With the 2019 NBA All-Star Game Charlotte can show it’s better than House Bill 2
I was hanging out in Uptown recently when a couple on a long layover in Charlotte stopped me. They were traveling from their home in Toronto to the South Carolina coast, and had decided to come Uptown and find some grub away from the airport.
I suggested Amelie’s French Bakery, since I figured it would be a good place to take someone to introduce them to the city. We ended up talking for about an hour and a half as we watched the bakers and cookie makers do their thing.
“Everything is so close, everything is right here,” the wife said about the Uptown area.
The husband added, “I love Toronto, but Toronto isn’t as close to as clean as Charlotte is.” As a relative newcomer to Charlotte who has lived in many other places, I had to agree. Then we finished our macaroons, exchanged emails, and they were on their way.
Yesterday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver awarded the 2019 NBA All-Star Game to Charlotte. The game will be played at the Spectrum Center Feb. 17, 2019, with three days of activities leading up to it, including the 3-point and slam dunk contests, NBA Cares community involvement events and various player appearances. That was all supposed to happen here this year, but the NBA moved the 2017 game out of Charlotte because of the controversial LGBTQ law House Bill 2.
NBA All-Star Weekend is a chance for the host city to show itself off to the world. Media from around the world will descend on the city. And the players aren’t the only celebrities in town. Pop-culture icons also flock to the game and that celebrity scene is just as popping as anything on the hardwood. I’m already trying to imagine where Dave Chappelle will host his hush-hush, invite-only soirée.
Getting the All-Star Game does not close the book on HB2 and all it has cost this city and state. A lot more needs to be done to protect our LGBTQ friends and neighbors. But we have the game back, and plenty of time to work on showing the nation that every sector of this community is valued and respected.
I’m a huge basketball guy, always have been. Even though I thought taking the 2017 game away was the right move, it still hurt. I walked around Uptown like a zombie in February, just thinking about what could have been. Now basketball fans all over Charlotte and the Carolinas have 2019 to look forward to.
Charlotte isn’t New Orleans. It isn’t Vegas, Miami, or L.A. We aren’t a party town, and that’s a good thing. What we are is a city made up of amazing people, who will put on an amazing All-Star Weekend.
I can’t wait to see Shaq size himself up against the Firebird statue in front of the Bechtler. I can’t wait to see players’ obligatory Instagram pictures from the after party at Fahrenheit. I can’t wait to get involved with the NBA Cares project. I can’t wait for Cam Newton and Christian McCaffrey to suit up in the celebrity game.
But most of all, I can’t wait for the for out-of-towners, people like the couple I met by chance, to wake up bleary eyed on Monday morning, run out of their hotel holding one shoe to catch that idling Uber waiting to whisk them off to the airport, and say to themselves, “We gotta get back here. Who knew Charlotte was so cool?”
Photo: Charlotte Observer
This story was originally published May 24, 2017 at 10:33 PM with the headline "With the 2019 NBA All-Star Game Charlotte can show it’s better than House Bill 2."