CLEVELAND -- Jayson Tatum will be seeing plenty of LeBron James in the coming weeks.
But eight years ago, the Boston Celtics rookie forward was just trying to get a follow.
In the hours after the Celtics clinched an Eastern Conference Finals rematch with James' Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night, an old tweet of Tatum's began to make the rounds. In the post from 2012, Tatum -- who would have been 14-years-old at the time -- asked James to follow him back on Twitter while sending him a picture he had taken with the Cavs superstar at a game years earlier.
According to MassLive.com's Jay King, Tatum took the picture with James when he was nine or 10-years-old.
"I was like in fourth grade when I took that photo," Tatum said. "And I was like nine or 10. I remember after the game, I took a picture of him. And then I guess five years ago I tweeted it trying to get a follow back."
Tatum has since played three games against James, including the first contest of his own professional career. The No. 3 pick of the 2017 NBA Draft, however, has yet to mention the picture -- or tweet -- to James, who is four wins away from advancing to his eighth straight NBA Finals appearance.
"I said what's up," Tatum said of his first encounter with James prior to the season opener between the Cavs and Celtics. "But I didn't mention anything - I forgot about the picture and the tweet."
After a rookie season in which he averaged 13.9 points per game, the Duke product has become the injury-riddled Celtics' top offensive option throughout their run to the East Finals. Tatum has scored at least 20 points in each of Boston's last seven games, including a 25-point performance in the Celtics' series-clinching Game 5 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night.
Given his emergence in recent weeks, Tatum will likely be a top target of the Cavs -- and potentially James -- in their upcoming series. Suffice to say, there will be plenty of more photo opportunities for the Celtics rookie with the 4-time MVP in the coming weeks.
Heck, he might even get that follow.
