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This story appears in ESPN The Magazines Oct. 31 NBA Preview Issue. Subscribe today!IN A NORMAL time, it would be implausible to sit down with Carmelo Anthony two weeks before the start of the NBA season and not talk about basketball-to not hear a word about his Knicks, his Olympic gold in Rio or his new All-Star teammates. But this isnt just any time in America. Since the early summer, when six police officers were acquitted in Anthonys hometown of Baltimore after facing charges resulting from the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray, basketball for the Knicks franchise player has become secondary to being an active, involved citizen, one aware of his power and influence-and often the limitations of each. We spent a recent afternoon together in New York talking as black citizens and parents, debating race and policing, owners and players, and the increasing politicization of sports in a tense, post-Ferguson nation. For Anthony, there is no more holding back.HOWARD BRYANT: It sounds like theres a sort of tipping point thats happening around the country. When I talk to younger people, they have this attitude like, Were supposed to be past this. This is why Im upset. And then I talk to my uncles and theyre like, See, this is how it is. This is nothing new.CARMELO ANTHONY: This is the new 60s right here. Everybody I talk to, my mom and uncles and friends, they say the same thing. Theyre like, What youre seeing right now, wed seen it already. Its new to you, but its not new to us. I think its bigger and much deeper than just actually seeing whats happening out there. Not just police brutality but so many other issues out there that are being swept under the rug. Our educational system is messed up. Schools are closing left and right.HB: What youre touching on is the one part of this thats been really difficult for me and people wanting to talk about Colin Kaepernick. Theyre not focusing on why hes doing what hes doing. They look at Baltimore and theyre not looking at the fabric of Baltimore. You have no parks. Youve got no infrastructure. What do you expect that to look like if youre taking all the resources out of the community? CA: When you dont have resources, it becomes hopeless. Theres nothing to look forward to. I know when I was coming up, it was after-school. We had rec centers to go to in our neighborhoods. We had parks to go play in. We had football fields to go to. You had different things that you could go do. I always find it fascinating when I go back to my community and kids that I have known, or their parents, just hearing them talk. The one thing I get out of it is they just want a voice. They just want to be heard. Its like, We want everybody to hear us.HB: When you talk about this, youre not really talking about police brutality specifically. You keep saying, The system is broken. CA: The system is broken. It trickles down. Its the education. Youve got to be educated to know how to deal with police. The police have to be educated on how to deal with people. The system has to put the right police in the right situations. Like, you cant put white police in the hood. You just cant do that. They dont know how to react. They dont know how to respond to those different situations. Theyve never been around that, you know? When I was growing up, we knew police by their first name. We gave them the nicknames. But thats only because we related. And when the white police came into our neighborhood, the black police said, Yo, we got this. That doesnt happen anymore. You got black police afraid to go into black communities now, and the white police are like, Shit, Ill come. Its a job. Ill go in there and do it. Not knowing whats going to happen.I think athletes now are just going off of what theyre seeing now, which is what? Police brutality. Police killing people. You havent seen one thing about schools closing. Theres no rec centers. You havent seen none of that on the news. All you see is police killing people. And if Im sitting there watching that every day all day, Im going to feel a certain kind of way. Like, against the police. If it was showing schools and why they shut them down and theres no funding for this and no funding for that, you would feel a certain way about that too. But thats not what theyre putting out there.HB: The thing that bothers me most about this is that people believe, especially about black athletes and black professionals in general, Well, you made it. Whats the problem? They seem to treat you as if having success forfeits your voice, when actually it should empower your voice. CA: The reason I feel so strongly about my beliefs is that its been going on forever. Then a part of me is like, I cant speak up on every single issue because then itd be like, Oh, hes just talking again.But when its powerful, timing is everything, and for me the Freddie Gray thing was the one that tipped me off. It was like something just exploded. It was like [snaps] now was the time. Enough is enough. And everybodys calling me like, We should do this or We should do that, and I was like, Im going home. If you want to come with me, you come with me, but Im going home. Im not calling reporters and getting on the news; Im actually going there. I wanted to feel that. I wanted to feel that pain. I wanted to feel that tension.HB: I remember when I was in college at Temple, just walking down the street. Here come some cops, put me on the ground at gunpoint. When that happens, it cant be any more personal. CA: When youre in that environment, its a part of your life. You cant control it. And its not until you step outside of that environment and start looking back that youre like, Oh, this is messed up. I sit down with different people I grew up with and start reminiscing, and before when I used to tell that story it was, you know, funny. Yo, remember when we got pulled over? When the police put us on the ground or they chased us? It was funny. Now that shit aint funny no more.HB: Did you watch the Tulsa video? [Ed.s note: The Sept. 16 shooting, captured by a police officers dashboard camera, showed an unarmed black man, Terence Crutcher, being shot and killed by a white cop during a traffic stop. The officer, Betty Shelby, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree manslaughter.] CA: Yeah, of course.HB: I watched that and the first thing I said was, Thats a murder. That was the first thing that hit me. CA: Right, and you could watch that with kids, and even kids will say that. Theres no more hiding news.HB: Yet you still have a lot of people who just dont see that this is an issue. CA: Everybody knows its an issue. But its deeper than that. Its higher than that. The system is broken. And well continue to keep saying that. How can you sit and watch an execution live? And now its starting to become a norm to watch that. When you see it now, its like, Oh, man. Another one got killed. Another guy got shot. And you know, just like in anything, not all police are bad. You know what I mean? You have good ballplayers, you have bad ballplayers. You have good writers, you have bad writers. You have good drummers, bad drummers.HB: Youve met with law enforcement. What has the response been? CA: Speaking to them directly, you realize you are very limited in what you can do. Ive met with a lot of them, all over the country, and they get it. They understand, like, you know, its messed up. Theyre like, We dont condone that.HB: But ... CA: But at the end of the day, we roll with the blue. Like, Were the boys in blue, and we stick by our code. And I dont want to sound crazy when I say its understandable, because if something happened to somebody on my team, they get in a fight, youre going to protect them. And from that perspective you understand it, but you realize that what you can do has limitations.And I realize that theyre scared. When youre going out here every day, when youre putting that uniform on, in certain neighborhoods you dont know whats going to happen. But thats because theres a distrust.HB: The dynamic in sports, the NHL aside, is white owners, white media, white coaches, black players. That dynamic makes it difficult to be understood. How do you feel like your message has been received? CA: I control my own message. I dont go through the traditional outlets to get my message out there. I create what I want to and I put it out there on my own.HB: Whatever gestures you decide to make this season in support of your message, as a team or individually, what do you expect the reaction to be? CA: The NBA is very supportive. They want to team up with us and be behind it, but at the end of the day its still a corporation, so theres only so far that theyre going to let you go. And one gestures not going to change anything. So regardless of if we stand out there and put our arms around each other to show unity and solidarity, on the flip side, at the moment somebody goes out there and puts their fist up, thats going to be something different.Colin Kaepernick sat down. That caused a different reaction. And people didnt even know why he was doing it. They just thought it was disrespectful to the actual soldiers and people who fought for the country, and it had nothing to do with that.HB: Have you spoken to Colin at all? What was your initial reaction when you saw it? CA: I spoke to him that night. He reached out to me that night. And Im watching and Im like, OK. Like, Whats next? In a very respectful way, he was like, I took this step and, you know, just wanted to get your thoughts on whats happening. And I said, Well, youre courageous. I said, You just showed a lot of courage in what you just did, but now is the hard part because you have to keep it going. So if that was just a one-time thing, then youre fucked. But now you keep it going and be articulate and elaborate on why youre doing it, and be educated and knowledgeable of why youre doing it so when people ask, you can stand up for what you believe in and really let them hear why.HB: Youre talking about issues that most of America doesnt really want to talk about, yet you also just played for your country and won a gold medal. How does being called unpatriotic affect you? CA: I mean, you hear it. I just think thats bullshit for somebody to call me unpatriotic. Thats totally bullshit. Ive committed to this country on many different levels. Committing to USA Basketball since I was 19 years old, playing in four Olympics, going to the different parts of the world. Where they were warring, you know? Traveling to Turkey where they were bombing the building three doors down from us. Going to the games where theyve got Down with the USA signs out there.Youre representing something thats bigger than yourself, bigger than the New York Knicks or any other team. Youre representing the whole country. Youve got the USA on your chest, and when you hear that national anthem, regardless of how you feel about it, you get a sensation inside you. Thats why the emotions came out after the fact, because I knew what was going on back here in the country, in our own communities. And for me to know that and still be over there fighting and playing and representing our country on the highest scale that you can represent it in sports, it was all those kind of emotions.HB: In the NBA, it seems like you have more power-more than NFL players, more than some baseball players. I always thought that standing up in 2014 during the Donald Sterling thing was a real opportunity for players to say-CA: I said the same thing. But I never stepped out there and said anything about the Donald Sterling piece because at the end of the day, you realized that its bigger than you. Its like police brutality with the system. The system is broken. Its a bigger entity than you are. Right? So youre dealing with something much more powerful that kind of controls you in every sense that you can imagine. The way I would have done it if it was close to me is I wouldnt have come out. That was the opportunity right there: Im not playing. At that point it wouldnt have been about basketball at all. That was a race issue right there. That was where you could have put your foot down and said, No, were not-were not having it.HB: Don Yee, Tom Bradys agent, said players have no idea how much power theyve got, that they could bring this entire system down and create something for themselves if they wanted to. If I just move over into just the system of sports, is there something different and something better to be made? CA: I think the resources are there. I think were powerful enough. I can only speak for basketball players. Were powerful enough to, if we wanted to, create our own league. But everybody would have to be willing to do that. You have to be willing to say, This is what Im going to do. Im supporting this right here. Because at the end of the day, the athletes are the league. Without the athletes, theres no league. Without us, theres no them. And they dont think like that. They say, Were your main source of income, so youre going to need me before I need you. I think you just have to be willing to do that. You have to be willing to make that move, and, you know, strength comes in numbers. If you dont have those numbers, its not going to work.The people in the position of power understand now more than ever that some of the athletes are just as powerful as them. And thats the scary part. To know that, Somebody Im paying, you know, is just as powerful as me. We dont want that.HB: I make the argument that in the 21st century, the black athlete is the most influential black professional in the United States. There is a history, a heritage of outspokenness. Yet through about 30 years, the mid-70s up until the late 90s, you didnt really hear a lot. So people seem surprised when they hear you talking now. CA: It was about building that corporation. And it was about building the perfect athlete. Michael Jordan came in, and he transcended the game to another level on the court and off the court. So everybody wanted that typical athlete, that clean-cut athlete suit. Politically correct. Never spoke outside of his message. When you had athletes who spoke out during that era that youre talking about, the ones that did speak out got ousted. It was, Put the muzzle on your face.HB: Its the evolution of the athlete. Now its athlete as an individual corporation. But the difference is you have every other ethnicity out there, they get to be proud of what they are. You hear in media, so many writers going, Well, and I dont want to be a black writer. I just want to be a writer. And Im like, Well, why dont you get to be both? CA: Because its not accepted. Were the only culture, were the only race that doesnt have our own. For us, what we have? We have the hood. So theres no resources in the hood, other than drugs. Either you have a good jump shot or you selling crack rock. These other races out there, they got their own neighborhoods. They got their own community, their own stores. They support one another. And we dont.HB: And where does that come from? That comes from the fact that we have separated education from community. My neighborhood in Dorchester, in Boston, in Roxbury-any black family that had any prospects, they left. Why? For the schools. CA: Because theres no resources.HB: And when stabilitys gone, whats left? CA: Nothing. Hopelessness.HB: Yet you hear this cognitive dissonance when Baltimore hits and people say, Why are they burning down their own neighborhoods? without realizing they arent ours. CA: Thats right. We dont own anything. That Rite Aid? That isnt ours. And thats what Im talking about when I say its all part of something bigger. These times, theyre crazy. Its not about the one thing. The system is broken. You hear people saying, Justice or else. I think youre starting to see what or else looks like.China Shoes Black Friday . 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Wholesale Shoes Black Friday . -- Edmontons Val Sweeting is two wins away from a trip to Winnipeg to play in Canadas Road of the Rings in December.EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Nick Young took a long look around the Los Angeles Lakers bustling practice gym Monday, surveying the large gathering of cameras, reporters and teammates with a sardonic smile.Its kind of boring in here, the veteran guard said.For all the hubbub and optimism around the Lakers as they returned for a new season, the LA native realized something was missing.For the first time since 1995, the Lakers are heading into training camp without Kobe Bryant.The third-leading scorer in NBA history is ensconced in retirement in Orange County, his 60-point farewell game fading into legend with each passing week. Bryant left behind a franchise that must return from a team-worst 17-65 season with a new coach, several new players and a young core seeking an identity.It was all about Kobe, point guard DAngelo Russell said of his rookie season. Now its a different headline. Its about the young guys, the coaching staff. Theres so many more headlines.The Lakers have missed the playoffs in three straight seasons for the first time in franchise history, and coach Luke Walton isnt primarily concerned about ending that skid as he installs his system and attempts to mold a cohesive team for the first time in his own career.The former Golden State assistant and Lakers forward doesnt share Bryants binary belief that every season is either a championship campaign or an utter failure.Patience will definitely be important, said the 36-year-old Walton, who is four months younger than Lakers forward Metta World Peace. As we set our foundation, its important that we dont let whether or not were winning games take us from that path. We need to stay the course and see the big picture.Bryants final season was a traveling carnival devoted to showcasing the largely beloved star, with teammates reflexively deferring to him as the losses mounted. Nobody will defer to anybody else in the game plan envisioned by Walton, whose flowing offensive pplan is welcomed by the Lakers top draft picks over the previous three years: Julius Randle, Russell and Brandon Ingram.ddddddddddddLast year, we played a little bit too much for ourselves, thinking about our stats or whatever it may be, Randle said. That just doesnt work. Were playing for each other now. The energy, the vibe is different. You win 17 games, and everything is a press, a struggle. Its not fun. But its starting to become fun again.Some changes are bigger than others: After years of quiet in the Lakers practice gym, this team practices with musical accompaniment. Walton liked it when he played, and the Warriors do it.The Lakers have been working out together constantly for more than two weeks, but they still have plenty of team-building work to do this week at training camp in Santa Barbara.Los Angeles paid exorbitantly to sign free agents Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov, and they added a grab-bag of veteran talent including Spanish point guard Jose Calderon, Chinese big man Yi Jianlian and forward Thomas Robinson. The Lakers also have 10 returning players from last seasons 17-win team, although Young is widely expected to be jettisoned at some point in the preseason.No newcomer is more important than Ingram, the rangy teenage forward and No. 2 pick from Duke. Russell is determined to take control of the Lakers offense after averaging 13.2 points and 3.3 assists as a rookie, while Randle said his recent workouts with Bryant have given his career the proper direction.I think its going to be fun, said guard Jordan Clarkson, who got a four-year, $50 million contract extension in July. Weve got a young, talented group of guys coming together. These are exciting times for us. Weve got a lot of work to do, but weve got a lot of room to grow.---Follow Greg Beacham at www.twitter.com/gregbeacham ' ' '