For as unrelentingly thorough as Stan Van Gundy is in addressing the endless demands of his job, his capacity for “stop and smell the roses” moments can be astonishing.

With tipoff to Wednesday’s season opener at Toronto bearing down on him, he took a few moments before his gathered players in the locker room to congratulate rookies Henry Ellenson and Michael Gbinije on the accomplishment of joining the very exclusive club of NBA players.

“I said to them before the game – I always do with the rookies – even though you’re getting ready to play a game, congratulate those guys. It’s a big moment. It’s easy to bypass that because they know it’s been coming for a month, but that’s a big moment.”

“It was really cool to hear congratulations from Coach,” Ellenson said. “This is a long time coming, to get to a point like this, and so it was really cool for Stan to congratulate us. The whole team did. It was surreal going into last night.”

There are only 450 NBA roster spots available and thousands of players on six continents who believe they’re one break from joining the ranks. There are nearly as many paths to the NBA as there are players who travel them, evidenced by the divergent routes taken by Ellenson and Gbinije.

Ellenson grew up in small-town northwestern Wisconsin, where McDonald’s All-Americans aren’t supposed to be cultivated, and came to the NBA as a 19-year-old. Gbinije spent a year at Duke after attending various Virginia high schools, sat out a year as a transfer student and then finished up with three years at Syracuse, arriving in Detroit as a 24-year-old. With AAU programs, the internet and TV shrinking the globe, there’s not much surprise left no matter what the background story of those who make it to basketball’s grandest stage.

“It’s amazing when you think of these kids now,” Van Gundy said. “First of all, I can’t image the guys (Ellenson) was playing against at Rice Lake High School that had to guard that kid. I mean, shoot, our guys have trouble guarding him. And then Gbinije had to really fight to be here. He transferred and he had to go through a lot. I give those guys a lot of credit. What they’re doing is not easy.”

With 2:10 left and Toronto having pulled away, Van Gundy acted to get both their first NBA minutes. Gbinije missed a 3-point attempt but made both his free throws; Ellenson missed his only shot but grabbed a rebound at each end.

“I was able to get in and got a couple of rebounds, had a look but it didn’t drop,” Ellenson said. “That was one game of many. It’s time to build off of that.”

NBA pregame introductions are a show unto themselves these days and an arena takes on a different vibe for opening night. Ellenson had a pinch-me moment as he stood through the two national anthems and saw Toronto’s laser-light intros.

“As soon as their intros were done and the stadium was just packed and rocking, you could see the smoke from their fire machine,” he said. “The game got under way, you knew it was real. This is the regular season. Now it’s time to go.”

Back in Rice Lake, there were a few interested observers, too.

“I had a lot of family members, a lot of friends text me last night, ‘Good luck and congrats on making it to this moment,’ ” Ellenson said. “I didn’t get here by myself. I know that I have a lot of people supporting me, so it was neat to hear from all of them.”

Based on all the glowing reports on Ellenson from Van Gundy and his teammates so far, chances are he’ll have more memorable nights as his NBA career unfolds. But his first night won’t be one he forgets any time soon.