New San Antonio Spur Chris Paul explains decades-old photo of him with Tim Duncan

A 1997 photo of a teenage Chris Paul smiling alongside a rookie Tim Duncan made the rounds online over the past couple of weeks. It started when rumors swirled that the San Antonio Spurs had their sights on Paul for the upcoming season — a deal finalized earlier this week.

The photo of Paul and Duncan isn't new. It was originally released by Sports Illustrated in October 2015, the final season of Duncan’s illustrious career with the Spurs. When it was first published , there wasn’t much context included with the photo.

“It’s young Chris Paul and old Tim Duncan," the caption on social media read.

During a Tuesday press conference at The Rock at La Cantera where the team officially welcomed Paul and new forward Harrison Barnes, Paul described his photo with Duncan in more detail. It turns out that as a kid, Paul played on the same AAU basketball team as Duncan’s nephew Shane.

“We were teammates, like 11 to 14,” Paul told the Current . “Tim, in that picture, he had just gotten drafted. And we were in Utah at Nationals, and Tim came to watch us.”

Paul added that when he was a young teen growing up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, he would go to the local YMCA and “watch Tim hoop” when Duncan was playing for Wake Forest University. Paul also went on to play basketball for two seasons at Wake Forest. That was six years after Duncan graduated and was chosen as the No. 1 NBA draft pick by the Spurs in 1997.

Paul also played pickup basketball around that time with current Spurs assistant coach Darius Songaila, who was on the Wake Forest team from 1998 to 2002.

“A lot of full circle moments here,” Paul said.

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