“Enough Is Enough”: When LeBron James and Dwyane Wade Addressed Racial Injustice With A Powerful Speech

As the country is facing severe issues on top of the other, Dwyane Wade shared a video on Instagram, when he, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, and Chris Paul voiced a powerful message in a grand stage. 

Amid the violent ongoing protests happening in the city of Minneapolis demanding justice for George Floyd, Wade released this post and captioned it, “4 years later, and this speech is even more relevant now.” 

The four talented NBA superstars opened the 2016 ESPYs with a powerful message about racial discrimination, gun violence, and police brutality. They wanted to use their power as athletes to voice out to millions around the world in order to fix the injustice happening around them.

There is a long history of gun violence, racial prejudice, and police brutality in the USA. African-Americans to this day face violence against them for small matters which don’t even require any force. These four athletes felt it was time for them to voice out against the injustice against a particular community. 

When LeBron James and his NBA colleagues sent out a powerful message at the ESPYs

Carmelo Anthony began the address by mentioning the cause for the speech. As transcribed by TIME, Melo urged his fellow citizens to take a note on what is happening in the country. “The system is broken. The problems are not new. The violence is not new. And the racial divide definitely is not new. But the urgency to create change is at an all-time high.”

Chris Paul directly mentioned the names of innocent black men who had been brutally killed by the police. Dwyane Wade spoke next and ordered the shootings to stop. “The shoot-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,” Wade expressed.

LeBron James took over the address from Wade and asked everyone to be a part of the change, instead of hoping for it. “It’s time to look in the mirror and ask ourselves what are we doing to create change. It’s not about our responsibility to the tradition of activism,” informed LeBron.“Speak up. Use our influence,” he further added. “And renounce all violence. And most importantly, go back to our communities, invest our time, our resources, help rebuild them, help strengthen them, help change them.”

This strong message reached great heights and people revered the four athletes.  Now, in this time of chaos and injustice prevailing over humanity, Dwyane Wade feels the need for their speech to be re-watched.

The motive of the speech was to inspire everyone to rise up and voice out against discrimination and injustice. It is never the wrong time to stand up for the sake of humanity and for a better world.