With commissioner Adam Silver leading the charge, the NBA has been very transparent about the league’s feelings regarding the House Bill 2 in North Carolina: Change the law, or the NBA will pull the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte.
In response, North Carolina adjusted the law ever-so slightly, but the NBA still felt like the necessary changes weren’t made so Silver announced that the league was looking at alternative locations. And now according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA will be pulling the game out of Charlotte and New Orleans has emerged as the front-runner to host the 2017 All-Star game:
Without any movement by state legislators in North Carolina to change newly enacted laws targeted at the LGBT community, the NBA is pulling the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte, league sources told The Vertical.
The NBA is focused on the New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center as the host for All-Star Weekend and the All-Star Game on Feb. 19, league sources told The Vertical.
For now, there are still other cities trying to lure the All-Star Game, sources said.
A formal announcement on the NBA’s withdrawal out of Charlotte is expected as soon as this week, league sources said Thursday.
This is quite the message the league is sending to North Carolina and to other states or municipalities with discriminatory laws. It should be noted that Wojnarowski reports that New Orleans is in the lead among other host cites and has not yet officially been awarded the All-Star game.
The All-Star Game in Charlotte would’ve likely generate millions of dollars for the area, but now the chances of hosting seems to have vanished. This a big hit to both the bottom line and North Carolina’s and Charlotte’s reputation. Perhaps because of this report, North Carolina’s state government will actually make significant changes to HB2. But the damage has already been done, at least according to the NBA, and the 2017 All-Star game looks like it will be headed elsewhere.