There’s no doubt about it. Carmelo Anthony is for the children.
With free time before the USA Men’s Olympic basketball team’s next game against Argentina, which is scheduled for today[August 17, 2016], the Knicks star and current U.S. Olympian spent Monday afternoon in Rio’s “favelas’, which is infamous for its gun violence and excessively high murder rate. Anthony played a game of basketball with some of the youth from the ‘hood.
Anthony took to Instagram on Monday to mark the occasion, posting a photo of himself sitting in a white chair with the buildings of the favelas rising in the background.
According to his Snapchat, Anthony also came across a graffiti artist who decided to paint a mural of the Knicks star on a wall in the favela. “Blessing the favela with a mural of myself!!!” Anthony wrote in one caption. “Stay Me7O in the favelas. Respect goes a long way,” read another.
It’s amazing to some and courageous to all that Carmelo Anthony would risk life and limb in an international area that is unfamiliar to him, but being a 5%er from Red Hook, Brooklyn makes that easier to him than to most. On Sunday, Ryan Lochte and three other members of the USA swimming team were robbed at gunpoint in Rio by individuals impersonating police officers. Lochte said one of the robbers pressed a gun to his head when he didn’t cooperate.
