The last time the Spurs advanced to the second round of the NBA playoffs, Kyle Anderson was there.

The 6-foot-8 forward was 22 and in his second professional season in 2017, when the Spurs defeated Houston in six games to qualify for a Western Conference finals meeting against Golden State.

He was courtside in that series when the Warriors’ Zaza Pachulia slid under the ankles of Kawhi Leonard, the first domino that began the demise of the Spurs’ first championship era.

Now Anderson is 32 and a veteran voice on a Minnesota team looking to deny a revamped and reinvigorated Spurs squad their long-awaited return trip to the conference finals.

The Express-News went one-on-one with Anderson before the Timberwolves’ series before it opened this week in San Antonio.

Here is Anderson on a return to familiar stomping grounds, the rookie welcome he received in San Antonio in 2014 and why he still doesn’t feel like an NBA veteran, even in his 12^th season:

E-N: You’ve been gone for nearly eight years now. Does a return to San Antonio still feel like a homecoming at all for you?

Anderson: “Not in the playoffs. Every regular-season game coming back, fans show a lot of love and you breathe familiar air. But not now.”

E-N: How do you think starting your career with the Spurs set you up to have the career you’ve had?

Anderson: “Just learning habits from great guys, Hall of Fame players who were great people off the court. They really helped me out handling situations. Danny Green, Boris (Diaw), Paul Gasol, Tony, all those guys. It was a great bunch of guys.”

E-N: The Spurs selected you with the final pick of the first round in the 2014 draft, literally days after winning the NBA championship. What was it like to be a rookie on that team at that time?

Anderson: “They’ll probably get mad at me for saying this, but I could tell they were pretty tired the year after, my rookie year. Maybe they weren’t as inspired. They got the (Los Angeles) Clippers in the first round and went seven games (and lost). It was a fun year. My second, third and fourth year were great too.”

E-N: You mentioned the boatload of Hall of Famers on the roster your first season – Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili. Were you at all in awe to be sharing a locker room with those guys as a 21-year-old fresh out of college at UCLA?

Anderson: (Laughs) “I think I’ve told people this before, but nobody spoke to me until like January. It took a while. I had a good game in Portland my rookie year and people finally started speaking to me. Tim came up to me and was like, “What’s your name?”

E-N: You spent the first four seasons of your career with the Spurs, leaving for Memphis in 2019. You also had stints in Golden State, Miami and Utah before the Timberwolves brought you back last summer. So what’s it like to be considered a grizzled veteran?

Anderson: “It’s pretty cool. On that (old Spurs) team, though, even in year 12, you wouldn’t be that old still. They had a lot of 38-year-olds, a lot of  37-year-olds. I don’t see myself as a vet until I’m 36, 37, 38.”

E-N: This Spurs squad is built a little differently than the ones you were on, younger and more athletic. Do you see any other differences or similarities?

Anderson: “(Laughing) Yeah, they shoot a lot of contested shots. Pop would have flipped out if we took those kind of contested shots.”

E-N: What do you make of your team’s chances in this series? You guys had to overcome some adversity against Denver in the first round to get here.

Anderson: “I think we’re really good. We’re a good team, capable of beating anybody. We’re ready to rock and roll in this series. The same situation with San Antonio. They’re a really good team. We’ll see how it goes.”

E-N: You played with the Spurs’ last star big man in Duncan. Now they are led by a completely different kind of superstar in Victor Wembanyama. What are your thoughts on him as the new torch-bearer in San Antonio?

Anderson: “He’s a generational talent. The things he can do on the floor on both ends is just crazy. I’m excited to see his future, but we don’t want him to win this series.”