New Orleans Pelicans hosting NBA All-Star Game is a win-win
The New Orleans Pelicans and their home state have become the beneficiaries of an uncomfortable standoff between the NBA and legislators in Charlotte.
It can’t often be said about the dealings of a multi-billion dollar industry that they were summarily a win-win. Yet looking back on the way the NBA handled the placement of its All-Star game in the past month or so, that is exactly what we must say. By taking a stand against the lawmakers in Charlotte and moving the festivities South, there is both a message being sent and people being helped. It’s hard to contextualize or attach oneself to the series of NBA Cares advertisements that play during games, and it’s sometimes difficult as a fan to see the league as the vast, swirling, interconnected enterprise that it is. But for the league to make its size and largesse known in this wonderful way is inspiring and encouraging.
What I’m of course referring to here is the disaster relief efforts that the NBA has made a priority in its move of All-Star Weekend from Charlotte to New Orleans. By shifting the activities down a few states for the third time in ten years, the NBA was able to refocus its efforts from overriding a much-maligned restriction on bathroom usage by transgender citizens to fundraising and providing aid for those affected by the recent storms across Louisiana. Yes, it’s great PR for a league who seems to always be ahead of things in that department, but remember that New Orleans was the front-runner for these events even before the storms hit, and the league still doubled down on its efforts to provide relief.
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Let’s get something out of the way though: Charlotte invested lots of money into a new stadium with the idea (and likely a handshake agreement with the league) that they would receive the boost in income when the All-Star game came to town. And the Hornets organization had nothing to do with the passage of this bill. The fans were involved legislatively, so perhaps this sends a message to them, but this sets a precedent that politics can get in the way of an entertainment entity’s presence in a certain city or region.
Scrolling through local laws and making judgment calls about the presence of your league in any given locale is dangerous, problematic, and unprecedented for a sports league so large. While the NBA has managed to salvage the situation by doing the right thing in Louisiana, there are thousands of people in North Carolina who must be troubled by what has happened; young people excited to watch a shining league’s stars do battle and have fun or older fans given one last chance to do the same. It’s the grimy netherworld of corporate politics getting in the way of sports fandom in a way we’d rather never happened.
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But back to my original point: In the short-term, this is a mutual victory. There is no other way to look at such precise, measured stance against problematic decision-making. The league carries on as a model of right-doing in a country where sporting organizations tend to fall on the opposite end of that spectrum, and those hit hardest by unexpected weather conditions get help. Ignoring the long-term political implications, though, would be to pretend that there is no danger in preferential treatment or erasing the line between politics and business. The NBA is machete-cutting a path down the road less travelled.