Jeremy Lin continued to speak out this week against the ongoing surge in anti-Asian violence by pointing to the memory of an early brush with racist rhetoric.

Appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Tuesday, the Santa Cruz Warriors point guard pointed to an incident that occurred when he was in middle school. At the time, he said members of a rival basketball team taunted him with racial epithets on the court.

When I was in sixth grade, we were playing in a basketball game, Lin, whose family is from Taiwan, said. We were playing against some people from Southern California. Thats when they were kind of like, Go back to China! Youre a Chinese import, and other stuff like that.

The incident, he said, was particularly hurtful because it took place on the basketball court, which he viewed as a safe space where he could feel confident about himself and his athletic skills.

I always felt like, on the court, it didnt matter, he explained. Color didnt matter, skin didnt matter. It was just about who could play and who couldnt.