You’re a team in the NBA. You want to have events that honor your community and convince fans, especially families with children, to come to your arena and invest a lifetime of fandom into your organization. What are some of your options?
How about a strip club night?
NBA POLITICAL LECTURE SEASON IS BACK
The Atlanta Hawks announced that they will be holding a “Magic City” night for one of their home games. Magic City is a strip club in Atlanta, a supposed cultural staple of the city, if you are to believe the defenders of this choice of event. The plan has made waves even among other NBA players, with Luke Kornet of the San Antonio Spurs and Al Horford of the Golden State Warriors calling on the Hawks to cancel the promotion. The Hawks called the strip club an “iconic Atlanta institution” that “has made such an incredible impact on our city and its unique culture.”
It should not need to be said how weird it is that an NBA team, presumably with children in attendance, is going to have a promotional night for a strip club. No, it does not matter if the strip club is known for good food or for being a place that a lot of famous people have been. No, it does not matter if you think stripping is “empowering” for women. It is, at the end of the day, a strip club, and a major sports team openly promoting it to its fans, including children, is weird no matter how “tasteful” an establishment you think it is.
Unfortunately, the Hawks strip club promotion is just the latest layer of money-driven decay for the NBA, which has sold its political soul to the Chinese government and has drowned fans in recent years with sports gambling advertisements. In that vein, an NBA team telling its fans about the virtues of strip clubs is keeping in line with the NBA’s true moral North Star. Little Johnny can come watch his favorite Hawks players play, brought to you by the official strip club of the Atlanta Hawks.
PREDICTION MARKETS ARE FAKE NEWS MACHINES
And yes, of course, there will be “Magic City” merchandise available, for a limited time only. A modern NBA game wouldn’t be complete without strip club merchandise.
This is not the sign of a healthy sports league or a healthy organization, and it is certainly not the sign of a healthy city if a strip club is a uniquely important, “iconic” part of your city’s culture. What it is a sign of is that the NBA does not care what kind of degeneracy it or its teams push on families and young fans, so long as the money coming in stays the same shade of green.