Nearly 24 years ago, basketball star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf knew he had to stand up for his beliefs, even if it was going to cost him his NBA career.

When the news of his protest spread, Abdul-Rauf’s position was met with swift punishment from the NBA and the American people.

HuffPost spoke to Abdul-Rauf from his Atlanta home about George Floyd’s death, the anti-racism protests and how his Muslim faith continues to keep him grounded.

To constantly wake up to televised and broad-daylight public executions in what we would classify as the murder of Black people, with George Floyd being the most recent and visible casualty.

If you pull up the conversation of what was going on then, the issues that black people and minorities were dealing with and what they were demanding, it’s some of that same stuff now.