"The 2000-01 Spurs had won 58 games in the regular season, best in the league, but the achievement felt hollow. The Lakers, in a sweep, made sure of that.

If that sounds familiar, so should this: The Spurs of 10 years ago went into the draft with the 28th overall selection, just one better than the 29th they have this week.

No one in San Antonio saw a change coming then, either, including Gregg Popovich. "There's nobody really in the draft," he said at the time, "that can help us immediately."

What followed doesn't suggest a repeat will come Thursday.

It just shows what is possible.

Tony Parker didn't impress Popovich initially. An intern named Sam Presti, as the story goes, put together a video to change Popovich's mind.

The Spurs worked out Parker privately in Chicago, then brought him to San Antonio for another look. They liked him the more they talked to him.

The Spurs often gave prospects a massive, 183-question exam to test their mental makeup. They didn't bother with someone who had just turned 19.

But other teams were catching on, too. According to one website then, "Parker wowed scouts in his workout in Orlando, and the Magic, along with most of the NBA, are now projecting him as the top point guard in the draft."

The Spurs were suddenly praying the kid would fall to them, even as they tried to act cool about him. Popovich's quote that no one "can help us immediately" fit into that. The Spurs were as secretive with their draft plans 10 years ago as they are now.

Before the 2001 draft, only two newspapers predicted Parker would go to the Spurs. One was the Chicago Sun-Times, the other the San Antonio Express-News.

"Parker's stock is rising," said the latter in its mock draft, "so he may be gone earlier."

It was an educated guess, and an accurate one. The Dallas Morning News had Parker going earlier to Portland, for example, and the Detroit Free-Press to Sacramento."