will deliver pre-ordered merchandise.<\/p>\n
T.I. will still perform at halftime, and the Hawks will still serve wings, which will include the Louwill lemon pepper wings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA announced Monday that the in-arena promotion the Atlanta Hawks had planned for March 16 at State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[208,7,2284,6,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-651326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-culture","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports-business"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116206264032469770","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651326","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=651326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}