For decades, Jordan attempted to remain apolitical, branding himself as an athlete first, and later a businessman. His silence on matters of social justice almost seemed to say more than any outright support of one party or another would have done, but there was one political statement that haunted him for years. As Slate reported in 2016, Jordan was quoted in sportswriter Sam Smith’s 1995 book Second Coming as saying that “Republicans buy shoes, too,” when asked about why he infamously failed to endorse Black Democratic candidate Harvey Gantt in 1990 when he narrowly lost to unabashedly white supremacist Republican incumbent Jesse Helms.

For Abdul-Jabbar, who has been consistently outspoken since his days at UCLA, Jordan’s failure to use his platform for good was simply unforgivable. “You can’t be afraid of losing shoe sales if you’re worried about your civil and human rights,” he told NPR in 2015. “He took commerce over conscience. It’s unfortunate for him, but he’s gotta live with it.”

Abdul-Jabbar knew what it was like to live with the consequences of listening to his conscience. When legendary racial and economic justice advocate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, Kareem joined other students at UCLA in protest, despite people’s warnings that it could negatively affect his chances to play in the NBA. “To me there was no correlation,” he said. “Somebody needed to speak out about what had happened.”