Shaquille O’Neal talks on the phone during a break in a match between Caroline Wozniacki and Anastasija Sevastova at the 2016 U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York. (AP/Charles Krupa)

As he prepares for his induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday, Shaquille O’Neal paid a visit to Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends” for a chat. One of the topics that came up: Colin Kaepernick’s ongoing refusal to stand for the singing of the national anthem before NFL games, a decision he says he has made in protest of the oppression of black people and other people of color. For his part, the legendary center says he’s not on board with the San Francisco 49ers quarterback’s chosen method of protest.

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After a news brief on an offshoot of the larger Kaepernick story — the statement by John Tortorella, head coach of the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets and the United States’ entrant in the upcoming World Cup of Hockey, that any Team USA players who choose to sit on the bench for the national anthem “will sit there the rest of the game” — the anchors asked O’Neal for his view on anthem protests. The four-time NBA champion, 15-time All-Star and “Inside the NBA” commentator responded:

I mean, to each his own. It’s something I wouldn’t do. His comments were there are injustices. There have always been injustices. Me, personally, I would probably go about it a different way. You know, my question is, what happened last year? How come you didn’t decide to do this last year or the year before that or the year before that?

I don’t know Colin, but to each his own. I don’t really have a say on it, but I would never do that. My father was a military man, and he protected this country. My uncles are in law enforcement. They go out and work hard every day. Just, there are other ways to get your point across.

O’Neal also asserted that while some might call for him as a black man to support Kaepernick’s protest of systemic racism, he can be both black and pro-military and pro law-enforcement. From there, he questioned why Kaepernick only began to start speaking up on these issues now:

Again, my thing is, you have to enter onto the scene one way. People like Muhammad Ali and Bill Russell, they were one way their whole career. You can’t show us something and then go to another just because of certain issues. I’m aware of all the issues, but my question is, how come you didn’t do it last year? Or how come you didn’t do it when you first entered the NFL? I don’t know Colin. To each his own. It’s his constitutional right to do that, but I’d never do that.

O’Neal’s comments strike a different note from those of reigning two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors. He said in a Wednesday interview on CNBC that he applauds Kaepernick “for taking a stand,” and hoped that as the conversation the quarterback sparked moves forward, the focus trains on what “his message was and not, ‘Is he going to stand or is he going to sit for the national anthem?'”

O’Neal’s question about timing seems to point at the difference in Kaepernick’s standing in the sporting world in 2016, as a backup quarterback on what’s largely expected to be a bad football team, and where it was in 2012 through 2014, when he ascended to a starting role and helped the 49ers make one Super Bowl and come within a last-minute interception of making a second, earning a six-year, $126 million contract.

Maybe Kaepernick made his choice because he’s already gotten paid, was viewed as being on his way out of the league and believed he had little to lose. Maybe he made it because, as he’s seen and experienced different things between the ages of 23 and 28, the way he’s thought about them has changed. As the author and political activist Arundhati Roy once wrote, “The trouble is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you’ve seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out.”

For what it’s worth, Kaepernick addressed a version of the “why now?” question in his 18-minute media session with reporters on Aug. 28, after his protest was first noticed. From Tim Kawakami’s transcript for the Bay Area News Group:

-Q: Is this something that has evolved in your mind? How has it progressed to where you make a stand like this?

-KAEPERNICK: It’s something that I’ve seen, I’ve felt. Wasn’t quite sure how to deal with originally. And it is something that’s evolved. It’s something that as I’ve gained more knowledge about what’s gone on in this country in the past, what’s going on currently, these aren’t new situations.