NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley defended athletes who choose not to kneel during the National Anthem from being “vilified,” after the reopening of the NBA season on Thursday featured every player on the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz knelt on the court in protest.

Before the first game of the NBA’s 2019-20 season restart, players including Zion Williamson and Donovan Mitchell wore Black Lives Matter shirts as they knelt with their arms around each other while coaches and team personnel joined in. The demonstration was brought up on TNT’s halftime show after the Pelicans took a lead to the Jazz.

“That was beautifully done in unity,” Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal said. “Nice to see. Again, when you have your platform, I think it’s very important that you speak up. It’s very important that you speak your mind. When you talk about change, you have to talk about protocol.”

“We use our voice to bring awareness,” O’Neal continued. “You have to go vote … it doesn’t stop with just sending out a tweet or yelling all the time. We have to continue to fight, continue our movement, and you know follow and chase the protocol. Again, I’m proud of everyone.”

“My thing is the National Anthem means different things to different people,” Barkley responded to O’Neal. “I’m glad these guys are all unified, but if people don’t kneel, they’re not a bad person. I want to make that perfectly clear. I’m glad they had unity, but if we have a guy who doesn’t want to kneel because the anthem means something to him, he should not be vilified.”

Earlier in July, Barkley said that the NBA’s social justice efforts are “turning into a circus.”

“Instead of talking about racial equality, racial justice and economic justice, we spend all our time worrying about who’s kneeling and not kneeling, what things are being said on buses, what’s being said on jerseys. I think we’re missing the point,” Barkley said on CNBC.

Watch above, via TNT.

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