NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said
Thursday that North Carolina risks losing next year's All -Star Game
over a law that targets the LGBT community.
Opponents of the law, which restricts
local LGBT protections and limits transgender people, including
students, from certain bathrooms in state-owned facilities, have
called on the NBA to move February's All-Star Game out of Charlotte.
Last week, Silver called the law
“problematic” for the league, but he hesitated to say the game
hinged on repeal.
In comments Thursday with
the AP, Silver said that a change was needed.
“The sense was that if the NBA could
give us some time, they in the community of North Carolina were
optimistic they would see a change in the law,” Silver said. “They
weren't guaranteeing it and I think which was why my response was the
event still is 10 months from now, we don't need to make a decision
yet.”
“We've been, I think, crystal clear
that we believe a change in the law is necessary for us to play in
the kind of environment that we think is appropriate for a
celebratory NBA event, but that we did have some time and that if the
view of the people who were allied with us in terms of a change, if
their view, the people on the ground in North Carolina, was that the
situation would best be served by us not setting a deadline, we would
not set a deadline at this time,” he added.