The NBA has officially pulled the All-Star Game from Charlotte

But Thursday was the official word: Charlotte will no longer be hosting All-Star Weekend in February. If you’re a hoop-head like me, the news is awful. If you’re a Charlotte hotelier or business owner — or even just someone who cares about the reputation of our city — it’s devastating.

Why did this happen?

This is still because of House Bill 2.

[Agenda story: EXPLAINER: What happened in Raleigh with Charlotte’s LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance]

The short version is that North Carolina’s legislature passed a law this spring that requires transgender people to use the bathroom of their birth certificate rather than their gender identity and also disallows cities like Charlotte from making LGBT categories a protected class (among other things).

Immediately, the NBA said this law would not let them conduct the All-Star Game in the state. North Carolina had a chance to make changes to the law, but failed to do so.

“We do not believe we can successfully host our All-Star festivities in Charlotte in the climate created by HB2,” the NBA said in its statement.

Where’s the All-Star Game going to go?

No official word, but according to The Vertical reporter Adrian Wojnarowski, who first wrote about the decision to leave Charlotte, New Orleans is at the top of the list.

Yes, the same New Orleans who landed the first iteration of the Charlotte Hornets when George Shinn moved the team.

What’s the economic cost?

Pretty huge. This was going to be the biggest event Charlotte had hosted since the Democratic National Convention in 2012.

Charlotte was projecting some $7.1 million in just tax receipts for state and local government. Across all businesses, there was going to be about $60 million in direct spending. The New Orleans game in 2014 had more than 54,000 visitors — and 22 million-plus television viewers.

[Agenda story: Totaling up the financial impact of HB2]

Photo from Evan Kent

The NBA also tries to do a bunch of “legacy service projects” in cities where it hosts the game. No telling what we missed out on with that.

Will Charlotte ever host the All-Star Game?

The NBA still wants to host an All-Star Weekend here. The league is going to look at having it here in 2019, “provided there is a resolution to this matter,” the NBA says.

Doesn’t this stink for the Hornets?

Yeah, it does. This was going to be huge for the franchise. The NBA’s All-Star festivities hadn’t been here since 1991, and Charlotte has grown up quite a bit since then. Owner and GOAT Michael Jordan was ready to host the event in his home state.

The NBA was careful to laud the Hornets and Charlotte itself for that matter for seeking to “provide an inclusive environment.”

What does Gov. Pat McCrory have to say?

He calls out the “sports and entertainment elite” (where do I sign up for that?) and doubles down on his defense of HB2. It’s an election year, folks, and McCrory faces a tough battle against Attorney General Roy Cooper.

From his statement:

“The sports and entertainment elite, Attorney General Roy Cooper and the liberal media have for months misrepresented our laws and maligned the people of North Carolina simply because most people believe boys and girls should be able to use school bathrooms, locker rooms and showers without the opposite sex present. … Left-wing special interest groups have no moral authority to try and intimidate the large majority of American parents who agree in common-sense bathroom and shower privacy for our children. American families should be on notice that the selective corporate elite are imposing their political will on communities in which they do business, thus bypassing the democratic and legal process.”

The McCrory campaign also cited some weird Clinton connection.

What about all those Time Warner Cable Arena renovations? 

The city agreed to pony up $27.5 million to upgrade Time Warner Cable Arena in 2014, a project that was pretty much said to be necessary to host an All-Star Game.

Charlotte owns the arena and is supposed to keep it up, so this isn’t a total loss, but still. Look for that new scoreboard this fall.

Image via the Charlotte Hornets

Who had the best Crying Jordan meme?

No surprise that these were common since MJ owns the Hornets. But the winner here by a longshot is N.C. Sen. Jeff Jackson. This is pretty good regardless of how you feel about Gov. McCrory. This photo (sans Jordan) was already a Charlotte classic.

What about all that cool merch?

Ah, yes, the real important questions. No word on what is to happen with the shirts. I’m hoping they go on clearance and I will still buy one.