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The 2017 NBA All-Star Game will no longer take place in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to The Vertical's Adrian Wojnarowski. League commissioner Adam Silver had been threatening relocation since North Carolina passed an anti-LGBT bill on March 23.
NBA pulls 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte, focuses on New Orleans. @WojVerticalNBA report on @TheVertical. https://t.co/WBB5RVhxNh
— The Vertical (@TheVertical) July 21, 2016
The issue is centered on North Carolina’s House Bill 2, a law that mandates transgender people use public restrooms corresponding to the sex listed on their birth certificates. The law also omits LGBT people from North Carolina’s anti-discrimination protections, forbids local governments from widening LGBT protections and excludes all forms of workplace discrimination lawsuits from North Carolina state courts.
Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan had been counting on All-Star Weekend as a signature event for his franchise, and the economic impact of losing the All-Star Game for the franchise and region promises to be dramatic.
To learn more about House Bill 2 (HB2), read this collaborative piece by Michael Gordon, Mark Price, and Katie Peralta of the Charlotte Observer. The NBA will now look once more to New Orleans, the site of the 2008 and 2014 NBA All-Star games.