Chris Pizzello/Invision/APLeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade opened the 2016 ESPY Awards tonight with a powerful message.
The four NBA stars spoke about the recent shooting deaths and exclaimed that "enough is enough."
Paul told the crowd, "We stand here tonight accepting our role in uniting communities. We stand before you as fathers, sons, husbands, brothers, uncles, and in my case, as an African-American man and the nephew of a police officer, who is one of the hundreds of thousands of great officers serving this country."
He continued, "But Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Laquan McDonald, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, this is also our reality."
Wade weighed in, telling the audience and the many watching all over the world, "The racial profiling has to stop. The shooting to kill mentality has to stop. Not seeing the value of black and brown bodies has to stop. But also, the retaliation has to stop. The endless gun violence in places like Chicago, Dallas, not to mention Orlando—it has to stop. Enough. Enough is enough."
Finally, James concluded with a call to action for athletes with a global platform to speak on.
"Let's use this moment…to educate ourselves, explore these issues, speak up, use our influence and renounce all violence. And most importantly, go back to our communities and invest our time, our resources, help rebuild them, help strengthen them, help change them. We all have to do better."