All of you should know by now that the NBA made good on its stated intent to remove the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte if North Carolina’s House Bill 2 wasn’t overturned.
The decision isn’t a bold one. HB2, aka Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, is a terrible piece of legislature, essentially precluding cities from birthing their own rules that decry discrimination in public establishments based on sexual orientation and gender identities. One of the offshoots of HB2, easily the most talked about one, is the inability for members of the LGBTQ community to use restrooms based on the gender with which they identify. The idea is archaic and inhumane and suppressive and just generally stupid.
Based on the NBA’s repeated stands in favor of sweeping equality, this was an easy decision to make. They could have made it right away, when the bill first passed, and there would have been little, if any, blowback. But the league gave North Carolina time to make an adjustment. It didn’t, and months later, the All-Star Game is gone. The NBA had no other choice. It would have been hyper-hypocritical of them to hold All-Star weekend in Charlotte. Those who cite their ties to countries like China and, now with the Phoenix Suns hosting two regular-season games in Mexico City, Mexico are missing the point. The NBA isn’t in a position to inflict policy changes on other countries, and to ban activity on certain countries is to isolate scores of loyal fans who don’t necessarily have the means to enact change on their own behalf.
Perhaps there is some social corollary to draw there, though. The NBA’s move to pull the rip cord on Charlotte’s All-Star Weekend is as much a business decision as it is a social stand. They are clearly isolating certain North Carolina fans, but the implications are minimal compared to what would happen if they severed their relationship with entire countries.
On the most fundamental level, the NBA made the right call, one that shouldn’t so much be commended as it should be accepted, without pause. And at the center of this call was Golden State Warriors president Rick Welts, who is openly gay. He helped sway the NBA’s decision during a meeting among owners and team officials in Las Vegas just a few weeks ago.
Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today has all the details:
In a poignant address, Golden State Warriors president and chief operating officer Rick Welts, 63, who is openly gay, explained his meaningful and lifelong affiliation with the NBA and told league owners he didn’t feel comfortable attending the All-Star Game in Charlotte if the law remained as is.
His message resonated with the nearly 70 people in the ballroom, and this is the story of how Welts impacted but didn’t dictate the NBA’s decision to move the game to another state.
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He then said if the All-Star Game remained in Charlotte, he wouldn’t feel comfortable attending, and he said he has spoken to employees in the LBGT community from half of the league’s teams who didn’t feel comfortable attending either.
His words weren’t emotional, and they weren’t delivered as a threat. But Welts, who was instrumental in shaping All-Star weekend into the big-time event it is today, didn’t plan on attending if the North Carolina law wasn’t repealed or changed.
Welts, who doesn’t want to be viewed as the hero or key figure in this, was adamant he wasn’t telling the league what it should do. It was just his story, his point of view.
Following the meeting, a few owners talked, and a prevailing message emerged: If Rick Welts doesn’t feel comfortable coming to the All-Star Game, the decision to relocate just got easier.
Check out Zillgitt’s entire piece when you have a chance. It’s worth a few reads.
The NBA, truth told, still moves the game out of Charlotte regardless of whether Welts speaks. But, while he doesn’t want to be viewed as some billboard for bravery, having someone in his unique position, who is both respected and unafraid to address sensitive issues like this, makes the decision infinitely easier for the NBA to make.
In the grand scheme of things, he, along with commissioner Adam Silver, is also (probably) a driving force behind the league’s rise through the ranks as the most progressively thinking professional sporting entity in existence.
