LeBron James has been talking up his teammate, second-year player Talen Horton-Tucker, throughout the preseason. But their relationship began long before they became Lakers teammates.

Horton-Tucker has turned heads in the Lakers’ two preseason games, first scoring 19 points in their opener before exploding for 33 points on 11-for-17 shooting in their second game. James took notice, tweeting that Horton-Tucker was “flat out SPECIAL.”

James told reporters that he first noticed Horton-Tucker when he was still at Simeon High School in Chicago (the same school where Derrick Rose and Jabari Parker played, among others).

“I saw him about three and half, four years ago,” James said, according to SB Nation. “I was watching a high school basketball game and I happened to catch Simeon playing. And I told our agent at the time — it’s now Talen’s agent, Rich Paul — that he needs to take a look at this kid Talen Horton-Tucker that’s at Simeon. I think the kid is super talented.”

Years after putting Horton-Tucker on Paul’s Klutch Sports agency’s radar, the two are teammates. The Lakers traded a future second-round pick and a then-record amount of cash to move up to the 46th overall pick to select him during the 2019 NBA Draft.

In his first season, Horton-Tucker averaged 5.7 points per game in six games played with the Lakers. But his impressive preseason has Lakers coach Frank Vogel considering expanding his role.

“It’s going to make my job difficult for sure,” Vogel said after Horton-Tucker’s 33-point night, per ESPN.

“Obviously he’s still young and he’s going to make some mistakes from time to time, but he has as much defensive talent as he does offensive talent. So I feel like he’s going to fit in well for us.”

James, for one, believes the sky is the limit for the young player.

“You see what he’s doing now, and he’s going to continue to get better and better and better as the days go on,” James said. “He’ll have an opportunity to practice against us — the guys, the veterans, and things of that nature — so he’s just going to continue to improve, and he’s going to do some really good things in this league for a long time.”