NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Friday that the league is not currently planning to take the 2017 NBA All-Star Game away from Charlotte, N.C., in the wake of the controversy surrounding a new state law that many see as being inherently discriminatory against LGBTQ people.
Silver reiterated that the North Carolina law — which forces its citizens to use the bathroom and locker room that corresponds to the gender on their birth certificates — is “problematic,” and said the NBA is “against discrimination in any form,” according to CBS Sports’ Ken Berger.
Silver: “The best approach for the league is constructive engagement toward change.”
— Ken Berger (@KBergNBA) April 15, 2016
He also made clear, according to Berger, that the league’s team owners are unanimously against the law. Even so, Silver said that the prospect of moving the All-Star game out of Charlotte was not brought up at the last owners’ meetings.
The NBA is also facing the dilemma of how to reconcile their revulsion for this law with the Charlotte Hornets continuing to do business in the Tar Heel State.
Silver points out dilemma of moving All-Star Game while Charlotte Hornets continue to operate there.
— Ken Berger (@KBergNBA) April 15, 2016
When North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory first signed the bill into law in March, the NBA came out with a diplomatic statement expressing their concern but not committing about the 2017 All-Star Game’s location.
NBA Statement Regarding Legislation Recently Signed Into Law In North Carolina pic.twitter.com/xwoOo9MyeR
— NBA (@NBA) March 24, 2016
Earlier this week, a bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to the NBA urging them to give the 2017 All-Star Game to another city.
“We hold no ill-will towards the people of Charlotte, who passed an anti-discrimination measure that HB2 overturned, or towards the people of North Carolina,” the senators wrote in the letter. “However, we cannot condone nor stand idly by as North Carolina moves to legalize and institutionalize discrimination against the LGBT community. Nor should the NBA allow its premier annual event to be hosted in such a state.”
NBA legend and TNT analyst Charles Barkley also spoke out against the law, calling on the NBA to take a stand.
“As a black person, I’m against any form of discrimination — against whites, Hispanics, gays, lesbians, however you want to phrase it,” Barkley told CNN earlier in April. “It’s my job, with the position of power that I’m in and being able to be on television — I’m supposed to stand up for the people who can’t stand up for themselves.”
