The event was supposed to happen March 16 during a game against the Orlando Magic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Atlanta announced the plan last month, calling it a tribute to an “iconic cultural institution” with food — including the club’s lemon pepper wings, a version of which is named for former Hawks guard Lou Williams — along with music and exclusive merchandise.<\/p>\n “While we are very disappointed in the NBA’s decision to cancel our Magic City Night promotion, we fully respect its decision,” the Hawks said Monday. “As a franchise, we remain committed to celebrating the best of Atlanta — with authenticity — in ways that continue to unite and bring us all together.”<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks Some elements of the plans for the night will remain, the Hawks said, including a halftime performance from rapper T.I. — and there are plans for lemon pepper wings to be sold.<\/p>\n But some plans for merchandise have been scrapped, as has a live recording of a podcast that was to feature Hawks primary owner Jami Gertz, T.I. and Magic City founder Michael Barney.<\/p>\n Plans for the celebration were met with mixed reactions. One NBA player, Luke Kornet<\/a> of the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>, spoke out against the idea of promoting a strip club and urged the parties involved to reconsider.<\/p>\n The league evidently heard the same message from others.<\/p>\n “When we became aware of the Atlanta Hawks’ scheduled promotion, we reached out to Hawks leadership to better understand their plans and rationale,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “While we appreciate the team’s perspective and their desire to move forward, we have heard significant concerns from a broad array of league stakeholders, including fans, partners and employees.<\/p>\n “I believe canceling this promotion is the right decision for the broader NBA community.”<\/p>\n The Hawks have ties to the club. Gertz was a producer for a five-part docuseries that explored the club’s history, its place in Black and hip-hop culture, and what it means to the city.<\/p>\n “This collaboration and theme night is very meaningful to me after all the work that we did to put together ‘Magic City: An American Fantasy,'” Gertz, who is also a filmmaker and actor, said when the promotion was announced. “The iconic Atlanta institution has made such an incredible impact on our city and its unique culture.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Magic City Night in Atlanta is off. The NBA has canceled the Atlanta Hawks‘ plans for a celebration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-529933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/r705115_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&w=130&h=130&scale=crop&location=center.jpeg\")
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