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What I learned from Netflix’s ‘The Kiss That Changed Spanish Football’ documentary

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What I learned from Netflix’s ‘The Kiss That Changed Spanish Football’ documentary

From July-August last year, I was in Australia and New Zealand covering Spain’s Women’s World Cup win — and the scandal that followed when the country’s now-disgraced federation president Luis Rubiales gave striker Jenni Hermoso an unsolicited kiss.

From months before the tournament to returning to my home in Barcelona, the experience was surreal. A new Netflix documentary called #SeAcabó: Diario de las campeonas (It’s All Over: The Kiss That Changed Spanish Football) made me relive the calm before the storm I experienced at La Roja’s base in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and the frustration that followed.

It’s worth remembering the turbulence of Spain’s World Cup preparations. When their squad was announced, it didn’t include some of the game’s best players. Fifteen internationals had declared themselves ineligible for mental health reasons until the federation (RFEF) made changes to the way it treated women’s football. Some players went to the World Cup after a nine-month absence from the national team.

There were many internal divisions: between ‘Las 15’, as the players who had sent emails declaring themselves ineligible became known in the media, and others who did not. And also between those who sent the email and decided to go to the tournament anyway, and those who did not.

You would think that climate would make it impossible to win anything but, strangely enough, the opposite happened. Spain made history by winning a knockout game in a major competition for the first time — and went all the way to the final, where they beat England 1-0.

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But that was just the beginning. After full time, coach Jorge Vilda pointed to Rubiales in the stands, who responded by grabbing his crotch and pointing to Vilda, as if the success was theirs alone. That ignored the fact this was an exceptional generation and showed the players had been right to say that people did not believe in them. It was disrespectful to everyone, including England’s Lionesses.

Then came Rubiales’ kiss on Hermoso, his non-apology, the pressure on Hermoso to downplay the seriousness of the incident in a proposed video with him, and a speech from Rubiales in which he blamed “false feminism” for how he had been treated and repeated “I’m not going to resign” five times.

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Rubiales eventually resigned 21 days after the final following a provisional sanction from world governing body FIFA (it then banned him from football for three years). The legal case over the kiss continues, with Spanish prosecutors seeking a two-and-a-half year prison sentence for him, consisting of a one-year sentence for a charge of alleged sexual assault and a further one-and-a-half years for alleged coercion. The trial will start on February 3 next year.

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Rubiales has always claimed Hermoso gave consent for him to kiss her. Hermoso has testified the kiss was not consensual and that attempts were made to force her into saying the opposite. Various Spanish outlets reported that Rubiales denied coercing Hermoso in his testimony before a judge in September last year.


Rubiales will stand trial in February next year (Alberto Gardin/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The main focus of the documentary is on Alexia Putellas, Hermoso and Irene Paredes. Aitana Bonmati, Laia Codina, Teresa Abelleira, Ivana Andres, Sandra Panos, Olga Carmona and Lola Gallardo also feature.

It goes in chronological order from before those 15 emails were sent, explaining how, even after the 2022 European Championship in England, this talented generation felt as if they were being wasted and that Vilda was not giving them solutions when games were not going well.

As The Athletic has reported, and the players discuss in the documentary, Vilda asked them to leave the door to their hotel rooms open until midnight. He stopped them at points to ask them to show them the inside of their bags — to see if they had bought anything. They reproached him for what they perceived as lazy coaching and a lack of professionalism in training.

In a press conference in September 2022, after he had omitted the 15 players from his squad, Vilda said: “I challenge anyone to come out and say there hasn’t been respect or that there’s been a bad mark in my behaviour with them (the players) in all my career.”

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The players say in the documentary that Paredes spoke to Vilda and Rubiales in August 2022 to explain the players’ feelings, and the full conversation was leaked a few days later in the press.

“I was shocked because that conversation was only between me and him (Rubiales),” Paredes explains in the documentary. “He went after us.”

In many stories at the time, Paredes was portrayed as the instigator of a campaign against Vilda. She gave a press conference on September 1 with Guijarro and Hermoso — alongside Vilda — in which they explained they only wanted basic improvements.

“Between games, we were travelling five hours by bus,” Paredes says in the documentary. “We didn’t have our own dressing room. We couldn’t use the gym, the only one we had, because it belonged to the boys, even if they weren’t there. It was a lot of things.”

The documentary details another national team training camp in September 2022. Following the first lunch, all the players were gathered by Vilda. Chairs were put in a circle and the women were encouraged to air their concerns, according to everyone interviewed in the documentary. The Barca contingent was the most vocal at that meeting, and this is where the division between players started.

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Vilda after the World Cup final (Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)

Those who later declared themselves ineligible, such as Bonmati, felt everything had been said unanimously by the players — but were then disappointed by how others didn’t speak up or contradicted them in the meeting.

“We were asked if we wanted to continue defending that shirt,” says Abelleira. “You were in front of someone who was going to decide whether to call you up or not depending on what we said.”

“In that meeting, I had something inside, I was telling myself that I had to speak up,” Ivana Andres, who was Spain’s captain for the World Cup, says. “But there were very radical positions (being taken) that said they couldn’t take it any more and I thought it was a very high price to pay and I didn’t want to miss a World Cup. In the end, I finished that meeting and I didn’t speak.”

“I was in a very different position to the rest of my team-mates because I had been in the national team for less time,” Carmona adds.

“I feel bad that they all couldn’t say what they felt because we all had the same opinion,” Bonmati says.

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“I understood that meeting (was used) as a way of dividing us further,” Paredes says.

It is the first time the players have publicly expressed the divisions that existed within the group. We see how temporary bridges were built between the players and the RFEF — which gave them the minimum guarantees so they would go to the World Cup.

But we also see how Panos was excluded by Vilda despite being the starting goalkeeper for the reigning Spanish and European champions, Barca. Panos says she sent an email asking Vilda to come back for the World Cup and never received a response. Vilda then told a press conference that she had not been called up for sporting reasons.

But what moved me the most — and what makes the documentary so important — is how the aftermath of the kiss on Hermoso is shown.

In a moment of maximum euphoria, at the peak of happiness in her sporting career, having achieved something she thought would never happen, Hermoso stood on the stage to be given her winner’s medal. Rubiales took full advantage of that moment of weakness to ruin it forever, kissing her on the lips.

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In Hermoso’s head, something started to feel wrong. She was happy about the win, but something wasn’t right. Putellas and Paredes say Hermoso approached them to tell them about the kiss, looking for someone to tell her if it was right or wrong.

Hermoso is always the dressing-room joker, the one who is always in a good mood, the DJ, the one who makes her colleagues laugh. In the adrenaline of the moment, Putellas says she thought Hermoso was joking when she said Rubiales had kissed her.

The striker didn’t get the answers she was looking for at first and opted to say no more and keep celebrating — nobody wants to be the party pooper when you have won a World Cup. Then some of the players began to echo what had happened in a live broadcast on social media.

“Who kissed?,” goalkeeper Misa Rodriguez asked during the celebrations, as captured in a live stream from the time.

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“Eh, but I didn’t like it,” Hermoso responded, still celebrating but making clear it wasn’t about her. “And what do I do? Look at me, just look at me (in that moment).”

During the celebrations, Rubiales went down to the dressing room. He came in, made jokes, said they all had a trip to Ibiza paid for when they returned from the tournament and that his wedding to Hermoso would take place there, as multiple videos from the players’ live streams showed. Thinking it was all a joke, the players celebrated. Rubiales went to grab Hermoso to recreate the image of a bride and groom at a wedding, while she made a face of clear discomfort.

The jokes continued until Paredes came down from the World Cup cloud and warned the others. “Girls, this is serious,” she said, as she details in the documentary.


Hermoso was awarded the Socrates Award at the recent Ballon d’Or ceremony for her humanitarian efforts (Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The different recordings and testimonies show the different phases Hermoso went through.

According to the documentary, a pivotal moment for Hermoso came in Ibiza. While the team were enjoying a well-deserved holiday as world champions, Hermoso and the players who accompanied her describe how she went through hell, as she felt she was put under pressure by the RFEF to make a statement saying everything was fine.

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As Hermoso, Bonmati and Andres describe, Rubiales tried to pressure her on the plane home from the World Cup, attempting to record a video first with her and then with one of the captains to say everything was fine. Bonmati says she was even asked to appear on TV to reduce tensions, but they all refused.

“Rubiales, Jenni and I had a chat,” Codina says. “He told us that he was meeting a woman and that this woman had spoken to him and told him that nothing was wrong with the kiss, that she should just make the video and that was it.”

The pressure increased. Hermoso received messages from then-national team director and former Newcastle United striker Albert Luque saying that Rubiales didn’t deserve that and that she should take a stand. Those are messages the player herself shows in the documentary, including ones sent to a friend of hers when Hermoso stopped responding.

Prosecutors are seeking a one-and-a-half-year sentence for Luque for the charge of alleged coercion. He denied coercing Hermoso when he testified as a defendant in the Rubiales case in October 2023, according to several Spanish media reports, but admitted to having sent her messages.

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“They told me that it wasn’t going to stay like this,” Hermoso explains to Putellas and Paredes. “Threats. There came a point when I was walking and I had to turn around and look. I was afraid.”

Hermoso says the RFEF’s marketing director, Ruben Rivera, told her to call the federation’s integrity department to say “nothing” had happened. She says: “I didn’t want to, I didn’t know what I was signing”. Prosecutors are also looking to charge Rivera for alleged coercion. In March, he told radio station Cadena SER, “I have never coerced anyone in my life”.

While Hermoso was in Ibiza, Putellas and the other players told her it was better not to think about it, telling her to disconnect and enjoy the holiday. Then, Hermoso started crying.

“When I found out about everything in Ibiza, I felt terrible,” Putellas says. “You were telling us without saying it directly: ‘Help me’. And we were like, forcing you to think that nothing was happening, to say: ‘Forget about it, you’ve had a great World Cup, celebrate’.”

Hermoso faced harassment on social media. When she left her house, photos of her were posted on the internet with comments asking how things could be so bad if she was going for an ice cream.

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The most striking thing about the documentary is that many women, to a greater or lesser extent, may identify with what happened to Hermoso. That goes beyond football, her or Rubiales.

What Hermoso goes through, from the time the medal is hung around her neck until she makes a complaint, is perceived in the documentary as a typical pattern of a woman who has been harassed by her superior at work. You convince yourself that everything is fine and try to continue celebrating, then you break down and cry because you realise that the best day of your life has been tarnished forever.

But it also shows that there are many friends like Putellas and Paredes ready to help someone fight. To help them say “It’s over — se acabó”.

(Top photo: Putellas, Hermoso and Paredes lift the World Cup; Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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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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