Carmelo Anthony, In Cuba and Elsewhere This Year

"We talk to the media every single day of the year, and it's the same kind of repetitive question and the same repetitive answer," says Carmelo Anthony, who has played in 830 regular season games over a dozen years in the National Basketball Association. That's a dozen years of press conferences, a dozen years of media scrums, a dozen years of interview requests.

On Tuesday, Anthony, launched "Stay Melo," a web series that he hosts and produces with VICE Sports. The show is not a direct response to the way he feels that athletes can be lost in the transactional nature of sports coverage, but it is something of an antidote. It will air in VICE Sports' new Clubhouse section, where athletes will tell stories that take place outside the stadium.

"You don't have a voice as an athlete. You can't go in there and say, 'Oh we lost the game tonight but…' Or, 'You know we won the game tonight but how about this….' 'We don't have a voice. When we do speak out as athletes, we're looked upon as arrogant, we're cocky. So for me at Vice, this was a platform where I could create for my own voice, for my own self, tell the stories that I wanted to tell."

Most of those stories will take place off the beaten path. In "Stay Melo," Anthony will visit inner cities in places like Havana, Baltimore, San Juan and Brooklyn. Sports will be a part of the show—for instance, in Havana, he explored Cuba's burgeoning soccer culture. But sports won't always be the primary focus. In another episode, Anthony meets up with the New York City street artist Swoon.

"I like to get outside the box, I like to tell the stories that nobody else is telling, the stories that aren't already out there that people can't search or Google or look up on Youtube or places like that," Anthony says.

In Havana, Anthony, who recently purchased an expansion North American Soccer League team in Puerto Rico, watched an exhibition between the New York Cosmos and the Cuban national team. He watched a group of teenagers in an indoor match, then watched some of those same kids playing in the street—which is where he got his start as a basketball player.

"If it wasn't for streetball, I wouldn't be who I am today," Anthony observes in the video. He's a regular tourist in Havana, dancing in the street with buskers, observing a cigar roller, and riding in an antique taxi. And for him, that's the point. It's just Anthony living life, pursuing his interests.

"I could have been with a lot of these other media places and companies, but I didn't feel like it was the right fit for me," he says. "I didn't feel like what I would be doing would be authentic. I didn't feel like I would have had a voice."

"As athletes, there's more to us than just throwing a football, or swinging a bat, or kicking a soccer ball, or shooting a three or dunking. There's more to us."