NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says the NBA can’t host the All-Star festivities in Charlotte.
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North Carolina House Bill 2, or HB2 for short and nicknamed the “bathroom bill”, is a bill passed previous year that restricts transgendered persons to using the bathroom of their birth rather than their gender identity.
The league also announced that they, along with the NBA Players Association, will join the Pelicans and the NFL’s New Orleans Saints in providing financial and other ongoing support of the current flood situation in the state.
The NBA’s decision to hold the All-Star game in Louisiana will be a much-needed economic boost for the state, which has been subjected to disastrous flooding that’s killed at least 13 people and damaged approximately 40,000 homes.
Typically the league has myriad events in and around the city leading up to the game; the game itself will be played at the Mercedes Benz Superdome on Sunday, Feb. 19.
It was a special moment for the community down there when the All-Star game came to New Orleans back in 2008, just 3 years after Hurricane Katrina, so this time the event may have a similar effect.
New Orleans has been selected to host NBA All-Star 2017, the NBA announced today.
In addition to the All-Star Game, the rest of the events will go on as scheduled: the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge will take place on Friday, Feb. 17, followed by NBA All-Star Saturday Night, including the popular slam dunk contest, on Feb. 18.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory’s office called the move an example of “politically-correct hypocrisy gone mad”.
Louisiana hasn’t enacted – or debated – a “bathroom bill” of the type passed in North Carolina.
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The state law not only prevents municipalities from adopting ordinances permitting such bathroom use, but also blocks cities from protecting gays and bisexuals from discrimination more broadly. Making only one tweak to the law, the General Assembly has been unwilling to even consider repealing the substance of HB2, including its provision targeting transgender people, and its removal of municipalities’ ability to pass LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination laws and minimum wage ordinances. That weekend presented somewhat less of a logistical challenge for New Orleans than the following weekend, when the largest parades roll in the days leading up to Fat Tuesday, which is February 28.
