SAN ANTONIO — Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama seem to already be clicking.
Paul — a 12-time All-Star entering his 20th season in the NBA — made his preseason debut with San Antonio on Wednesday night, getting a loud ovation from his new home crowd when he was the final player announced as part of the Spurs’ starting lineup against the Orlando Magic.
And his first assist in his new uniform was fitting — an alley-oop lob that set Wembanyama up for a dunk late in the first quarter. Paul finished with five points and three assists, two of them to Wembanyama, in 23 minutes.
“Felt very natural. Felt like it was the good play,” Wembanyama said of that first lob from Paul. “And he’s making a lot of good plays.”
The Spurs are Paul’s seventh NBA franchise and when he makes his regular-season debut — preseason games don’t count for anything official — the 6-foot guard will become the 11th player to appear in 20 NBA seasons.
“He’s so wise and he’s got so much experience,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Paul after San Antonio’s 107-97 win. “Sometimes I get mesmerized just listening to him say things to players. ‘I should have thought of that,’ that kind of thing. He mentors them well and he does it the right way.”
Vince Carter played in 22 seasons, a record that LeBron James will tie when he makes his first appearance this season. Robert Parish, Kevin Willis, Kevin Garnett and Dirk Nowitzki all played 21 seasons, and four other players — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Jamal Crawford and Udonis Haslem — reached the 20-season mark.
Paul is also third on the NBA’s all-time assist list with 11,894. He’s 197 shy of Jason Kidd (12,097) for No. 2 on that list, and John Stockton holds the record with 15,806.
“Being on the court with him certainly feels like he’s got things in control,” Wembanyama said. “It’s reassuring, a little bit. It’s one more teammate I can rely on in tough moments or doubt moments. It’s only positive.”
Paul’s first game with the Spurs was one of many notable debuts that will occur throughout the preseason by top players who’ll be in new uniforms this season. Among them: Russell Westbrook debuted with Denver in Abu Dhabi last week, Karl-Anthony Towns had 10 points in 15 minutes Sunday in his first exhibition as part of the New York Knicks, and DeMar DeRozan appeared in a preseason game with Sacramento for the first time Wednesday against Golden State.
Evidently, DeRozan is still learning his way around. “Which way do I go?” DeRozan asked as he walked into the arena. But on the court, he was a quick study — the first points of Sacramento’s preseason came on DeRozan’s trademark midrange jumper.
On Thursday, Klay Thompson — who has only played for Golden State, until now — is expected to make his pre-season debut for Dallas. Still unclear: when Paul George will make his pre-season debut for Philadelphia, which doesn’t play another exhibition until Friday.