Former NBA Commissioner David Stern said during a Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast that former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick would still be working today if he were a basketball player.

According to Bloomberg, Stern said on the podcast, which will air Feb. 18, letting players speak their mind was part of the NBA's game plan to make the sport more visible.

"As we were digging out of a terrible hole for us -- in the late ’70s and ’80s, when there was a fair amount of racism exhibited about players -- we felt as a matter of policy we had to promote our players and show that they were real people,” he said during the podcast. “And it worked.”

Kaepernick, 31, hasn't played in the NFL since 2016 when he started kneeling during the national anthem as a protest against racial inequality and police brutality.

Per Bloomberg, Stern said during the podcast that if the NFL would have suspended Kaepernick, he probably would have been able to continue his career.

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In the mid-1990s, Stern had a similar situation when Denver Nuggets guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf stayed in the locker room during the anthem. Abdul-Rauf viewed the anthem as a symbol of oppression. Stern's suspended him for one game and fined him $32,000.

Stern then negotiated a compromise allowing Abdul-Rauf to come out for the anthem and stand in prayer.

While acknowledging some fans are upset with Kaepernick, Stern said he believed many enjoyed the NFL too much to abandon it if the quarterback were to be signed by a team.

“Look at the bounceback the NFL had this season,” he said. “They are the No. 1 sports property and the No. 1 television property likely in the world, other than the Olympics and the World Cup.”