Hornets Co-Owner blasts NBA, others for All Star fiasco

Feliciano Sergio “Félix” Sabates, Jr. is well known around the Queen City from original Hornets team to NASCAR

Felix Sabates knows controversy. He is a NASCAR team owner at Chip Ganassi Racing and he had a front row seat when the sanctioning body asked fans attending their events to avoid flying the Confederate flag in light of the shootings at a church in Charleston, South Carolina and the ultimate lowering of it at the state’s capitol building.

As silent as he was then, it comes as a bit of a surprise that he is now very outspoken over the pulling of the NBA All Star Game from Charlotte, according to multiple reports and local station WBTV. Maybe it has something to do with him being a co-owner of the Hornets.

Sabates has blasted the NBA, the Charlotte City Council and Mayor Jennifer Roberts, who he did not mention by name, and anyone else he thinks had a hand in yesterday’s announcement.

In an email sent to the entire Hornets ownership in response to President and COO Fred Whitfield letting everyone know the game was pulled, the 70-year old wrote, “I am very disappointed in this decision by the commissioner, it hurts our team and ownership group that has suffered very deep financial loses (sic) over the years. Shame on those responsible 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.”

Born in Cuba, Sabates was upset that House Bill 2, which many refer to as “The Bathroom Bill,” was the reason the league pulled the game. Ever since HB2 was fast-tracked into law, the NBA almost immediately let politicians in Raleigh know they were reviewing the situation. After months of failed negotiations to change or abolish it, the league could not wait any longer and stripped North Carolina of the event.

Sabates’ ties with Charlotte go back to 1987 when he was part of a group that founded the original Hornets. He took no prisoners as he followed up his previous statements with the following:

“Our Mayor opened a can of worms, who knows why? Our city council is the one to blame for our losing the NBA All Star game, none of this would have happened if not for a very few minority forcing our supposed city leaders into creating a problem that never really existed, there will always be another election, they better pray a very few can get them re-elected. What is wrong with a person using a bathroom provided for the sex the[y] were born with, 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.”

Charlotte’s progressive mayor was a proponent of LGBTQ protections; however, not everyone was in agreement. While the bathroom portion of the ordinance was being discussed to either drop it completely or re-work it, the state stepped in with their own law that was immediately condemned by equal rights groups.

Roberts, a Democrat, has been at odds with Governor Pat McCrory, a Republican, ever since the law was passed. While Sabates is blaming Charlotte politicians and the NBA, McCrory is taking the heat and the blame for the 2017 All Star Game being shifted to another state.

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