It's always a sobering reminder of how fast time flies whenever it's time for teenagers who grew up watching the likes of LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry to enter the league. It's a surreal moment for these youngsters to finally share an NBA court with those living legends, with Portland Trail Blazers rookie Scoot Henderson sharing the floor with Durant for the first time in his career on Thursday night during a preseason game against the Phoenix Suns.

Henderson, however, knows that he deserves his place in the NBA, and that there's no reason for him to be lost in the astonishment that comes with the realization that here he is, sharing a court with one of the greatest basketball players to ever suit up in history.

“Nah. I ain't star-struck. I ain't gonna be star-struck, either,” Henderson replied when asked whether he'd be star-struck when coming up against Kevin Durant, per Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report.

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The mental game is an important, if a bit overlooked, aspect of the game that rookies tend to have difficulties processing. After all, it's a gigantic leap for players as young as the Blazers rookie is to go from battling against collegiate-level talent or, in Scoot Henderson's case as a member of the G-League Ignite last season, fringe-NBA talent to coming up against the cream of the crop.

Moreover, Henderson, according to reputable Oklahoma City Thunder reporters Brandon Rahbar and Rylan Stiles, grew up idolizing Russell Westbrook, which means that he also spent plenty of his time watching Kevin Durant, for those two were teammates for eight years. So for him to go from that kid watching the NBA from a distance or from a screen to being that person many people around the globe keep an eye out for? That is definitely a surreal leap for the 19-year old guard.

But as the future of the Blazers, Scoot Henderson will have the responsibility of lifting the team to great heights, which means that he doesn't have the time to bask in the surrealism of the situation he finds himself in at the moment.