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Greenberg: The Jerry Reinsdorf White Sox era takes another turn with new stadium push

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Greenberg: The Jerry Reinsdorf White Sox era takes another turn with new stadium push

For all his mishegas and misdirection, Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is right on one thing: It’s either now or later.

Either he’s asking the city and state for more than a billion bucks of public money for a new stadium right now or someone else is going to be asking for it down the road.

The prospects of the White Sox leaving town have been rumored for months, from the rumors of a Nashville interest to Reinsdorf’s more direct insinuation in a recent interview with Crain’s Chicago that someone will buy the team and want to move it.

With his 88th birthday coming up, Reinsdorf’s focus right now isn’t on the team’s improved defensive outlook or the Bulls’ march to the Play-In Tournament. He’s all about a new stadium.

This rare media interview with Crain’s immediately followed his trip to Springfield, Ill., to schmooze with state legislators in his quest for a new stadium that would be funded by someone other than him.

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Few people outside of Reinsdorf’s immediate orbit are enthused about the idea of funding another ballpark for him. But in Reinsdorf’s world, Chicagoans are all downwind of his cigar smoke, forever looking for a breath of fresh air.

These days, it’s offensive to our more educated sensibilities when sports franchise owners ask for public money. It’s wildly offensive when it’s coming from Reinsdorf, a rich owner of two teams with his hand out for the second time.

It’s not surprising that Jerry is seeking “free” money, of course. He’s an owner. It’s what they do.

Reinsdorf still has his defenders who are loyal to him, but even they can’t argue that the White Sox are not a perennial disappointment under his leadership. Sure, you can shift the blame to the front office or the players or even the fans, but you can’t argue the facts. Jerry is the boss and his business is bad.


In happier days, Jerry Reinsdorf shows off the ball from the last out of the 2005 World Series. (Ron Vesely / MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Just a few years ago, the Sox were the darlings of the city, a 93-win team with strong personalities and a bright future. Now, after a series of calamities, they’re entrenched again in the AL Central bunker — the big-city losers in a small-market division.

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And Reinsdorf is back to his late-’80s tricks, trying to convince everyone that a new ballpark will not only be some kind of competitive panacea for his club but also a boon to Chicago and the state of Illinois. And if he doesn’t get what he wants, well, the team might not be playing in Chicago in the near future. He’s just trying to help.

Back in the day, he used Tampa-St. Petersburg to get his new park in Chicago. Nowadays, he’s not going to realistically threaten to move the team himself. In that interview with Crain’s, he’s threatening that the prospective owners who will one day buy the Sox, likely after his passing, will probably threaten to move the team. So just give him the money now to prevent that from happening.

I’m here to say that in that regard, he’s not wrong.

Whoever buys the Sox, whether it’s in a few years or a decade from now, will probably want a new stadium if the team is still playing at Guaranteed Rate Field. Now, there are some potential owners who might see the value in keeping the Sox where they are and doing the things to fix up the park and the surrounding area that Reinsdorf is unwilling to do. But I can see it playing out like it did when Tom Ricketts and his family bought the Cubs. Ricketts waited until after his first season as the owner to unveil a plan that would have taken control of existing tax dollars to fund money-making improvements for his private business.

Ricketts was unsuccessful at getting hundreds of millions of dollars (though he did get some help) to renovate Wrigley Field and its campus. But he got it done just in time for the Cubs to finally win a World Series.

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The reason the Cubs didn’t move to Rosemont or anywhere else is because Wrigley Field is a cash cow. Guaranteed Rate Field is not.

The White Sox have a smaller fan base than the Cubs, and their stadium is not a tourist attraction. So the owners could threaten to move. But that’s in the future. Right now, the state and city have more pressing issues, financial or otherwise. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said he’s not looking to give money to team owners for new stadiums. Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, who ran as a progressive, is under pressure from two teams now looking to move.

From a public relations standpoint, unknown owners would get more support for asking for tax dollars than Reinsdorf. For all the philanthropic work the Sox have done in the community, for all the loyalty he’s shown to his employees and for all the genuine love he has for baseball, Reinsdorf has squandered all the goodwill he’s ever had.

Reinsdorf has said for years he wants his sons to sell the team when he passes. The partners in his ownership group, some of whom have been with him since he bought the team in 1981, will demand it. But the Reinsdorf family will make out very well when it happens.

In 2021, Michael and Jonathan Reinsdorf offered to buy ownership stakes from the team’s limited partners, albeit at a low valuation. Some partners did take them up on it, which has added to the family’s stake in the franchise. Jerry Reinsdorf told Crain’s he owns more than the 19 percent of the team that Forbes has reported.

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An agreed-upon deal for public money for a new stadium will add significant value to the franchise, which is already estimated to be worth around $2 billion. So it makes sense he’s trying to square that away now. Think of this as estate planning.

If the White Sox’s days in Bridgeport are numbered, it’s a shame. For all the whining you hear about it, it’s actually a pretty good South Side location, just off the highway and near a Red Line stop.

The stadium is facing the wrong way and the area surrounding it has the ambience of the Woodfield Mall parking lot, but the Armour Square neighborhood has been the home of the team since 1910, so there’s some history there. The Sox never did enough to create a “ballpark village” type of environment, nor did they market the stadium and surrounding neighborhood well enough to convince tourists to check it out.

If the team were good, year after year, attendance would reflect it. But don’t tell Reinsdorf that. He’s in excuse mode. It’s a PR strategy and a way of life.

In one of the more galling parts of his Crain’s interview, Reinsdorf told Crain’s reporter Greg Hinz that the team’s attendance issues were solely because of the ballpark’s location and not the result of his decades of poor decision-making.

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Reinsdorf pointed out that after the team’s World Series victory in 2005, “we didn’t crack the 3 million (attendance) mark” in 2006.

In that season, the Sox “only” drew 2.96 million, which remains the franchise’s high mark and proves the opposite of his point. That showed what happens when the Sox’s success pushes people to buy season tickets. It was an increase of more than a million fans from 2004, the year before the World Series.

After the ballpark opened to big crowds, attendance cratered in the mid-1990s after the strike canceled the Sox’s chance to win a World Series. Reinsdorf was a labor hawk and a public villain in that fiasco.

After the Sox won the World Series a decade later, the team couldn’t build on that momentum and attendance then declined for eight consecutive seasons, going as low as 1.65 million in 2014.

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In that span, the team had five losing seasons and made the playoffs just once. After winning the division in thrilling fashion in 2008, the Sox embarked on an 11-year run of missing the postseason.

The team drew 2 million again in 2022, the year after it won its division. In that 2021 season, ballpark attendance was curtailed by pandemic regulations. But after they were lifted, the Sox were drawing weekend crowds of more than 30,000 fans a game. The Cubs were down and the Sox were up.

Last year, the Sox had the largest attendance decrease in baseball (minus-339,731, according to Baseball-Reference) and it wasn’t because it’s a schlep to get to Bridgeport. Basically, all of baseball saw an attendance increase or stayed relatively flat except the Nationals and White Sox. Washington was down 1,982 fans per game and the Sox lost 4,194. The fans have turned against this team and these attendance patterns show, again, if you win, the fans will come to the South Side. And if you don’t, they won’t.

Sox fans are tired of being disappointed, and after a 101-loss season, it’ll be a struggle for the Sox to draw 1.6 million in 2024. Also, the team’s well-liked TV broadcaster Jason Benetti left for a job with the Detroit Tigers.

Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays, who are still trying to escape the dome built for Reinsdorf’s team and draw like a minor-league team, make the playoffs nearly every year against the stiff competition of the AL East. Of course, they are a progressive, savvy organization that has figured out how to win consistently on a shoestring budget. Reinsdorf, meanwhile, waxes poetic about how much he loved David Eckstein because he tried hard.

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A South Loop ballpark in the midst of a newly developed neighborhood along the river is certainly intriguing. The renderings look fantastic, as renderings always do. The idea of a new stadium, a restart, sounds great, but is it worth well over a billion dollars in tax money?


A rendering of a potential new ballpark for the White Sox in the South Loop. (Courtesy of Related Midwest)

I was one of the people lampooning Ricketts for asking for public money to renovate Wrigley Field more than a dozen years ago, but he, at least, had a point.

The Cubs are the only team in town that brings in a significant amount of new money to the city because of Wrigley Field. People will visit Chicago to go to Cubs games and then spend money around the city. Now it’s not as much money as the team’s research would have you believe, but it’s not nothing.

The Sox have a smaller fan base than the Cubs and they don’t have the benefit of being in a bustling North Side neighborhood and a tourist attraction of a ballpark. With local support, they’re a team that should be drawing around 2 million to 2.5 million a year. But they need to win.

Reinsdorf had enough of the failed rebuild (and its high payrolls) last season, firing his most trusted executive, Kenny Williams, and general manager Rick Hahn. In rare public comments, Reinsdorf said he was in a hurry to get better so he promoted the team’s farm director, Chris Getz, to GM. Getz is rebuilding the team on the cheap, focusing on sure-handed defenders and clubhouse guys. Projected 2024 win totals vary, from 65.6 (PECOTA) to 67 (FanGraphs).

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With the team’s baseball present looking grim, why not look to the future?

With the Bears also fishing for help for a new stadium, either in the city or on their land in Arlington Heights, Reinsdorf is trying to be proactive for his own slice of the pie.

The financing structures for a new park, as discussed by Reinsdorf and the developers Related Midwest, involve an existing city hotel tax and possibly taking on and extending the debt for the Sox’s current park and for Soldier Field over the next few decades or so. They also want a special taxing district and to use the money the city has already pledged to help with infrastructure improvements in the area. They want a lot and they’re promising a lot.

But of course, these kinds of stadium plans always rely on rosy tax projections and promises that don’t often come true. But it won’t be Jerry’s problem.

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It’s been 33 years since New Comiskey Park opened after the governor and state leaders stopped the clock (literally) to help Reinsdorf.

Where will this franchise be in another 33 years?

Reinsdorf will be long gone. The politicians will have moved on. The White Sox could be playing in the South Loop or Nashville or Portland.

Maybe by then, the team will have finally signed a free agent to a $100 million contract. Maybe by then, the White Sox, and their fans, will be happy with their lot in life and in baseball. Maybe the Sox will have added another World Series trophy to their case.

The word “maybe” allows for all kinds of possibilities without any guarantees. Kind of like when an owner tells you how perfect a new stadium will be for everyone.

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(Top rendering: Courtesy of Related Midwest)

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Former NFL Players Of Iranian Descent Speak Up For Freedom From Islamic Regime

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Former NFL Players Of Iranian Descent Speak Up For Freedom From Islamic Regime

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Ali Haji-Sheikh and Shar Pourdanesh share the fact they are retired NFL players living beyond the glow of the NFL spotlight. But they also share another distinction tying them to current events: They are part of the Iranian diaspora hoping for the downfall of the Islamic revolution.

They make up part of a small group of men who played in the NFL – along with David Bakhtiari, his brother Eric Bakhtiari and T.J. Housmandzadeh – who are decedents of Iranians.

Washington Redskins kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh (6) talks to reporters at Jack Murphy Stadium during media day prior to Super Bowl XXII against the Denver Broncos. San Diego, California, on Jan. 26, 1988.(Darr Beiser/USA TODAY Sports)

Haji-Sheikh: Self-Determination For Iranians

Haji-Sheikh, 65, played in the 1980s for the New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons and Washington Redskins. He was a first-team All-Pro, made the Pro Bowl and was on the NFL All-Rookie team in 1983 for the Giants and, in his final season, won a Super Bowl XXII ring playing for the Washington Redskins and kicking six extra points in a 42-10 blowout of the Denver Broncos.

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Now, Haji-Sheikh is the general manager at a Michigan Porsche-Audi dealership and is like the rest of us: Keeping up with world events when time permits. 

Except the war the United States is currently waging against the Islamic Republic of Iran is kind of different because Haji-Sheikh’s dad emigrated from Iran to the United States in the 1950s and built a life here.

And his son would like to see freedom come to a country he’s never visited but has a kinship to.

“It’s a world event,” Haji-Sheikh said on Monday. “I am not a big fan of the Islamic revolution because I am not Islamic. I would like to see the people of Iran be able to determine their own future rather than it be determined by a few people. It would be nice to see them having a stable government where the people can actually decide how they want it to go.

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Green Bay Packers kicker Al Del Greco (10) talks with New York Giants kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh (6) on Sept. 15, 1985, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers defeated the Giants 23-20.

Iranians Celebrating And Americans Protesting

Haji-Sheikh hasn’t taken to the streets of his native Michigan to celebrate a liberation that hasn’t fully manifested mere days after the American and Israeli bombing and elimination of the Ayatollah. 

“I’m so far removed from that,” Haji-Sheikh said. “My mom is from Michigan and of Eastern European background. My dad is from Iran. But it’s like, he hasn’t been back since I was in eighth grade, so that’s a long time ago. That was when the Shah was still in power, mid-70s, ‘74 or ’75, because if he ever went back after that he never would have left. They would have held him, so there was no intention of going back.

“But if things change he might want to go, you never know.”

Despite being removed from any activism about what is happening in Iran Haji-Sheikh is an astute observer.

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“My favorite thing I’m seeing right now on TV is the Iranians in America celebrating because there’s a chance, a glimpse, maybe a hope for freedom,” Haji-Sheikh said. “And you have these people in New York protesting. What are you protesting?”

Pourdanesh Thanks America, Israel

Pourdanesh retired from the NFL in 2000 after a seven-year career with the Redskins and Steelers. The six-foot-six and 312-pound offensive tackle was born in Tehran. He proudly tells people he was the NFL’s first Iranian-born player.

Pourdanesh is much more visible and open about his feelings about his country than others. And, bottom line, he loves that President Donald Trump is bombing the Islamic regime.

“This is a great day for all Iranians across the world,” Pourdanesh posted on his Instagram account on Saturday when the war began. “Thank you, President Trump, thank you to the nation of Israel. Thank you for everybody that has been standing up for my people, my brothers and sisters in Iran across the world. This is a great day.

“The infamous dictator is dead – the one person who has contributed to deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iranians and other people around the world, if not more. So, congratulations to my Iranian brothers and sisters. Now, go and take back the country.”

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This message was not a one-off. Pourdanesh has been posting about what has been happening in Iran since January, when people in Iran took to the streets demanding liberty and the government’s thugs began killing them, with some estimates rising to 36,500 deaths.

Offensive lineman Shar Pourdanesh (68) of the Pittsburgh Steelers blocks against defensive lineman Jevon Kearse (90) of the Tennessee Titans during a game at Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 24, 2000, in Pittsburgh. The Titans defeated the Steelers 23-20. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images)

‘Islam Does Not Represent The Iranian People’

“[The] Islamic Republic does not represent the Iranian people,” Pourdanesh said in another post. “Islam does not represent the Iranian people. For almost 50 years, the Iranian people and our country of Iran has been taken hostage by a terrorist regime, and it’s time to take that regime down.”

Pourdanesh was not available for comment on Monday. I did speak to a handful of other Iranian-Americans on Monday. They didn’t play in the NFL, but their opinions are no less valuable than those of former NFL players.

And these people, some of them participating in rallies on behalf of a free Iran, do not understand the thinking of some Americans and mainstream media.

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One complained that media that reports on reparations for black Americans based on slavery in the 1800s dismisses the Islamic takeover of the American Embassy in 1979 as an old grievance.

Another said his brother lives in England, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer immediately called the American and Israeli attacks on the Ayatollah’s regime “illegal” but, as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service took years to do the same of Muslim rape (grooming) gangs in the country.

(Starmer announced a national “statutory inquiry” in June 2025). 

Offensive lineman Shar Pourdanesh of the Washington Redskins looks on from the sideline during a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 7, 1997, in Pittsburgh. The Steelers defeated the Redskins 14-13. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images)

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Pourdanesh Calls Out NFL Silence

And finally, Pourdanesh put the NFL on blast. He said in yet another post that during his career, the NFL asked him to honor black history, asked him to stand for women’s rights, asked him to fight for equality for those who cannot defend themselves.

“I did everything they asked, and now I ask the NFL this: Where are you now? Why haven’t we heard a single word out of the NFL? NFL, Commissioner Roger Goodell, all the NFL teams out there, all the players who say they stand for social justice, where are you now?

“Why haven’t we heard a single word out of you with regard to the people who have been killed as of today? The very values you claim to espouse are being trampled right now. Why haven’t we heard a single word?”

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Commentary: Will Klein isn’t surprised he saved the Dodgers’ World Series dynasty

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Commentary: Will Klein isn’t surprised he saved the Dodgers’ World Series dynasty

The day after he saved the Dodgers’ season, Will Klein was hungry. He ordered from Mod Pizza.

He drove over to pick up his order. The guy that handed him the pizza told him he looked just like Will Klein.

“You should just look at the name on the order,” Klein told him.

Chaos ensued.

“He actually started screaming,” Klein said. “He just started flipping out, which was funny.”

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Thing is, if it were two days earlier, the guy would have had no idea what Klein looked like. Neither would you.

On Oct. 26, Klein was the last man in the Dodgers’ bullpen, a wild thing on his fourth organization in two years, a last-minute addition to the World Series roster.

On Oct. 27, the Dodgers played 18 innings, and the last man in the Dodgers’ bullpen delivered the game of his life: four shutout innings, holding the Toronto Blue Jays at bay until Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off home run.

Dodgers pitcher Will Klein celebrates during the 16th inning of Game 3 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 27.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

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When Klein returned to the clubhouse, Sandy Koufax walked over to shake hands and congratulate him.

That was Game 3 of the World Series. The Dodgers, the significantly older team, slogged through the next two games, batting .164 and losing both.

If not for Klein, that would have been the end. The Blue Jays would have won the series in five games, and there would have been no Kiké Hernández launching a game-ending double play on the run in Game 6, no Miguel Rojas tying home run and game-saving throw in Game 7, no Andy Pages game-saving catch and Will Smith winning home run in Game 7, no Yoshinobu Yamamoto winning Game 6 as a starter and Game 7 as a reliever.

There would have been no parade.

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When Klein rescued the Dodgers, he had pitched one inning in the previous 30 days.

“You can never take your mind out of it,” he said. “You’ve got to stay prepared. Something might come up, and you don’t want to be the guy that gets thrown in the fire and just burns.”

The Dodgers are not shy about grabbing a minor league pitcher, telling him what he can do better and what he should stop doing, and seeing what sticks. If nothing sticks, the Dodgers are also not shy about spitting out the pitcher and designating him for assignment.

In his minor league career, Klein struck out 13 batters every nine innings, which is tremendous. He walked seven batters every nine innings, which is hideous.

The Dodgers scrapped his slider, mixed in a sweeper, and told him his arm was so good that he should stop trying to make perfect pitches and just let fly.

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“A lot of times, pitchers are guilty of giving hitters too much credit, and hitters are guilty of giving pitchers too much credit,” said Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations.

“Part of our job is to show them information that helps instill some confidence. I think that really landed with Will.”

In his four September appearances with the Dodgers — after a minor-league stint to apply the team’s advice — he faced 17 batters, walked one, and did not give up a run. That’s why he isn’t buying the suggestion that something suddenly clicked in the World Series.

“Things were incrementally getting better,” he said, “and then you add that to the atmosphere. It amplifies it to 100. All the prep work and mental stuff that I had been doing, I finally got a chance to shine.”

Said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts: “He’s done it in the highest of leverage. You can’t manufacture that. You’ve got to live it and do it. So, since he’s done it, I think he’s got a real confidence.”

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Dodgers pitcher Will Klein speaks during DodgerFest at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 31.

Dodgers pitcher Will Klein speaks during DodgerFest at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 31.

(John McCoy / Getty Images)

Klein last started a game three years ago, at triple A. After making 72 pitches in those four innings of Game 3, did he entertain the thought that maybe, just maybe, he was meant to be a starter after all?

“No,” he said abruptly. “I hate waiting four or five days to pitch and knowing exactly when I’m going to pitch.

“When I did, the anxiety just built. I want to go pitch. I hate sitting there and waiting. That kind of eats at you. I like being able to go out to the bullpen and have a chance to pitch every day.”

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The Dodgers are so deep that Klein might not make the team out of spring training. Whatever happens, he’ll always have Game 3.

In the wake of that game, a fan wanted to buy a Klein jersey but could not find one. So the fan made one himself before Game 4, using white electrical tape on the back of a Dodger blue jersey. I showed Klein a picture.

“That’s cool,” Klein said. “That’s pretty funny.”

Dave Wong, a Dodgers fan living in San Francisco Giants territory, also wanted to buy a Klein jersey.

“They didn’t have a jersey for him,” Wong said.

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He settled for the Dodger blue T-shirt he found online and wore it to last Friday’s Cactus League game against the Giants, with these words in white letters: “Will Klein Appreciation Shirt.”

This, then, would be a Will Klein Appreciation Column.

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NBA player calls for Hawks to cancel their ‘Magic City’ strip club promotional night out of respect for women

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NBA player calls for Hawks to cancel their ‘Magic City’ strip club promotional night out of respect for women

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An NBA player has taken exception to an Atlanta Hawks promotional night, which is a nod to a famed strip club in the city. 

The Hawks have “Magic City Night” scheduled for March 16 against the Orlando Magic, but a player for neither team isn’t too fond of paying tribute to a strip club, which has been famed for its late-night stories involving athletes, celebrities and more. 

While the Hawks call it an ode to a “cultural institution,” San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet shared his displeasure in a letter posted on Medium. 

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Luke Kornet of the San Antonio Spurs reaches for the ball during the third quarter against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on Feb. 26, 2026 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.  (Ishika Samant/Getty Images)

Kornet, a nine-year veteran and 2024 NBA champion with the Boston Celtics, called for the Hawks’ promotional night to be canceled later this month, saying that it is disrespectful to women to honor the strip club. 

“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,” Kornet wrote in his post.

“The NBA should desire to protect and esteem women, many of whom work diligently every day to make this the best basketball league in the world. We should promote an atmosphere that is protective and respectful of the daughters, wives, sisters, mothers, and partners that we know and love.”

The Hawks boasted about the theme night in its press release, including a live performance by famous Atlanta rapper T.I., a co-branded, limited-edition hoodie and even the establishment’s “World Famous” lemon-pepper chicken wings in the arena. 

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A general view of signage with the State Farm Arena logo on Nov. 14, 2025, outside State Farm Arena, in Atlanta, GA. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire)

“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’,” said Hawks principal owner, filmmaker and actor, Jami Gertz, said in a press release. “The iconic Atlanta institution has made such an incredible impact on our city and its unique culture.”

Kornet wrote that allowing the night to continue “without protest would reflect poorly on us as an NBA community, “specifically in being complicit in the potential objectification and mistreatment of women in our society.”

Kornet wrote that “others throughout the league” were surprised by the Hawks’ decision to have this promotional night. 

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

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Luke Kornet of the San Antonio Spurs defends against the Charlotte Hornets during their game at Spectrum Center on Jan. 31, 2026 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)

The Hawks have seen good reception for the promotional night, as Tick Pick reported a get-in price was initially $10 for the game and has since skyrocketed to $94. 

Kornet is in his first season with the Spurs, his sixth NBA team, where he has played mainly in a bench role. He averages 7.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game across 50 contests.

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