Melo raising funds for hurricane relief in Puerto Rico, pledges $50K

Carmelo Anthony wants to help the people in Puerto Rico, but he can't do it alone.

That's why the New York Knicks forward created a YouCaring page to aid Hurricane Maria relief efforts, and wrote about the storm's impact on the Caribbean island, which Anthony's father hails from. He has relatives there as well.

The 10-time All-Star, who's been doing community work in Puerto Rico over the past decade, pledged $50,000 of his own money and set a goal of $1 million to help victims of the natural disaster. The hurricane ripped through the island and left it drenched, destroyed, and mostly without power.

"Puerto Ricans are facing the possibility of six months of that kind of struggle," Anthony wrote in The Players' Tribune on Friday.

"I think about my own family in that situation and I can't even wrap my mind around it. I can't grasp it. I know there's so many different things going on in America and in the world right now that need our attention, but damn … I need your help. I need the help of anybody reading this. We have to help the people of Puerto Rico get the supplies they need to survive day to day until their country can be built up again."

"I'm stepping up to the forefront. I've gotta fight for my people, my island," he said in the video. "And I'm just asking everybody else to help me out."