The Knicks forward and Team USA Olympian posted a fiery paragraph to his website, thisismelo.com, Friday afternoon, invoking Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali. He wrote that athletes should take the lead in demanding justice after the deaths of Alton Sterling of Louisiana and Philando Castile of Minnesota, black men who were shot by white police officers earlier this week.
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“It’s Time to Step Up and Take Charge,” the post is titled, and it includes the famous photo of the summit NFL star Jim Brown hosted to support Muhammad Ali’s refusal to participate in the Vietnam War. A college-aged Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then Lew Alcindor, NBA legend Bill Russell and a slew of NFL players are among those joining Brown and Ali in the photo.
Here is Anthony’s full post:
The stance is admirable, proud and emotional. Anthony is aware enough to know he does not have the answers. He mentions the shooting deaths of five policemen Thursday night in Dallas as clearly not the answer.
Anthony has long been outspoken, much like his longtime friend LeBron James. Expect the two of them to continue to lead NBA players toward action on this issue that has taken hold of the entire nation, especially the black community.
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Anthony and James have sons, black boys whose lives they also must worry about in these times. They understand their platforms and their financial and public power.
The demand for change is powerful. But it’s a first step.
