Chris Paul's cheeky 2-word reaction to Stephon Castle's MVP feat as he gears up for skills challenge with Victor Wembanyama

The San Antonio Spurs have a bright future with young talents like Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle. In fact, Castle gave everyone another glimpse of his potential with his performance during Friday's Castrol Rising Stars game.

Castle helped lead Team C to a championship, and was promptly named as the MVP. His veteran teammate, Chris Paul, who's had his fair share of moments in the All-Star weekend before, took time to congratulate the Spurs rookie.

Paul shared a post on his Instagram Story to celebrate Castle's MVP win. He also added a caption to indicate his confidence that the Spurs players could bring home more awards by the end of the All-Star festivities.

"1 down," Paul captioned the story.

Chris Paul's IG Story (Photo credits: cp3/Instagram)

Chris Paul will also be participating in this year's All-Star weekend's Skills Challenge as part of Team Spurs on Saturday. He will be playing alongside Victor Wembanyama and will compete against Team Warriors (Draymond Green & Moses Moody), Team Cavs (Donovan Mitchell & Evan Mobley) and Team Rooks (Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr).

Wemby and CP3 won't be the only Spurs players who will be participating in day two's festivities, though. Rookie Stephon Castle has a chance to bring home more hardware in the Slam Dunk Contest. He will face off against Andre Jackson Jr., Matas Buzelis and Mac McClung who have been crowned the Slam Dunk champions the last two years.

Castle's first All-Star weekend doesn't end on the second day. With Team C's victory in the Castrol Rising Stars event, they booked themselves a spot in the All-Star game mini-tournament on Sunday.

Stephon Castle and company will face off against Shaquille O'Neal's squad, called Shaq's OGs. The winners of this game will go on to face the winner of Team Chuck vs. Team Kenny to decide the All-Star game champions.

---

How did Stephon Castle perform in the Rising Stars event?

Stephon Castle teamed up with fellow rookies Zach Edey, Jaylen Wells, Ryan Dunn and Dalton Knecht. They were also with second-year players Trayce Jackson-Davis and Keyonte George to complete Team C, named after the team's honorary coach, Chris Mullin.

They first faced off against Team T (Tim Hardaway). His squad consisted of Zaccharie Risacher, Alex Sarr, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Gradey Dick, Anthony Black, Brandin Podziemski, and Tristan Da Silva.

Team C won 40-34 with Castle scoring six points on 50% shooting (3-for-6). He also stuffed the stat sheet with four boards and four assists. They advanced to face off Team G-League, who beat Team M (Mitch Richmond).

In the championship game, Castle scored a game-high 12 points on a 5-for-8 shooting clip. He also grabbed three boards and dished two assists. His performance led his squad to a 25-14 win.

After being awarded MVP, he had a message for Team Shaq, who they will face on Sunday's All-Star game.

"Just be ready for us," Stephon Castle said. "Don't count us out, we're here to win."

Sunday's All-Star game will have a similar format to the Rising Stars event wherein four teams will compete in a single elimination tourney. Team Shaq consists of Jaylen Brown, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, Damian Lillard and Jayson Tatum.