It’s not often that an active NBA player publicly challenges another franchise for promotional events and decisions, but that’s exactly what happened today. After the Atlanta Hawks recently announced ‘Magic City Night’ for their match against the Orlando Magic in March, San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet spoke up, and his message was clear.

“This week the Atlanta Hawks “announced a special one-night collaboration to celebrate the city’s iconic cultural institution Magic City”…” Kornet wrote on his Medium blog.

He continued, “In its press release the Hawks failed to acknowledge that this place is, as the business itself boasts, “Atlanta’s premier strip club.” Given this fact, I would like to respectfully ask that the Atlanta Hawks cancel this promotional night with Magic City.”

For Kornet, that failure of the Hawks to acknowledge the nature of Magic City’s operations wasn’t a minor omission, but the issue at hand. He made it clear that the NBA, and commissioner Adam Silver by extension, should try their best to “protect and esteem women,” especially since they work hard to build up the NBA into “the best basketball league in the world.

He went further, adding that allowing the event to proceed without notice or objection would reflect especially poorly on the community within the league, and also risk being seen as complicit in the objectification and mistreatment of women.

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

This kind of appeal to the NBA and its commissioner isn’t just the critique of the Hawks’ marketing scheme, but a direct challenge to the values the NBA seems to challenge.

Inside the Atlanta Hawks’ Magic City Promotion Called Out by Luke Kornet

The Atlanta Hawks planned ‘Magic City Night’ against the Orlando Magic as a night of food, music, and exclusive merchandise; a celebration of the culture of the city, not the adult entertainment within the establishment. Plans indicate staples like the famous lemon pepper wings, a music performance by rapper TI, and Magic City themed hoodies.

Magic City has held an undeniable place in Atlanta’s pop culture image and ecosystem, intrinsically linked to the city’s nightlife and music scene, and to some, this collaboration is an acknowledgement of the footprint the location has left.

Among them is principal owner of the Hawks, Jami Gertz, who worked on the docuseries ‘Magic City: An American Fantasy,’ and called the celebration “very meaningful” to him after the work put into the docuseries.

To Kornet however, things are different. According to the Spurs center, this is more about league optics than local pride, and with the NBA consistently pushing itself as a progressive and socially conscious league, clashes with what the Hawks intend to celebrate.

If the event goes as planned, it signals that the league is fine with teams leaning into local identities that some might find offensive. If Silver and the league intervene, it draws a line in the sand about what is allowed and what isn’t. Only time will tell if the league takes action or not.