The Atlanta Hawks announced “Magic City Monday,” a March 16 promotional night honoring one of Atlanta’s most iconic cultural institutions. Within days, the debate said more about the NBA’s relationship with respectability politics than it ever said about strip clubs.
San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet published a newsletter urging the Hawks to cancel the event, arguing the NBA should “desire to protect and esteem women” and calling the promotion complicit in “potential objectification and mistreatment of women.” Boston’s Al Horford backed him publicly on X. The Hawks, to their credit, declined to fold. Principal owner Jami Gertz stood firm, acknowledging Magic City’s “incredible impact on our city and its unique culture.”
Then Draymond Green entered the conversation.
The Art Argument
On his podcast, the Golden State Warriors forward pushed back hard. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been, but if you see it in action, it’s actually a form of art,” Green said. He challenged the idea that women in adult entertainment inherently suffer from self-esteem issues, pointing to Cardi B’s trajectory from the strip club to stadium tours as proof that the work doesn’t diminish the worker.
“To say that a huge part of Atlanta culture reflects poorly on the NBA as a community, I completely disagree because the NBA as a community is a very inclusive community,” Green added.
Former Hawk Lou Williams, whose love for Magic City’s lemon pepper wings became NBA legend (and once violated bubble protocols to visit the spot), also defended the event.
Why This Matters
This isn’t really about a promotional night. It’s about who gets to define “culture” in spaces that profit from it daily.
The NBA plays hip-hop in every arena, licenses rap for highlight reels, and markets itself through the same aesthetic energy that strip clubs helped birth. Atlanta’s music scene, from Future to Latto, is inseparable from Magic City. Songs get broken there. Careers get launched. The club is a genuine economic engine for Black women entrepreneurs, dancers, and the broader nightlife ecosystem.
When Kornet frames the conversation around protecting women, he skips past the women who chose this work and thrive in it. As Green noted, condemning the profession doesn’t protect anyone. It just judges them. That’s respectability politics dressed up as concern, and hip-hop’s audience can spot it every time.
The promotion will include commemorative hoodies, the iconic “Louwill Lemon Pepper BBQ wings,” and a performance by T.I. The Hawks refused to cancel. The event goes forward March 16 against the Orlando Magic.
The Takeaway
You can’t build your brand on hip-hop culture and then clutch pearls when hip-hop culture actually shows up. Draymond is right about one thing for sure: if you call yourself inclusive, that word has to mean something when it gets uncomfortable. Magic City isn’t the problem. The double standard is.
