Any story told about Spurs legend Tim Duncan invariably falls back on his blank stoicism, his lead-by-example method of leadership or his unfailing commitment to the fundamentals. All admirable things that were at the heart of what made the Spurs the preeminent NBA franchise of the early 2000s, but not exactly the most exciting to reminisce about.

Like a Tony Parker full-court bounce pass to Manu Ginobili on the fast break, though, sometimes a more relatable Duncan story slips through. That’s what happened when his former teammate Stephen Jackson, with whom he won a championship in 2003, appeared on Byron Scott’s Fast Break this week.

Duncan has always been portrayed as being in perfect lockstep with former Spurs coach and current president of basketball operations Gregg Popovich, but Jackson told a story that showed that even Duncan had a rebellious side.

“Tim liked to play paintball,” Jackson said. “I’ve never played that. We don’t play that where I’m from. And he one of the GOATs at it. So he wants to go play paintball. We’re in training camp, Pop tells us not to go. Of course Tim go, and he calls me. ‘F*** it, Tim. I’m going with you, let’s go.’ We call all the guys, we go play.”

There are a number of shocking revelations just in the introduction to Jackson’s story, from Duncan’s immediate disregard toward Popovich’s directive to the effortless way he rounded everybody up to follow him in side-stepping Pop’s authority.

Of course, this wouldn’t be much of a story if nothing had gone wrong. Unfortunately for Jackson, his equipment failed him and he was faced with some tough consequences.

“I been shot at for real. These ain’t real bullets, so I ain’t worried about it,” Jackson laughed. “So Tim tells me, ‘Jack, go grab the flag.’ So I drop my gun, I run, and you gotta run up the steps. This is my first time playing, so I’m not privy to different type of masks that fog up — Tim done got all that, the rapid fire, the hair triggers, all that.”

“So I got this generic s***, so my mask fogged up running up the steps. And I missed a step, slipped, mask went up, BOOM, mouth blood everywhere, I’m talking like lip instant swole up.”

Jackson proceeded to come down the hill with his mask on, only to get shot up by the opposing team. The next day at practice, there was no hiding the injuries he’d suffered, which meant that the team-wide insubordination was perilously close to being exposed.

“Pop come in there. ‘Jack, what happened?'” he recalled. Rather than spill the beans, he came up with a quick lie to protect himself and his teammates. “Slipped at the house, wrestling with my homeboy, I slipped at the house and hit my mouth on the door.”

Duncan witnessed the entire exchange and came up to him after Popovich had left. “Ever since that, Tim was like, ‘Oh you my guy. I didn’t even have to tell you.’ I said, ‘Tim, I know how it go, bro.’ So that’s how I got his loyalty, and that’s how I got on the court. As you seen, when I played with him, if he getting double-teamed, he throwing me the ball.”

Jackson played two seasons with the Spurs, and his importance grew immensely in that second season as he went from playing less than 10 minutes per game as a reserve to starting 58 games and playing over 28 minutes per game. Later that year, the Spurs won the title over the New Jersey Nets in six games, the second of five rings they’d go on to win in the Popovich-Duncan era.

Despite Jackson’s close relationship with Duncan, it was his relationship with the team’s other star, Tony Parker, that turned sour. After their beef continued to worsen, Jackson left the Spurs for less money and less stability just to get away from Parker.

Still, a ring is the ultimate goal of any team, and the Spurs did that quite a bit. Duncan won five rings as the franchise centerpiece. Popovich is widely considered the greatest coach of all time, with an NBA record 1,422 regular season wins, and recently retired after a nearly three decade long career.