In N.C., basketball overcomes politics

In March 2016 the North Carolina legislature passed, and then-Gov. Pat McCrory, R, signed into law, the infamous House Bill 2. HB2, as it's more commonly known, forbade the state's municipalities from enacting anti-discrimination laws and mandated that people could use only public bathrooms that corresponded to the sex on their birth certificates. It was widely considered the nation's most anti-LGBT law.

Over the next year, the law had enormous consequences for North Carolina, none of them good:

• PayPal stopped a planned expansion in Charlotte, which would have added 400 jobs and a $20 million annual payroll.

• Deutsche Bank, realestate research firm CoStar Group and other companies nixed plans to add jobs in the state. Despite its reputation for being a business-friendly state, North Carolina was suddenly being frozen out by companies looking to add new plants or research facilities.

• Seven states and more than a dozen cities nationwide banned government employees from traveling to North Carolina except for essential business.

• The National Basketball Association moved its 201617 All-Star Game from Charlotte to New Orleans.

• The Atlantic Coast Conference moved its football championship game to Orlando, Fla., from Charlotte, where it had been played since 2010 and which was the city's second-largest annual event, according to the Charlotte Observer.

• According to Politifact North Carolina, HB2 had cost the state $450 million to $630 million, and a minimum of 1,400 jobs.

HB2 is also the main reason Democrat Roy Cooper beat McCrory in the governor's race last year. Cooper put the law at the center of his campaign and vowed to try to overturn it; McCrory defended it. Still, both the state Assembly and the state Senate remained in Republican hands and, despite the clear economic and reputational damage HB2 was doing, they continued to support it. As recently as mid-February, House Speaker Tim Moore told the News & Observer of Raleigh that a compromise proposed by Cooper had no chance of passing.

And then along came the NCAA.

Few things have as powerful a grip on North Carolinians as college basketball. The four universities from North Carolina — Duke, the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State and Wake Forest — are the heart and soul of the ACC.

Ever since HB2 was passed, the National Collegiate Athletic Association essentially boycotted the state, moving tournament games in various sports to other locales.

"To have that taken away, it really hurt people here," said Steven Greene, a professor of political science at North Carolina State.

For instance, some earlyround games in this year's basketball tournament were moved from Greensboro to Greenville, S.C. In one game the University of South Carolina, which is playing in this weekend's Final Four, upset second-seeded Duke. Blue Devil fans were furious, convinced that the home-court advantage South Carolina gained cost their team the game.

A week ago Thursday, the NCAA posted a stark warning on its website. After noting that it had relocated games out of the state because of HB2, it said, "Absent any change in the law, our position remains the same regarding hosting current or future events in the state." Then came the kicker:

"As the state knows, next week our various sports committees will begin making championship site selections for 2018-2022 based upon bids received from across the country. Once the sites are selected by the committee, those decisions are final and an announcement of all sites will be made on April 18."

North Carolina had put in more than 130 bids for tournament games in the various NCAA sports, basketball most importantly. On Tuesday, Scott Dupree, the head of the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance, announced that the NCAA had given the state 48 hours to change the law. If it didn't, all North Carolina bids to host tournament games would be rejected.

Incredibly, that's all it took. Between Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning, the Republican leadership and the Democratic governor hammered out a compromise intended to repeal the most odious parts of HB2. By Thursday afternoon, the compromise bill had passed both houses of the legislature and been signed by Cooper. After a year of inaction, during which time North Carolina lost revenue, jobs and reputation, the legislature rammed through the repeal in 48 hours — because it didn't want to lose any more basketball games.

There is — let's be honest — something ridiculous about a state government changing its laws because it's being deprived of college basketball games. Even as a matter of economics, an NCAA tournament game is a transient event compared to, say, the construction of a new Caterpillar factory. And as a general rule, I roll my eyes whenever I hear NCAA President Mark Emmert talk about the association's "values," which is the basis for its North Carolina boycott, in the face of NCAA hypocrisy.

Having said that, if basketball is what it takes to get North Carolina to repeal this particular discriminatory law, so be it.

As it turns out, of course, the battle over HB2 is still not over. Gay rights advocates have scorned the compromise, noting that it still forbids cities from passing anti-discrimination laws until 2020.

"This so-called 'deal' is terrible," Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, wrote in an email. "It literally bans civil rights protection for LGBT people in NC."

On late Thursday afternoon, after Gov. Cooper signed the compromise bill, Emmert held his annual preFinal Four press conference. Needless to say, he was pressed on the question of whether the NCAA considered the compromise good enough to lift the boycott. He said that next week the NCAA's board of presidents would meet and make a decision.

Ball's in your court, NCAA.