Blazers' Carmelo Anthony Discusses Social Justice, NBA Restart Bubble

Portland Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony said he's "taking the gloves off" to have honest conversations about the need for social justice in the United States.

Anthony, who launched the Social Change Fund with Oklahoma City Thunder guard Chris Paul, former Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade and other philanthropists this week, told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated the group wants to shed light on an issue that's finally being discussed at length.

"My thing is just to make sure people feel comfortable with speaking on s--t that they're uncomfortable with and holding people accountable for not having those conversations, for not wanting to have those conversations. ...

"For me, I'm taking the gloves off. Whatever you want to talk about, let's talk about it. That's where I was at, which kind of translated to what I'm doing with my platform, having these conversations with people and bringing awareness to certain situations. Also, educating people. We haven't been educated [on issues], and now we're starting to want to be educated."

The 2019-20 NBA season is set to resume next week at the Disney World complex in Orlando, Florida. The campaign was halted March 11 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Along with the health concerns related to COVID-19, some players raised concerns to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski about whether returning to action would push the calls for change into the background.

"Once we start playing basketball again, the news will turn from systemic racism to who did what in the game last night. It's a crucial time for us to be able to play and blend that and impact what's happening in our communities," an unnamed player said. "We are asking ourselves, 'Where and how can we make the biggest impact?' Mental health is part of the discussion too, and how we handle all of that in a bubble."

Anthony's Blazers are one of the 22 teams taking part in the season's resumption, and he explained to Spears he just wanted to ensure everybody was on the same page before moving forward:

"At first it was just like, 'Man, I need some guaranteed answers.' I had the same concern that everybody had. But then, once it started becoming just about basketball, like, 'All right, cool. Let's figure this out.' But if we all don't want to play, then let's all not play. We are all going to play, then let's play. Let's not be in that gray area.

"Once I got past that, it was just all basketball for me because I knew where I was. I knew where I was at physically, mentally. ... And I knew what we were going to be in terms of Portland from a basketball standpoint. I was just like, 'S--t, let's go.'"

The 36-year-old New York City native added he's going to feature the words "Peace" and "Freedom" on the back of his jersey when play resumes as part of an agreement between the NBA and the Players Association to feature social justice messages rather than their last name, per Spears.

"For freedom, in general, that's the end-all, be-all. That's what we want. That's what we really want. We've been fighting for that for so many years. We're still fighting for it. We will continue to fight for freedom. So, we got to continue preaching that message.

"I was playing off of peace with the double zero [jersey number]. And the reason why I picked double zero is it being kind of an infinite number. The message for me would be, 'We want infinite peace or we don't want none at all.' It's all or nothing for us right now. We are going to find a way to get it, and we want infinite freedom, or nothing. And at the end of the day, we will keep fighting for that."

Anthony averaged 15.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists across 50 appearances for the Blazers after signing with the organization in November.

Portland's first game of the restart will come next Friday against the Memphis Grizzlies. They currently trail the Grizz by 3.5 games for the final playoff berth in the Western Conference heading into the shortened eight-game finish to the regular season in Orlando.