The NBA punished the state of North Carolina for its draconian anti-LGBTQ law Thursday by announcing that it is moving the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte. It is a direct response to HB2 — the law, passed earlier this year, which strips away anti-discrimination protection for LGBTQ people and also constricts transgender people to use the bathroom for only the sex with which they were born. The NBA's decision is the most high-profile and most punitive measure yet by any sports league against the state.The NBA, in a statement, cited "the long-standing core values of our league. These include not only diversity, inclusion, fairness and respect for others but also the willingness to listen and consider opposing points of view."It's also a move driven by a social consciousness that has recently begun to encapsulate the league and its players. As part of the Black Lives Matters movement, Knicks star Carmelo Anthony has been avidly outspoken this summer in the wake of more shootings and deaths involving African-Americans. And earlier this year, NBA players were featured in commercials that advocated to end gun violence.The NBA, it seems, wants to see itself as a socially progressive league, choosing action over other leagues who continue to be quiet about these issues.And yet the timing was curious. The decision to move the All Star Game was announced on the same day that the WNBA — which is owned by the NBA — fined three teams and its players for wearing black warm-up shirts in response to shootings that killed African-Americans and police officers in the last month in Minnesota, Louisiana, and Dallas.While the WNBA espoused the usual talking points, noting that the fines were for improper uniform, it rings sharp nonetheless as a rebuke to social outspokenness. When NBA players like LeBron James have taken similar means in the past, wearing black warm-up shirts that read "I Can't Breathe" in response to the death of Eric Garner in 2014, the NBA didn't fine them even as commissioner Adam Silver said he preferred they wear the usual and codified pre-game uniform.Such a simple and quiet action of protest might have been expected in Charlotte, too, but Silver and the NBA acted decisively.For now, it looks like the 2017 All-Star Game is headed to New Orleans, according to a report by The Vertical. And the NBA even wants to bring it back to Charlotte in the future. But the league is acting from a position of power now and is setting the terms."We look forward to re-starting plans for our All-Star festivities in Charlotte for 2019," it said in that statement. "Provided there is an appropriate resolution to this matter."North Carolina governor Pat McCrory released a statement in response to the NBA's decision in which he criticizes the "sports and entertainment elite," as well as the "selective corporate elite" for not respecting Real Americans' deranged obsession with who goes to the bathroom where.Here is the statement in full:"The sports and entertainment elite, Attorney General Roy Cooper and the liberal media have for months misrepresented our laws and maligned the people of North Carolina simply because most people believe boys and girls should be able to use school bathrooms, locker rooms and showers without the opposite sex present. Twenty-one other states have joined North Carolina to challenge the federal overreach by the Obama administration mandating their bathroom policies in all businesses and schools instead of allowing accommodations for unique circumstances. Left-wing special interest groups have no moral authority to try and intimidate the large majority of American parents who agree in common-sense bathroom and shower privacy for our children. American families should be on notice that the selective corporate elite are imposing their political will on communities in which they do business, thus bypassing the democratic and legal process."
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