Stan Van Gundy: All-Star Game ‘should be moved’ if NC anti-LGBT law stands
On Monday, Detroit Pistons president and coach Stan Van Gundy became the first notable member of the NBA community to ask that the league move the 2017 All-Star Game away from Charlotte in the wake of a state-wide bill North Carolina passed last month.
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The law, which forces people to use bathrooms aligned with their biological sex, has expectedly conjured harsh criticism from all manner of observers, but though the league sent out a stark rebuke to its passing Van Gundy is the first prominent active NBA voice to call for such a move.
“We went through this. People had their rationale for discriminating against blacks back in segregation,” Van Gundy, the Pistons’ president of basketball operations and head coach, said Monday. “I don’t care, religious liberty and all of that — look, that’s the same stuff that people brought up during the civil-rights movement. They’ll try to justify it with anything they have.
“We shouldn’t have the right in our country to discriminate against anybody and especially in this situation. And I think the league should take a stand.”
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“That game should be moved if they don’t change the law. I’m really proud of, like, Bruce Springsteen moved his concert, I think that’s outstanding,” Van Gundy said, referring to the musician’s decision to cancel a Sunday concert in Greensboro, N.C., because of the state’s stance. “Look, we’re in 2016, and the idea that for any reason you can conjure up, you think you have the right to discriminate against people, I just think it’s against everything that we should stand for.
“I understand logistically it would be a major problem but so what? Sometimes standing up for things that are right makes things tougher. I don’t think the game should be there if they’re not going to change that law.”
This isn’t a political stance, it’s in defense of human rights and common sense. There really isn’t much more to add than that, though I’m sure others will try.
From the NBA’s side of things, while lifting an entire massive operation from a city some 10 months prior to the event isn’t ideal, it’s more than do-able. It isn’t as if the Dunk Contest is this Saturday.
This is a league that swiftly moves its massively-sized operation to a previously-unscheduled city in preparation for the NBA Finals with alacrity. The league and all its tangential tentacles oftentimes have no clue about where their Game 1 Finals operation is going to head to until Los Angeles and Sacramento or Miami and Boston or Miami and Detroit (to use recent examples) finish up their nationally-televised business. Even preparing for the eventual move to the second host city in Game 3 is a logistical nightmare, but the league pulls it off without a hitch.
There are myriad complications to such a move, even if they don’t feel late to the proceedings.
The league sets up charity events that sprout out around the chosen city throughout the long weekend, starting with touchdown on Friday. The chosen entertainment – be it at halftime of the Game itself or dotted out throughout the weekend – might be chosen for its relationship with the area (though it’s still hard to understand just what the heck Sting had to do with Toronto last February).
All manner of Charlotte-area contracted employers – be they working on temporary buildings, food service, or designing the logos on the side of the floor – likely have already put ink to paper. Moving the All-Star Game away from Charlotte will cost people jobs, even if the same jobs will spring up in a replacement city (Atlanta is already on record as wanting in).
This, the nationwide blowback to the bill and the length of time between now and February are likely why the NBA hasn’t taken an overturn-it-or-we’ll-leave-it stance just yet. There is still hope that full and deserved civil rights will prevail and that the people behind this bill will move to the right side of idiocy history. Nobody’s asking the Orlando Magic not to show up for their game against the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday.
If things don’t change in the coming months, however, then this conversation needs to continue in starker tones. The NBA is lucky to count Stan Van Gundy amongst its voices of reason, and it would be nice to see NBA players emerge from the warming glow of their smartphones to say something about the matter in the weeks that follow.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
