The NBA basketball league will move its 2017 All-Star game from North Carolina in protest over a state law that it says discriminates against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
House Bill 2, or HB2, invalidated several local anti-discrimination measures that protected LGBT people.
The relocation is one of a number of high-profile consequences of the bill, including musicians cancelling gigs.
The NBA said a new location would be announced in the coming weeks.
The league said in a statement: “While we recognize that the NBA cannot choose the law in every city, state, and country in which we do business, we do not believe we can successfully host our All-Star festivities in Charlotte in the climate created by HB2.”
The exhibition game, which generates millions of dollars for its host state, could return to Charlotte in 2019 if there is an “appropriate resolution to this matter”, the NBA said.
There is so much wrong with this that it is almost impossible to cover it all.
Let’s just start by saying that maybe the NBA really isn’t a position to be judging anyone. Perhaps nothing encapsulates the overwhelming insanity of PC run amok in America than the National Basketball Association pretending it occupies some moral high ground because it’s latched on to a hot-button issue that affects about twelve people.
Yes, I’m tired of a handful of activists pretending that this is an issue that affects a lot of people.
You know what does affect a lot of people? Adam Silver pulling this game out of Charlotte. Business people (large and small), vendors, and people planning on getting some overtime pay that week are all negatively affected because the guy who presides over a league that’s as familiar with aggravated assault arrests as it is 3 point shots thinks he’s superior.
Sports fans don’t like mixing politics in with the games. I say that as both a rabid sports fan and political junkie. Work on your product, keep your players from embarrassing you, and don’t embarrass yourself by pretending that you’re the social conscience of America.
And maybe get your own house in order before you free up time to become a meddling ninny about the houses of other people.
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