When news broke of George Floyd’s murder, athletes across the sports world stepped up. They participated in walkouts and protests, signaled their support for Black Lives Matter, and engaged in conversation about creating racial equity. WNBA star Maya Moore was working to free family friend Jonathan Irons, who spent 23 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and used her platform to talk about the need for change. (Moore and Irons eventually married.) Meanwhile, Carmelo Anthony helped create the Social Change Fund United, a philanthropic effort to invest in organizations that support people of color. Five years later, the former basketball stars—both class of 2025 inductees of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame—reflect on that period in separate interviews and share insights about how sports can inspire younger generations to lead.
The sports world was one of the first industries that reckoned with what happened to George Floyd. What do you remember about that moment?
Carmelo Anthony: I think we understood the power of athletes’ voices. We had the opportunity to connect and stand side by side with one single message. The NBA did a good job of getting behind the players and allowing us to lead.
Maya Moore: Different athletes displayed their humanity during the season in different ways that I feel like was super powerful and important because sports figures are so seen in American culture—and we are human beings. You’re going to see the fullness of our humanity when we are honest about the pain and the grief that we’re going through as a community. We’re not just these plastic figurines that you watch on a screen.
Were there any positives that came out of 2020 surrounding conversations on racial equity?
Anthony: I think it's still an uphill battle, to be honest with you, but something that came of it was dialogue. I think communities had an opportunity to speak, sit at the table, and have open and uncomfortable conversations.
Carmelo, you created the Social Change Fund United with Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul to invest in organizations fighting for long-term change. How important is providing the necessary funding toward the advancement of racial equity ?
Anthony: It’s imperative because the organizations that we support are the boots on the ground. They’re the ones who are fighting the fight on a daily basis. It’s definitely important that we invest in organizations that advocate for the Black community and for people who actually own the work. Those are the people that we want to support, the frontline people.
Maya, you’ve been a proponent of racial equity for a long time, despite the threat of losing sponsorships. How hard is it for you to push for change when you have such a large platform?
Moore: My perspective was that I was never driven by my platform. As I got to know Jonathan, I was just learning so much from my friendship with him before I started to really publicly speak about our journey and what I was learning. So I think when you live something authentically, you have more confidence and courage to speak regardless of what other people think, because you know that you’re living a real life, doing really good work. I think more brands and businesses are becoming holistic and understanding you can’t last if you’re going to dehumanize people.
What is bolstering your fight?
Moore: It’s always going to come down to individual communities taking responsibility for each other. We, as the Minnesota Lynx, were saying, “Hey, this is our community. We are connected.” No matter what color you are, no matter what your background is, where your feet are—that’s your community.
Do you feel like you have an obligation to be a role model?
Anthony: It’s how I was taught, how I learned. It was having role models like Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X, and guys like Joe Louis and Nelson Mandela. Those are the people that I’ve studied and read—how they moved and just how they are as activists. Especially a lot of the athletes who really stood up like Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
What would you say to young people who want to follow in your footsteps?
Moore: I would say do your best to learn from those who’ve gone before you. And continue to use your voice as thoughtfully as you can, to describe the world that you’re in and what you see. Be selective and be as informed and humble as you can. Try to resist the temptation to be a product over a person. Your humanity is first.
Anthony: This is the moment for athletes to actually embrace change. There’s a lot of change that’s happening in sports, in life, and in the universe. I would tell them to just embrace that change, and use their creativity and voices to keep moving things forward, whether it’s in the Black community or in any community.
This project was created in partnership with the Center for Policing Equity.