It’s a little more than an hour before tip-off against the Miami Heat. Brandon Paul picks up his phone to check for any missed text messages. If there were any, Paul didn’t have a chance respond as the media quickly approached.

Paul sat down at his locker stall, and started to rub his chin, trying to think of an answer to this question: If he could press rewind, would he alter his decision to forgo receiving his college degree personally?

Graduation ceremonies occur once. Paul became aware that professors at the University of Illinois wanted to shake his hand, showing approval of the way he juggled the responsibilities of a student-athlete. So maybe, after years of reflection, he would change his mind about his decision not to attend graduation.

“Nah,” said Paul. “I don’t think I would change anything. I like how everything went.”

How it went didn’t exactly go according to plan, but Paul played the hand he was dealt.

At times Paul took a loss in order to position himself for a future victory. If he needed to take two steps back to move three steps forward, Paul didn’t mind.

The goal, as his mother, Lynda, says, “was very resolute in his mind. He wanted to be in the NBA and every journey, every course was necessary for him to get there.”

And now Paul is here. Currently wearing No. 3, playing the role of reserve guard for the Spurs — coached by Gregg Popovich, arguably the best coach in NBA history.

But if you know Paul, you’re aware his journey wasn’t quick. Paul’s story took years to unfold.

“Being resilient,” he said. “Never giving up, as cliché as it sounds.”

For Paul to get to his current status, setbacks had to be overcome. Disappointments had to dissolve from his mind and be replaced with more determination. It took a certain set of ingredients instilled in Paul from Lynda, and his father, Cliff.

No skipping steps, which is why the story of Brandon Paul commences from the beginning.

First wink

A former Ball State basketball player, Lynda knows a thing or two about the game. She can also identify talent, just as she did while pregnant with Brandon.

During an early stage in her pregnancy, Lynda scheduled an ultrasound to check on the status of her then second child, wanting confirmation that everything was fine.

As the doctor displayed what was happening on the inside, Lynda was busy observing from the outside. She noticed Paul’s quads where fully developed. Lynda was surprised, but she also knew something special was occurring.

“I can’t really share this with anyone unless they understand the physiological (attributes) of a ball player,” Lynda said. “His quads were just tremendously developed at that time in the womb. That’s when God first winked at me as it relates to Brandon.”

But Lynda was still unaware of Paul’s gifts on the court. Around the time Paul was in the fifth grade, she noticed something. It seemed accidental at first.

Paul’s brother, Cliff Jr., who is three years older than Brandon, was the one targeted as the hoops star of the family. Lynda noticed he physically matured sooner than his peers. Lynda felt Cliff would be tall, but in seventh grade, the growth spurt hit a halt.

The plan was still to enhance what Lynda labels, the “gifts God gave him.”

Added Lynda: “He’s left-handed. He’s smart. His basketball IQ is really high.”

Thing is, the desire wasn’t there. Cliff’s work ethic on the court wasn’t up to Lynda’s standards. Cliff Jr. worked at his game, but Lynda wanted more effort. But what Cliff Jr. lacked, his younger brother obtained.

While taking a break from attending to Cliff Jr., Lynda watched Brandon on the other side of the gym practicing with tremendous energy.

“I looked around and I noticed him shooting shots,” said Lynda. “I said, ‘Oh my gosh. I’m putting a lot of time into Cliff Jr., but he doesn’t really want to work that hard. He’s talented, but he doesn’t want to work that hard. And I have this kid over here who is working like crazy. He’s working up a sweat by himself.’”

What Lynda witnessed that day was another wink. It was only supported when his coach gave Brandon a tryout in a game.

After being inserted, Paul used that same energy Lynda witnessed. He went up for a rebound, but it wasn’t an ordinary attempt. Paul jumped so high for the ball, he actually became frightened to come down.

“How many kids do you know (who) can get to a moment where (they) recognize that (they) are in a whole other stratosphere?” Lynda asked. “How many kids can recognize that and then come over to tell his mom that? Brandon doesn’t even remember that.”

Lynda’s thought once the interaction with her son was complete: “This kid has got gifts that I’ve never seen before.”

The mission was in progress. She knew Paul’s talent could not be wasted.

For his own good

With the newfound knowledge her son had the desire to play basketball, Lynda decided to allow Paul to play with an AAU program — the Illinois HoopStars.

The coach running the team played Paul at center. Lynda felt it was a mistake, and after one game, decided to counter the coach’s move.

“He could no longer play for these guys,” Lynda recalled. “Even though that’s what the team needed because he was a jumper and he could defend the five position, I knew that he was not going to be a five ultimately. So at that moment I decided that I was going to coach.”

Lynda purchased the AAU club and all its rights for roughly $1,700.

The first move as the newly appointed owner and coach: “I made Brandon a one. He didn’t want to be a one because he didn’t want to handle the ball. He wanted to be a catch-and-shoot guy. So then I had to find a one, and Brandon became a two.”

Paul’s teammates loved Lynda, but Brandon was still unsold. To Paul, Lynda was mom, too. Teammates didn’t endure what Paul did. If he made a mistake, Paul would hear about it at the game, on the ride home and into the house. It was all Lynda’s way of ensuring Paul knew what he had, what he could be.

Said Paul: “She would tell me, ‘You have a God-given gift. The way to give back is to multiply your talents.’ So, that’s one thing she instilled in me.”

Early on, Paul just wanted to score via 3-pointers. Nothing more.

“He just wanted to shoot,” said Lynda. “He wanted to just park over there (in the corner), get the ball and shoot.”

But Lynda had three rules when on the court: Rebounding. Defense. Offense. They were mandatory and needed to be executed in that order.

If Paul elected to just shoot, Lynda would bench him. Another way to send a message: if the team was granted a technical foul shot, she picked a player other than Paul, the best shooter on the team, to shoot the free throw.

“Sometimes that would piss him off,” said Lynda. “He’s a good free-throw shooter, but my way of sending a message was ‘you’re not going to be the guy today.’ Some of that was team building, too, but it was sending a message to Brandon. This is serious business. Defense is serious. We can’t start our offense until we get the ball back.”

The HoopStars were playing well and Paul became convinced. His mom could coach. Paul was now open to receiving instructions.

“Once I figured it out, she really didn’t have to do too much more,” Paul said. “She knew that I was going to put forth the effort. She had to give me that little push.”

This AAU team from the suburbs of Chicago, with Paul as the star, was perceived as soft. But when the final buzzer sounded, those negative perceptions were eliminated. Lynda coached Paul through the ninth grade before letting him play for another AAU team.

“We won 99 percent of our games,” Lynda said. “The good news is we came in with other people’s perceptions of how we should perform, but 99 percent of the time, we left with a victory. So, that helped him with his resolve. It helped with his confidence. By the time he got to high school, he was ready.”

Tough road

Throughout his high school career, Paul often kept Lil Wayne’s “Best Thing Yet” on repeat. The words resonate with him. The song gave Paul motivation to do anything he wanted on the court. “I felt like it kind of spoke to me,” he said.

The song fueled Paul in December 2007 during the Pontiac Holiday Tournament. He led Warren Township High School against Oak Park, which had current Cleveland Cavaliers guard and fellow Illinois native Iman Shumpert.

Paul scored 36 points and led Warren to a 67-65 double-overtime win against Oak Park. Shumpert finished with 34.

“That was big time,” Paul said. “That was right around the time I was getting my name in high school. The whole gym, it was one-on-one, me and him. That’s pretty crazy.”

After a successful run at Warren, where he was named Illinois’ 2009 Mr. Basketball, Paul begin his career with the Fighting Illini.

One of his best performances came when he helped Illinois rally from an 11-point deficit to beat No. 5 Ohio State, 79-74, in January 2012. Paul finished with 43 points, converting eight 3-pointers in the game to tie a school record.

Paul finished his collegiate career averaging 12 points and 3.8 rebounds. He ranked ninth on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,654 points.

Considered a second-round pick entering the 2013 NBA Draft, Paul went undrafted, and chose to head overseas to play for Russian club BC Nizhny Novgorod in August of 2013.

The move wasn’t a good fit, though. Paul returned to Chicago after only 12 games. The NBA G League was the next option. Paul was acquired by the Canton Charge in February 2014, but tore the labrum in his left shoulder. The Charge released Paul the next month.

It was a perplexing moment in Paul’s career. How could things go so well in AAU, high school and then college, only to hit a roadblock? What was happening in his career? Where was that pro-level wink?

During the tough times, Paul never wavered. Instead, he remembered Brick, a chronically ill 8-year-old boy. Paul met Brick in 2009 while serving as a bingo partner at Children’s Memorial Hospital.

If Brick was laughing and telling jokes while fighting for his life, what could Paul complain about? A torn labrum? The fact his pro career got off to a rough start?

“That definitely put a lot of things in perspective for me,” Paul said.

Looking up

Paul eventually got his chance in the G League. After rejoining the Charge for the 2014-15 season, he averaged 15.1 points and 4.4 rebounds in 43 games. Following a successful stint in Badalona, Spain, Paul returned to the states to play for the Charlotte Hornets and Philadelphia Sixers in the 2016 NBA Summer League.

His stint with the Sixers turned into a non-guaranteed deal for the 2016-17 season. At that point, it felt like his plan was coming to fruition.

“I thought I had a shot to make the roster,” Paul said.

But the Sixers waived him in October 2016. Another stint overseas was the option, this time in Istanbul, Turkey. But Paul was close, and he felt it. Not once did he think about giving up his goal of making it to the NBA.

“I wouldn’t even put giving up in (my mind),” Paul said. “I told myself, and I told my agent, if I had to play the rest of my career overseas (so be it). I was making good money. I was having fun. But the way I was brought up by my mom, I couldn’t go every day without doing what I’ve done every day since then.”

The third wink

The Spurs were well aware of Paul. They worked him out in 2013, and tracked his progress. With Jonathon Simmons’ tenure in San Antonio coming to an end, the numbers game that had always frustrated Paul finally favored him.

He averaged 16.5 points and 5.5 rebounds for the Dallas Mavericks in the Orlando Summer League, and 14.3 points, 5.0 rebounds in Las Vegas for the Cavs.

The Spurs had seen enough. On July 14, they signed him to a two-year deal worth roughly $2.1 million.

“He’s one of those guys who paid his dues more than anything,” Popovich said. “No one had anything to say about him that was negative in a sense that blaming teammates or being hard to handle or not having a good worth ethic. All the things you look for. A good personality with his teammates, all that was positive.

“And you look at the places he’s been. Almost made it here. Almost made it there. Those kind of guys are very intriguing to coaches because you know don’t when the lights are going to go on and for some of those guys, it’s just a matter of numbers. Find a situation that might fit.”

But the fit is almost too perfect for one reason: Lynda. She has admired the Spurs for years and appreciated the team’s unselfish play.

Paul knew his mom was a Spurs fan, and it became his favorite team in high school. He recalled watching a game with her and was amazed by one offensive possession when the Spurs ran a set, didn’t dribble and scored.

“I turned to my mom and was like, ‘How did they just do that? They scored and didn’t dribble the ball,’” Paul remembered. “She was like, ‘It’s just Spurs basketball.’”

Said Lynda: “For Brandon to be a part (of the Spurs) his first year in the NBA, it’s as if God has winked (again). He has winked at me and said, ‘You know what? This is for you.’ That’s the way I see it.”

Still humble

The morning before Paul arrived at the AT&T Center to help the Spurs against the Heat, he noticed his friends had nothing to eat. His fridge was nearly empty. Paul didn’t want to leave his friends with nothing, so he made homemade blueberry muffins, just the way Lynda taught him.

It was further proof he hadn’t changed. He’s still humble, with added toughness. He’ll still go out his way to help others. And he doesn’t waste money, thanks again to Lynda, currently a financial planner.

But one thing has remained constant, Paul’s use of the word “blessing.” He explained why he uses the word so much as he took a trip down memory lane sitting in front of his locker.

“I truly believe everything that happened in my life was a blessing in disguise whether it was good or bad,” said Paul. “It’s all about how you perceive things. You can take things that happened and make excuses, make a story for yourself. I chose, every time something bad happened, whether it was a surgery or having to live in a foreign country, I turned into a positive.”

Paul’s dream is in progress. He’s earned enough of Popovich’s trust to have a place in the rotation.

“You’re happy for the guy,” said Spurs assistant coach Will Hardy. “I’m just happy for Brandon that he found us and we found him at the right time.”

Paul wants to contribute more with the Spurs, so he is focusing on becoming an even better defender and shooter. It’s to further the dream he’s currently living.

“I don’t want it to end,” Paul said. “I want to play until I die. I’m going to play until I’m older than (Manu) Ginobili.”

Knowing Paul’s resolve, he might accomplish that goal, too.

Twitter: @JabariJYoung