NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Friday said the league will continue to address North Carolina's controversial new LGBT law, but owners did not take any action to move the '17 All-Star Game out of Charlotte. The issue was discussed during the BOG meeting that ended Friday, but no vote was taken to pull the game. "We stand united being against any form of discrimination," Silver said. "The law as it now stands is problematic for the league. ... It's a complicated issue for the league. ... The best role for the league to play here is through constructive engagement toward change." Silver added the league is not setting any deadlines or making any ultimatums to North Carolina lawmakers over the future of the All-Star Game in Charlotte. "We are not making any announcements now," he said. "We've come to the conclusion ... that the best way to effect change here is by engaging with the community as opposed to setting deadlines. ... By no means are we saying we're stepping back" (John Lombardo, Staff Writer). Silver added it would be "easy to grandstand" by saying the league would move the ASG. Silver: "I'm not sure what statement we'd be making about our team in North Carolina if we moved the All-Star Game." In Charlotte, Katherine Peralta in a front-page piece noted the city "won the bid to host" the '17 ASG last June. The Hornets last month "secured funding from 15 sponsors for the game, including Bank of America, CPI Security, Lowe's, Babson Capital and Power Secure" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 4/16). Silver said that the league's owners "were conscious of balancing their business needs and their desire to address social issues." Silver: "There's a long record in this league of speaking out where we see discrimination" (N.Y. TIMES, 4/16).
CAUTIOUS APPROACH THE RIGHT ONE: In Charlotte, Scott Fowler wrote the NBA "has done the right thing by holding off" on pulling the ASG from the city "before the league sees how all the political cards are played." While many people "are mad" about the bill, penalizing Charlotte by taking the game "from our grasp right now is not the answer." To pull the ASG "would be like trying the old classroom trick of making everybody stay in for recess when a few kids caused all the trouble." The NBA is "still concerned and has reserved the right to make a change ... but it hasn't jumped the gun for the sake of political expediency." Fowler: "That's a well-reasoned stance" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 4/17). ESPN's Rachel Nichols said of NBA team owners, "Maybe they don’t realize the economic power they have, and it’s a lot by the way. ... Maybe they do know and they just don't care to do more than to issue a statement." She added, "That would be a shame, since the NBA has such a legacy of being on the right side of history when it comes to any kind of discrimination. There is still time. This is worth having a serious conversation about, a serious one” (“The Jump,” ESPN, 4/15).
TALE OF TWO CITIES: In Charlotte, Steve Harrison noted Charlotte and Houston in the last six months have "been the most prominent cities to debate LGBT protections, most notably allowing transgender individuals to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity." But Houston "hosted the Final Four earlier this month, and the NCAA did not contemplate moving the game." After the N.C. General Assembly passed House Bill 2, the NCAA said that it "would monitor the law's impact and decide whether Greensboro and Charlotte would hold" future early round tournament games in '17 and '18. One difference between the cities "is that voters in Houston made the ultimate decision." Harrison noted it is "hard to use corporate leverage to change the minds of hundreds of thousands of voters; it's much easier to focus on a single governor and a state legislature." That was the case in Indiana and Georgia, whose legislatures "passed religious freedom bills that critics said were veiled attempts to allow discrimination" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 4/16).
