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N.C. lawmaker Crying Jordans Governor McCrory after NBA pulls ASG

Eric Freeman

The NBA’s decision to follow through on months of threats and pull its 2017 All-Star Weekend out of Charlotte ranks as one of the boldest stances for equal rights that a professional sports league has ever taken. At the same time, it should not come as much of a surprise given that the league has reaffirmed its stance on North Carolina’s House Bill 2, widely known as an anti-transgender “bathroom law” but more generally a severe and broad limitation of anti-discrimination policy, so many times since its adoption in March. With the Charlotte Hornets and owner Michael Jordan on board with the stance, it seemed like a matter when, not if, the league would decide to move the All-Star Game. Not doing so would have been a public relations disaster.

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That means that the key players involved had plenty of time to prepare statements and reactions to the news. Most went for press releases and the like. State Senator Jeff Jackson, one of the most outspoken opponents of HB 2, went a different route. He Crying Jordan’d the governor of his state:

As far as we know, this is the first time a politician has issued a challenge to the opposition via Crying Jordan meme.

Gov. Pat McCrory, for his part, went with the more tried and true official 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. Twenty-one other states have joined North Carolina to challenge the federal overreach by the Obama administration mandating their bathroom policies in all businesses and schools instead of allowing accommodations for unique circumstances. 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.”

This statement evinces ideological inconsistencies apart from the many problems with so-called bathroom laws, not least that Republican politicians have typically gone to great lengths to ensure that corporations like the NBA have the ability to take political action without repercussions. On a more personal level, it’s a little goofy to see McCrory take issue with the “sports and entertainment elite” when he has often been very happy to associate himself with them:

The only difference now is that Jordan, Silver, and the rest of the NBA decision-makers in this process are not on his side.

So, yes, Jackson didn’t exactly react in the way we’d expect from a state representative. Sometimes, though, there’s no better response to a stance than some obvious and basic embarrassment. No matter how he tries to spin it, McCrory just lost. And losers get Crying Jordan’d without mercy.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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