Carmelo Anthony is in Puerto Rico to unveil remodeled basketball courts at a public housing complex and play a bit of softball with celebrity friends.
It is the third time the New York Knicks star has visited the U.S. territory in as many years to rebuild basketball courts through his charitable foundation.
“There’s plenty of kids down there who need role models,” he said during a press conference Thursday. “I grew up in a situation like that. … It was survival of the fittest.”
The two newly remodeled courts, located in the northern city of Bayamon, are used by the island’s top minor league players and have produced players now part of the island’s Superior League, said Sports and Recreation Secretary Henry Neumann.
“It is an emblematic court,” he said.
— Reported by the Associated Press