New York Knicks’ All-Star Forward Carmelo Anthony is working to improve his sportsmanship both on and off the court.
With the 3-0 Knicks off to their best start in years, Anthony decided Thursday to help out victims of Hurricane Sandy in his native Brooklyn.
Heading to the borough’s Red Hook neighborhood, where he grew up in a housing project, Melo brought supplies, food and some star power to part of the borough devastated by Sandy’s wrath.
Working with a number of organizations, including his own Carmelo Anthony Foundation, the Knicks’ superstar and other volunteers handed out around 500 boxes of supplies to Brooklynites along the neighborhood’s Columbia Avenue.
“I wanted to step up to the forefront,” Anthony said, according to ESPN
. “We all know what Sandy did to our city, especially to Brooklyn, and to Red Hook, with us being right here on the water. It hit us pretty bad, so I feel like I’m the face of Red Hook and I wanted to come back and give back to the place I grew up.”
Red Hook, an isolated part of Brooklyn that lies on the waterfront across the East River from Manhattan, was one of the hardest hit neighborhoods in New York City during Hurricane Sandy, with major flooding and many residents in the neighborhood still without electricity or heat over a week after the storm.
“Sometimes it feels like we’re the forgotten borough, the forgotten neighborhood,” said Red Hook resident Vanessa Bernard to ESPN. “This is uplifting. Some families don’t have much at all, and it’s really difficult. Anything helps, and to do this is uplifting.”
Anthony, who moved to Baltimore at the age of eight, said that helping the people of his former neighborhood was a “no-brainer,” even during his hectic NBA season. The Knicks’ topped the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday 110-88, with Anthony leading the team with 21 points, and the squad faces the Dallas Mavericks tonight at Madison Square Garden.
“I’m one of them, I was once one of them,” he said. “I grew up running around with a lot of the older guys as a little kid, so for me to come back and to help and give out house supplies and things like that, that’s the least I can do, especially at a time like this.” [Fox]