Carmelo Anthony Comments on WNBA Fining Players, Teams for Black Warm-Up Shirts

New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony spoke out Thursday in support of three WNBA teams that were fined for wearing black warm-up shirts in response to recent victims of violence involving law enforcement officers.

ESPN.com provided Anthony's comments on the fines the Phoenix Mercury, New York Liberty and Indiana Fever were assessed for their social activism:

"

I don't see no reason to fine them. If anything you should want to support them. I don't know details, but don't see a reason to fine them.

A bunch of teams did it and individuals did it. Everybody has their own freedom of speech. If they decide to use the platforms to do that, I don't see any reasons for anybody to get fined. We did it. The NBA did it two years ago. The NBA was very supportive. I don't see why it would be different this time.

"

When Anthony opened the ESPY Awards alongside LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul, the NBA players delivered a collective message of preventing gun violence and racial injustice.

Fever player representative Briann January spoke about the situation, per ESPN.com:

"

What's most upsetting is the way it was handled. You have a league that is 90 -- if not above 90 -- percent African-American and you have an issue that is directly affecting them and the people they know and you have a league that isn't willing to side with them.

It's not a race issue, not an anti-police issue, not a black or white issue. It's a right or wrong issue.

"

As ESPN.com noted, each player on the three aforementioned WNBA squads was fined $500—and the teams were fined $5,000 by the league.

In a statement released to the Associated Press (via ESPN.com), WNBA president Lisa Borders explained the league was proud of the players for speaking out but expected them to adhere to the WNBA's uniform policies while doing so.

After the Liberty and Fever played against each other Thursday, they didn't answer questions about the game and would only respond to inquiries about social awareness.

Even though the fines may appear to be egregious to some, the blowback from such disciplinary action is drawing further attention to the issues at hand, which should only help the players' activist efforts in the long run.