Washington Post columnist Tim Bontemps says the NBA should send North Carolina a message regarding the recently passed bathroom law by refusing to allow Charlotte to host the 2017 All-Star game:
There would only be one right decision for the league to make: take the All-Star Game from Charlotte and hold it somewhere that isn’t establishing laws that discriminate against whole portions of the community.
Sure, there is plenty of planning that goes into hosting an event like this. But any additional headaches that would come with moving the game to some other locale would undoubtedly be worth being on the right side of history, and on the only correct side of this situation.
But why would the NBA want to punish Charlotte when the Queen City –at least in its own mind—was trying to do the right thing? To yank the revenue and exposure that comes from hosting the All-Star game to prove a political point to the guys in Raleigh seems petty—kinda like in elementary school when everyone loses their recess due to the misbehavior of a few unruly students.
If the NBA wants to take the high road, it should express its support for Charlotte by vociferously stating it will not move the All-Star game. But the high road apparently is not on the map for opponents of HB 2, who continue to shout bigotry at the top of their lungs.
