Source: N.Y. ‘not in mix’ for All-Star Game
With the NBA pulling the All-Star Game out of Charlotte on Thursday, reports circulated Brooklyn was a possibility to land the game. But a league source told The Post that Barclays Center was “not in the mix,” despite having been a candidate several years ago to host the 2017 or 2018 game.
When New York/Brooklyn was awarded the 2015 All-Star Weekend, the NBA, Nets and Knicks had talks that would have reversed the roles for the 2017 or 2018 game — the All-Star Game at Barclays with the other events at the Garden.
But the Islanders will have a busy home slate, playing the Devils on All-Star Sunday, Feb. 19, and the rival Rangers just three days earlier.
The All-Star Game is not coming to the Garden either, and it wasn’t even considered. The Garden would need at last a year of advance planning to stage a weekend party such as the All-Star Game.
The Rangers have a home game with the Capitals on All-Star Sunday. The Garden will host rock concerts on the Friday and Saturday leading into the main event.
“Chances are nil it comes to New York,’’ an NBA source said.
The league yanked the game from Charlotte because of North Carolina House Bill 2, dubbed the “bathroom bill,” which requires transgender people to use restrooms in public buildings and schools that match the sex on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity. It reversed a city ordinance that had added gay and transgender people to the classes of people protected against discrimination.
The Charlotte Observer published an email sent from Hornets co-owner Felix Sabates to the team’s ownership group, ripping the NBA and the city council.
“Shame on those respon- sible for such a short sighted decision to take the NBA All Star away from Charlotte. I always thought this was country that ALL peoples, not just a few, can determine our future,” Sabates wrote, adding Charlotte’s mayor, Jennifer Roberts, “opened a can of worms” and the city council is to blame.
“What is wrong with a person using a bathroom provided for the sex they were born with,” Sabates wrote. “If you want to change your gender so be it, we are a free county, but don’t force 8 years old children to be exposed to having to share bathroom facilities with people that don’t share the organs they were Bourne [sic] with, this is plain wrong, this could cause irreparable damages to a children’s that don’t understand why they have to see what God did not mean for them to witness, we have some very confused business as well as political humans that frankly have made this a political issue rather then [sic] moral issues. SHAME ON THEM.”
New York has state protections to prevent discrimination against LGBT people.
“NBA. If you want an inclusive city, respectful of all gender identities, to host All-Star game: NYC welcomes you back,’’ Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted on Thursday.
But it doesn’t seem like he’ll get his wish.
Multiple sources confirmed a report in The Vertical that New Orleans is expected to host the weekend.
The Nets inked undrafted rookie point guard Yogi Ferrell to a partially guaranteed one-year contract. The 5-foot-11 former All-American from Indiana played for Brooklyn in the Las Vegas Summer League. If he doesn’t make the cut when the roster shrinks to 15, he probably will end up running the point for the D-League Long Island Nets.