Here’s A Photo Of A Young Chris Paul With Tim Duncan

It’s hard to believe but Chris Paul has already been in the NBA for 10 seasons, split between his time with the Hornets and the Clippers. It’s even harder to believe Tim Duncan has been in the league for almost double that amount of time. In 1997, when Duncan was drafted by the Spurs with the top overall pick, Paul was only 12 years old.

Now Paul is in his 30s and Duncan is facing retirement talk every summer. But the two future Hall of Famers, who have met twice in the postseason, both have serious title aspirations in 2015-16. Duncan is hoping for a sixth ring (take that Kobe!), and Paul still looking for his first trip to the Conference Finals.

However, back in the late ’90s, when Duncan was still a young man and Paul was just hitting puberty, the two got together for this photo.

Duncan, of course, spent four years at Wake Forest, where Paul would also go six years after Duncan graduated (both literally — yeah, guys used to get a diploma back in the day — and figuratively) to the pros. Paul grew up in Winston-Salem, where Wake is located, so that could help explain how the two got together for this pic the wonderful nostalgia-inducing SI Vault shared on Twitter today.

Except, who the heck is the other guy in the background of the photo?

While I’m sure Paul looked up to Duncan when he was a kid, he would probably like nothing more than to beat Duncan again in the postseason on the way to his first Conference Finals appearance.