Welcome to the Edge of Sports podcast. I'm Dave Ziron.

Adam Silver, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, has pulled the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte, North Carolina because of the state's draconian bathroom bill that prohibits local municipalities from passing ordinances to protect the rights of

lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

Now, Adam Silver did this, but he also did something else this week. He made the call to

find players in the WNBA for wearing shirts that stand against police violence as well as violence against the police.

Now, to understand this mishmash, we have one of the sharpest minds at the intersection of sports and politics, ESPN's Howard Bryant.

And then I have some choice words about how Adam Silver could have these contradictory thoughts in his brain where he

finds WNBA players for standing on political principle, but then also exercises his own

political principle on the question of LGBT issues in Charlotte.

Now, we got Howard Bryant in studio, and I started by asking him a question, what the hell's

he doing in Washington, D.C.? Why am I here? Yes. I ask myself that question no matter what city I'm in. I wake up every day, what city? You know, why are you here? Why are you here? I'm just here doing a little book research and the city open, taking in a little tennis, but mostly I'm here to do some book research for the next project. The next project is sports, politics, protest in a post-9-11 America. I don't know. You're bringing sports and politics together? I don't know, man. Seems like a loser. Exactly. Not a lot of room there to talk. It's a slim volume. It's a slim volume. Yeah, nice little pamphlet to talk about these issues. And there's no audience for it.

That's the bigger issue. So look, speaking to sports and politics, immediate reaction. NBA moves the 2017 All-Star Game at a Charlotte. First and foremost, are you surprised that Silver took the step? Well, I'm surprised, but I'm not shocked. but I'm not shocked.

I don't know if that sort of splits it in half,

but I think that the first I don't know if that sort of splits it in half.

But I think that the first thing that hit me about it, really two issues.

One was it struck me as very shrewd, very shrewd because you're dealing with a commissioner who needs control.

And I think it's good business for him to make sure that he is in control

of his landscape. Remember, you know, you've got two areas here. The first area is a few years

ago, a couple years ago, 2014, you've got Donald Sterling getting forced out. What's Adam Silver

going to do? He takes over from David Stern after 30 years. You've got essentially

the threat of a player revolt. You've got to get out in front of that. You have to. Now, as we

talked about walking the walk, everything that you've sort of set up in terms of being a progressive

...