Hawks Celebrate Atlanta Strip Club As 'Cultural Institution' With Official Theme Night
The Atlanta Hawks are hosting 'Magic City Monday' to celebrate the iconic strip club where Lou Williams risked it all.
Forget "Star Wars Night." Forget bobblehead giveaways. Forget throwback jerseys and $1 hot dog promos. The Atlanta Hawks have decided that if you're going to do a theme night, you might as well fully embrace your city's lore.
On March 16, the Hawks will host "Magic City Monday," a one-night collaboration honoring Magic City — which the team's official press release delicately describes as Atlanta's "iconic cultural institution."
The rest of us call it a strip club. Because that's what it is.
This isn't a halfhearted gimmick, either. The Hawks are going all in, bringing in rapper T.I. for a halftime performance, DJ Esco will handle music, there will be a live recording of the Hawks AF Podcast, and the team is dropping a limited-edition co-branded hoodie. Strip club night MERCH!
Excuse me, cultural institution night merch.
Most importantly, Magic City Kitchen will be on site serving two versions of their "‘world famous’ lemon pepper wings: Louwill Lemon Pepper BBQ and traditional Lemon Pepper."
The Hawks are getting set to host "Magic City Monday."
(Getty Images)
And the wings must be fire. Because back in 2020, Lou Williams was willing to risk it all for a taste of them.
In case your brain has mercifully purged the stupidity of the year that was 2020, allow me to offer a quick refresher.
During the NBA's COVID bubble restart in Orlando, then-Los Angeles Clippers player Lou Williams was granted permission to leave campus to attend a funeral in Atlanta. While away, he was spotted at Magic City after Jack Harlow posted a photo on social media. Williams later said he just went for the lemon pepper wings, but the NBA still required him to serve a 10-day quarantine upon returning to the bubble. He missed two games.
Magic City leaned in, and the wings achieved internet immortality.
Now, the Hawks are formalizing it with a theme night.
Hawks principal owner Jami Gertz said, "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’. The iconic Atlanta institution has made such an incredible impact on our city and its unique culture."
That's one way to put it.
For fans concerned about logistics, this appears to be a family-friendly interpretation of Magic City. There will be music, merchandise and wings, but no dancers. So if your kid asks why the grown-ups are so hung up on this chicken restaurant, that's a conversation you can have on the ride home.