A little under two weeks ago, the NBA made the decision to move the 2017 All-Star Weekend away from Charlotte due to North Carolina's controversial House Bill 2, which provides less protection for residents who identify as LGBT and also states that people can only use restrooms that coincides with the gender on their birth certificate.
Regardless of where you stand on the ruling by North Carolina, it is not the NBA's place to get involved with political issues and they should not be acting with such stance under the name of the organisation, especially given their chequered past on the subjects of perceived equality within politics and laws.
Basketball fans living in Charlotte are now deprived of the opportunity to see the league's crème de la crème because of a ruling which they may disagree with, or in the case of young fans, a law that they don't understand or can do anything about.
By taking sides with a more liberal point of view, which must be stressed is not the issue here, Adam Silver and co. now have to continue to align themselves thusly and start making other political moves to keep up the image.
Global Games
The next logical thing to do by the NBA would be to cancel any forthcoming games in China, a country with a long history of human rights abuse that is showing no signs of slowing down. Lawyers are going missing for working on free speech cases, Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who won the accolade for standing up to the Chinese Communist Party, is serving an 11-year prison sentence for 'subverting state power', whilst Human Rights Watch states that China 'systematically curbs fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, association, assembly, and religion.'
Of course, given how lucrative the China Games are to both the NBA and the Asian country, don't expect there to be any change in regards to the scheduled pre-season matches in Shanghai and Beijing between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Houston Rockets, which will be the 10th time NBA teams have played preseason matches in China.
It is not just China where the NBA should crack down, though. In June, it was announced that physical stores will open in the Middle East next season, specifically in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait. Yes, Saudi Arabia, arguably the worst of a pretty horrific bunch, has embraced international basketball before equal rights, and general respect, for women. The fairer sex have to use different entrances in most public buildings, are forced to cover most of their body up under Sharia Law, and have to limit the time they spend with males who aren't related to them.
In keeping with the NBA's reasoning for moving the All-Star Game out of Charlotte, the LGBT community have a tough time in the Middle East, too. In Saudi Arabia and the UAE, homosexuality is a crime punishable by hanging or imprisonment, with Saudi Arabia also instilling the latter punishment for transvestitism. Kuwait's penal code punishes debauchery (interpreted by the courts to mean male homosexuality) with up to six years imprisonment, whilst Qatar goes one step further and can punish gays for up to seven years, or execute them if they are Muslim.
So what? It's not the NBA's problem
Correction: it wasn't the NBA's problem. Before last month, there would be no real issue with them opening up stores in the Middle East; they're a business, after all, and making money, of which there is no shortage in the UAE et al., is the aim of the game.
But now they've elected to take sides in the social and political fight within the US, are they not hypocritical for continuing to expand their brand to countries who treat people even worse? Should they not freeze out countries whose governments still kill people for being LGBT or for being a woman?
The next step, at least for this writer, is clear: give the All-Star Game back to Charlotte. The 600+ words above would not be relevant if the NBA had stayed out, but now they've made their bed they must lay in it.