If HB2 is rescinded, NBA is poised to send All-Star Weekend to Charlotte in 2019

If North Carolina’s state legislature repeals House Bill 2 on Tuesday, it’s likely, if not inevitable, that the NBA will bring the All-Star Weekend to Charlotte in 2019.

The NBA pulled the event out of Charlotte for 2017, on the belief that provisions in House Bill 2 were discriminatory toward the LGBT community. When the NBA chose to move the event to New Orleans, Commissioner Adam Silver said repeatedly the league would reserve the 2019 All-Star Weekend for Charlotte if HB2 is repealed.

The North Carolina general assembly is expected to take up repealing all facets of HB2 Tuesday. That is in reaction to Charlotte’s city council voting Monday to rescind its own anti-discrimination law, which, among other aspects,would allow transgender persons to use the bathroom of their own gender identity.

“We’re hoping in 2019 to hold our All-Star Game in Charlotte,” Silver said in October in Charlotte, following a basketball court refurbishing ceremony.

Silver made it clear throughout this process that the NBA couldn’t justify bringing its premier marketing event to a venue that the league perceived as not inclusive.

“It was a strongly-held view that HB2 was not consistent with the values of the NBA,” Silver said in October. “”People know exactly how the bill needs to be addressed.”

This story was originally published December 20, 2016 at 2:22 AM with the headline "If HB2 is rescinded, NBA is poised to send All-Star Weekend to Charlotte in 2019."