On the last day of February, Luke Kornet waited inside the locker room after a blowout loss to the New York Knicks. While others quickly left, Kornet sat with his laptop, hammering away on the keyboard. He was typing his protest against the Atlanta Hawks’ March 16 ‘Magic City Monday’ initiative in honor of the famous strip club. While talking about that blog, though, Indiana Pacers legend Reggie Miller remembered a distinctive James Harden achievement (as he may call it).

“I’ve never made it rain in Magic City,” Miller said on the Dan Patrick Show. “I’ve never made it rain, sprinkle, drizzle, little cloud cover, none of that.”

However, the host and the NBA legend poked fun at the Cleveland Cavaliers veteran for his alleged extravagant visits to strip clubs.

“[Harden] probably has a jersey in there,” Miller added. “[When they retire your jersey in a strip club] that’s ball.”

Fairly or unfairly, there is no conversation about strip clubs in the NBA without Harden being mentioned. Miller and Patrick were alluding to Harden’s infamous stories in Houston and Brooklyn when the NBA star was apparently a regular. Harden reportedly spent over a million dollars at a single establishment, and the club honored him in basketball style.

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“James has his jersey like hanging from the top,” Jamil “Mal” Clay revealed on the Joe Budden Podcast eight years ago. “They were doing that because they said James has been going in there spending like [a lot of money]. So they gave him his own jersey hanging from the rafters of the strip club.”

Back in December 2020, Harden was fined $50,000 by the NBA for violating the league’s Health and Safety Protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was pictured at a Christmas party in a strip club, maskless. Lou Williams also made headlines after he was at Magic City during an approved NBA absence. He later clarified that he was there for the food.

Enough with the Harden chatter and his allegiance to strip clubs. Let’s shift focus to why Miller was talking about strip clubs in the first place.

What is the Atlanta Hawks’ “Magic City Monday” game, and why is Luke Kornet protesting against it?

Last week, the Atlanta Hawks announced their plan for the Orlando Magic game. The contest is being sponsored by Atlanta’s famous strip club, Magic City. While the Hawks mentioned in their statement that the event was “to celebrate the city’s iconic cultural institution,” Kornet protested, arguing that the messaging was not in line with the league’s values.

“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,” Kornet wrote on Medium. “The celebration of a strip club is not conduct aligned with that vision.”

To its credit, the NBA has been pretty progressive in its approach to social issues. The league also has a strong representation of women at all job levels. For Kornet, the March 16 messaging would eventually lead to rendering a complicit image of the league in the normalization of the objectification of women.

“Regardless of how a woman finds her way into the adult entertainment industry, many in this space experience abuse, harassment, and violence to which they should never be subjected,” Kornet continued.

Despite the Hawks strongly emphasizing only “G-rated” elements in their celebration of the institution, Golden State Warriors center Al Horford also voiced his support for Kornet’s blog on social media.

Magic City strip club has been in operation for 40 years and has become a big part of the city’s culture. The club has also become a spot for several hip-hop and rap artists to make a name for themselves with their mixtapes, a path followed by popular names like 2 Chainz, Killer Mike, and Future.