What I think people are missing about the NBA All-Star Game and HB2

I’m a huge NBA fan. The Hornets are my favorite sports team and I was really excited about the NBA All-Star Game coming to Charlotte. The team, much like the city as a whole, is trying to prove it’s ready for the spotlight and national attention. Losing the All-Star Game proves we may not be ready.

Losing this hurts. It hurts me, it hurts the team and it hurts the city. We’ve all seen the $100 million economic impact estimates, which will now be lost — or at least delayed, if the game comes back in 2019. Some place all the blame on Governor Pat McCrory. But this is about more than just him and it seems like not enough people are talking about it, and that bothers me.

Is Charlotte really against HB2?

The feel in Charlotte is that the city, as a whole, is against HB2, probably because the City Council passed the LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance that started this whole thing back in February. Whether or not that’s true depends on who you ask. McCrory is the face of HB2, but 114 elected officials in North Carolina voted for the bill, 26 voted no, and 28 were absent.

Mecklenburg County has 12 members in the state house, and how they voted may surprise you:

5 Mecklenburg County state representatives voted for HB2:

– Republican Dan Bishop

– Republican Jacqueline Michelle Schaffer (who has since resigned)

– Republican John R. Bradford, III

– Republican Rob Bryan

– Republican William Brawley

And 4 voted against:

– Democrat Carla D. Cunningham

– Democrat Kelly M. Alexander, Jr

– Democrat Rodney W. Moore

– Democrat Tricia Ann Cotham

(Democrats Becky Carney and Beverly M. Earle, and Republican Charles Jeter — who announced his resignation yesterday — were absent.)

So more Mecklenburg County state representatives voted for HB2 than voted against it. If these Representatives truly reflect the area, can Charlotte say it’s against HB2?

The N.C. Senate is a slightly different story.

Only one senator from Mecklenburg County voted for HB2: Republican Jeff Tarte. The rest did not attend the session:

– Democrat Joel D.M. Ford

– Democrat Jeff Jackson

– Republican Bob Rucho

– Democrat Joyce Waddell

Here’s what we should be thinking about.

Whether you’re upset at the loss in revenue and national attention or you think this is all “PC BS” from the NBA, it’s important to know these people and how they voted. The governor may or may not get elected in November, but there are 17 other Mecklenburg County officials that make decisions for us and our state. It’s important to know who these people are and know if they truly represent your views.

At the end of the day, the NBA All-Star Game is just a game. Civil rights issues will always be more important than a basketball game. But this was a chance for Charlotte to prove it was ready to be a big city in the spotlight, and we failed. We failed to take a difficult situation and come up with an outcome that made everyone happy.

That’s what we should be thinking about when it’s time to vote again in November.

Photo: Chuck Burton/AP Photo

This story was originally published July 26, 2016 at 1:04 AM with the headline "What I think people are missing about the NBA All-Star Game and HB2."