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NBA 2017 All-Star Game moving to New Orleans due to NC's anti-LGBT bill

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N

Ninja Scooter

Member
Trey said:
The NBA shouldn't have that kind of power. That should be left to the owner of the Hornets.
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The NBA is comprised of all the owners collectively. If an owner felt strongly enough about it I don't see why he couldn't pull his team from playing road games in NC until this changes.
 
D

Dyson Industries

Banned
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-pu...arlotte-focuses-on-new-orleans-190148437.html

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.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver had threatened to move All-Star Weekend out of Charlotte unless a discriminatory North Carolina law aimed at the state’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community was changed – and time to do so has run out because of the logistics and planning the NBA needs to run its marquee midseason event, league sources said.

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.
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G

Gigglepoo

Member
Ninja Scooter said:
The NBA is comprised of all the owners collectively. If an owner felt strongly enough about it I don't see why he couldn't pull his team from playing road games in NC until this changes.
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That would be incredible but I cannot imagine owners deliberately losing revenue like that. I would love to see NBA and NFL teams refuse to play road games in North Carolina. Imagine how much pull Coach K and Roy Williams would have if they said "We're not playing any basketball games until you rescind that law."
 
R

rando14

Member
Ninja Scooter said:
Good. Wish they'd go even further and threaten to relocate the Hornets.
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lvTVvDS.png
 
L

LyleLanley

Banned
One of the Hornets minority owners has some interesting thoughts on the matter:

Hornets Minority Owner Has Wild, Bigoted Shit To Say About The NBA Moving The All-Star Game - Deadspin

“What is wrong with a person using a bathroom provided for the sex the were born with, if you want to change your gender so be it, we are a free county, but don’t force 8 years old children to be exposed to having to share bathroom facilities with people that don’t share the organs they were Bourne (sic) with, this is plain wrong, this could cause irreparable damages to a children’s that don’t understand why they have to see what God did not mean for them to witness, we have some very confused business as well as political humans that frankly have made this a political issue rather then (sic) moral issues, SHAME ON THEM.”
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Makes you think.
 
G

Gigglepoo

Member
Won't someone think of the children!?

Except with guns. Then we don't have to think of the children. But bathrooms? Think of the children!
 
C

ccbfan

Member
Have mixed feelings about this.

The whole anti-LGBT bill started because cities like Charlotte wanted to give LGBT more rights and the bill itself prevents Charlotte from giving LGBT more right.

So now to punish NC you're mostly punishing Charlotte (including the LGBT community) for NC having anti LGBT laws that suppressing Charlotte's rights to give the LGBT community rights. In effect punishing Charlotte for trying to give LGBT more rights. Sounds ass backwards to me.
 
S

Slermy

Member
ccbfan said:
Have mixed feelings about this.

The whole anti-LGBT bill started because cities like Charlotte wanted to give LGBT more rights and the bill itself prevents Charlotte from giving LGBT more right.

So now to punish NC you're mostly punishing Charlotte (including the LGBT community) for NC having anti LGBT laws that suppressing Charlotte's rights to give the LGBT community rights. In effect punishing Charlotte for trying to give LGBT more rights. Sounds ass backwards to me.
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This is worth repeating.

Also, all of this talk about moving the Hornet out of Charlotte is again, punishing the city that is trying to be progressive about this.
 
J

johnny956

Member
Slermy said:
This is worth repeating.

Also, all of this talk about moving the Hornet out of Charlotte is again, punishing the city that is trying to be progressive about this.
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Better then ever to make sure if you live in Charlotte to go out and vote or in the state of North Carolina.
 
W

WhiteRabbitEXE

Member
ccbfan said:
Have mixed feelings about this.

The whole anti-LGBT bill started because cities like Charlotte wanted to give LGBT more rights and the bill itself prevents Charlotte from giving LGBT more right.

So now to punish NC you're mostly punishing Charlotte (including the LGBT community) for NC having anti LGBT laws that suppressing Charlotte's rights to give the LGBT community rights. In effect punishing Charlotte for trying to give LGBT more rights. Sounds ass backwards to me.
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Slermy said:
This is worth repeating.

Also, all of this talk about moving the Hornet out of Charlotte is again, punishing the city that is trying to be progressive about this.
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Nah, this is bullshit. "How dare they inconvenience people when rights are being trampled and others are being treated as second class citizens."

Are people supposed to just ignore the bullshit laws, the lies, the transphobic rhetoric, and the general bigotry because acting would be an inconvenience? Fuck no. Change doesn't happen because of a stern voice of disapproval followed by business as usual. Those with the power to act can and should. That includes those in North Carolina as a whole. Want to get concerts, sporting events, and businesses back? Vote out this farce of a state government. Anyone who genuinely cares about the issue knows this is the state government's fault anyway and will support and understand these decisions as a necessary catalyst for change, even if it sucks for them. If they don't, then they can get fucked for caring more about basketball games and Bruce Springsteen concerts than they do basic human rights.
 
A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
So that shitty bill they passed to "reverse" this worked?

Or did the NBA figure people had stopped paying attention to this?
 
A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
Thread title needs to be updated and also needs to remind people that the repeal was basically bullshit.
 
L

LegendofJoe

Member
Lord Frieza said:
Insanely disappointing, and a horrible precedent to set. NCAA basically undid all goodwill they had with this.
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I agree that they should have stood firm and waited for the courts to act against the egregious gerrymandering in North Carolina. With the district maps as they currently stand it is not likely that Democrats would be able to take full control of the legislature, even if they received a majority of the votes.

Regardless a full repeal was not going to happen until after the 2018 election. Hopefully it will still happen, and the decent people of the state will give a giant middle finger to those that are hateful idiots right before Charlotte hosts the 2019 all-star game. It's what I'm hoping to see happen.
 
L

Lord Frieza

Member
LegendofJoe said:
I agree that they should have stood firm and waited for the courts to act against the egregious gerrymandering in North Carolina. With the district maps as they currently stand it is not likely that Democrats would be able to take full control of the legislature, even if they received a majority of the votes.

Regardless a full repeal was not going to happen until after the 2018 election. Hopefully it will still happen, and the decent people of the state will give a giant middle finger to those that are hateful idiots right before Charlotte hosts the 2019 all-star game. It's what I'm hoping to see happen.
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I don't see how any of that matters. Who cares if it won't get repealed until then. Keep punishing NC until it is. Shit means fucking nothing now.
 
L

LegendofJoe

Member
Lord Frieza said:
I don't see how any of that matters. Who cares if it won't get repealed until then. Keep punishing NC until it is. Shit means fucking nothing now.
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I just explained the political reality of the situation, I agreed that they should have kept the pressure on until a full repeal happened.

That said the punishment only affects cities like Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro whose people vote against things like HB2. The rural areas don't care one whiff about losing basketball games. Sticking it to wealthy people in the cities is a big bonus for GOP voters. I'm sure a lot of them are happy that the only black owner of a major sports franchise lost money because of the bill.

This battle is not unique to NC. There is a rural vs. urban battle raging all across the country. North Carolina is being singled out because of the audacity of the GOP leadership there and rightly so. I sincerely hope that it will make a difference going forward.
 
L

Lord Frieza

Member
LegendofJoe said:
I just explained the political reality of the situation, I agreed that they should have kept the pressure on until a full repeal happened.

That said the punishment only affects cities like Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro whose people vote against things like HB2. The rural areas don't care one whiff about losing basketball games. Sticking it to wealthy people in the cities is a big bonus for GOP voters. I'm sure a lot of them are happy that the only black owner of a major sports franchise lost money because of the bill.

This battle is not unique to NC. There is a rural vs. urban battle raging all across the country. North Carolina is being singled out because of the audacity of the GOP leadership there and rightly so. I sincerely hope that it will make a difference going forward.
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The lack of income from major events affect the whole state, otherwise the whole thing wouldn't have been a big deal to begin with.
 
L

LegendofJoe

Member
phanphare said:
not really, the NC GOP doesn't give a single fuck about lost income. in fact when it's for "taking a stand" they welcome it.
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Exactly, the only reason why the weak 'compromise' bill passed is because a Democratic governor was elected. They don't care that people like Michael Jordan are losing money.

Now if someone like Art Pope was losing money they'd move heaven and earth. The money only matters when it affects the hands that are feeding you.
 
P

phanphare

Banned
LegendofJoe said:
Exactly, the only reason why the weak 'compromise' bill passed is because a Democratic governor was elected. They don't care that people like Michael Jordan are losing money.
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I don't think people outside of the state realize how fucking ridiculous the NC GOP are
 
W

Wereroku

Member
phanphare said:
I don't think people outside of the state realize how fucking ridiculous the NC GOP are
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It's not just that. They don't realize how much animosity there is between rural areas and the bigger cities. I saw people laughing about Charlotte and Raleigh losing so much money from it just because fuck the stuck up city folk.
 
P

phanphare

Banned
Wereroku said:
It's not just that. They don't realize how much animosity there is between rural areas and the bigger cities. I saw people laughing about Charlotte and Raleigh losing so much money from it just because fuck the stuck up city folk.
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you'd think more people would realize this in a post-Trump America
 
L

LegendofJoe

Member
phanphare said:
you'd think more people would realize this in a post-Trump America
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Agreed, it's also why I don't think organizations like the NBA are best served by punishing cities that are trying to do the right thing and move forward. If anything cities in purple states like NC need to be strengthened with people and money as much as possible. It's how you turn a state from majority conservative to majority progressive. The same needs to be done in states like Georgia and Texas.
 
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