NC governor rips NBA for 'imposing political will' on Charlotte

North Carolina governor Pat McCrory, who enacted the HB2 bill that prompted the NBA to pull the 2017 All-Star game from Charlotte, has doubled down on his defense of the controversial piece of legislation in the wake of the league's announcement.

"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," McCrory said in a statement. "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."

The NBA said that it is open to holding All-Star weekend in Charlotte in 2019, provided the bill is amended or repealed. So long as he's able, McCrory seems intent on making sure that doesn't happen.

"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," he said. "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 state's senate leader, Phil Berger, piggybacked on McCrory's stance in his own statement.

"Ultimately, the suggestion that state leaders should abandon our moral obligation to protect our constituents in order to keep one exhibition basketball game is absurd," he said, "and shows a clear contrast in values."