Carmelo Anthony was part of the NBA’s anti-gun violence campaign video released last week.
This week, he and the Knicks are dealing with a teammate, Cleanthony Early, who was robbed then shot in the knee late last night in Queens after leaving a club with his girlfriend. Early is out of the hospital, but the impact this could have on his career is crushing.
It led Anthony to speak out about gun violence again after practice Wednesday, and to speak for a lot of NBA players who feel like targets when they go out. From Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News and Andrew Keh of the New York Times:
Carmelo Anthony makes a plea for gun control in wake of teammate being shot: "We have to do something."
— Stefan Bondy (@SBondyNYDN) December 30, 2015
"We all are targets, at the end of the day, regardless of how much love people show you," Carmelo Anthony said of NBA players.
— Andrew Keh (@andrewkeh) December 30, 2015
Melo said there's always someone "who feels you shouldn’t be in the position that you’re in, that you shouldn’t be as blessed as you are."
— Andrew Keh (@andrewkeh) December 30, 2015
The need to do something to stem gun violence is a national issue, one that is part of the presidential race.
The money NBA players have — and how much they may have on them in cash and jewelry at any given moment — can make them targets, and it’s part of the reason teams have stepped up security around players during the past decade. Sometime’s it’s to protect the players’ from themselves, but there are times players are targeted (as appears to be the case with Early).
A curfew for players is not the answer — these are grown men in the city where they live — but you can be sure some players are doing some soul-searching in the wake of what happened in New York.