Gaston commissioner drives celebs during NBA All-Star weekend

Gaston County Commissioner Chad Brown’s a baseball guy, but that didn’t keep him away from Charlotte during NBA All-Star Game weekend.

The Stanley Republican saw the massive event as a way to spread the word about his plans to run for North Carolina secretary of state next year. Brown signed up as a driver for ride-share service Lyft, and he spent the weekend giving people rides around the Queen City in his Chevrolet Tahoe.

“It was by far the best weekend I’ve had in a long time,” Brown said Monday.

Brown gave a ride to Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell and wound up ferrying Mitchell’s family back and forth around Charlotte. He says they asked him to give them rides, so he clocked off with Lyft and drove them around.

It turns out that Brown, a former Class AAA baseball minor league pitcher in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, had once played baseball against Mitchell’s father. Mitchell played in Friday's NBA Rising Stars Challenge.

“It was kind of crazy and kind of cool the whole time,” Brown said.

Brown also says he gave rides to Philadelphia 76ers point guard and Team LeBron player Ben Simmons, some “NBA executives” and even people selling sneakers.

“I got to meet some really entertaining people,” Brown said. “... It was absolutely crazy the people I met. It seemed like everybody I had was somebody.”

At one point, Brown says, he wound up at a spades party in Charlotte’s South End neighborhood with the Mitchell family and other NBA stars.

Apparently, it was a long weekend. Brown says he essentially worked from 12:30 p.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday, including taking people to the airport for early flights after NBA events.

From a political standpoint, he said he felt like it was a good way to not only meet potential voters but see a major commercial event take place. He says he might put his driver’s hat back on for future events, and maybe even just around town.

“Now I’m thinking about doing it for CIAA just to meet people,” he said. The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association will host its men's and women's basketball tournaments in Charlotte Feb. 25-March 2 before moving to Baltimore for future years.

Brown says there was one person he didn’t get to meet during All-Star Weekend: Incumbent N.C. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall.

“The only thing I regret is that Elaine Marshall didn’t try to get in so we could talk politics,” he said.

You can reach Dashiell Coleman at 704-869-1819 or on Twitter @DashiellColeman