NC governor rips NBA decision to move 2017 All-Star Game
Tribune News Service
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said the NBA’s decision to move its 2017 All-Star game from Charlotte is “total P.C. BS.
“I’m disappointed,” McCrory said while speaking on WFAE’s Charlotte Talks radio program Friday morning. “I strongly disagree with their decision. To put it bluntly it’s total P.C. BS. It’s an insult to our city and an insult to our state.”
The NBA said it was moving the game because of House Bill 2. HB2 nullified Charlotte’s expanded nondiscrimination ordinance that extended legal protection for gay, lesbian and transgender individuals. It also requires transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds with the gender on their birth certificate in government buildings.
McCrory said he believes the NBA is practicing “selective outrage” over the issue. He also said he disagreed with the criticism of HB2 by the state’s leading college basketball coaches, including Mike Krzyzewski, who said the legislation is “embarrassing.”
“I disagree with those three coaches,” McCrory said. “I doubt they have read HB2. I haven’t [read] their playbooks either. I do think there is a politically correct elite that is having selective outrage.”
The NBA is considering moving the game to New Orleans. McCrory said he spoke with NBA Adam Silver by telephone yesterday and said that decision doesn’t make sense because Louisiana is one of 22 states suing the federal government over the Obama administration’s decision to allow transgender students to use bathroom and locker room facilities in public schools that corresponds with their gender identity.
McCrory said he believes the NBA is practicing “selective outrage” over HB2, which is being driven by the “political left.” He said that Houston hosted this year’s Final Four soon after voters in that city rejected an expanded nondiscrimination ordinance that’s similar to Charlotte’s.
He also said Charlotte didn’t have protections for the LGBT community when the NBA awarded the All-Star game to the city last year.
“The state of N.C. and the city did not have those protections when the NBA made their decision to come,” McCrory said. “When I announced it, the city of Charlotte did not have those protections in July 2015. [Months earlier] the City Council had defeated that motion to have a nondiscrimination clause. The NBA still decided to come. There was no out-roar and there was no protest.”
Charlotte Talks host Mike Collins also asked McCrory why he didn’t wait longer to sign HB2 into law. McCrory signed the bill hours after it was passed.
McCrory said it was only a two-page bill and he agreed with almost everything in the legislation.
“The decision would have been the same if I waited,” he said.