Sam Amick

USA TODAY Sports

San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker has taken over NBA playoffs with quickness%2C skill%2C savvy

Parker was steal in 2001 draft%2C picked 28th overall by Spurs after some coercion from then-scout Sam Presti

Despite production%2C Parker drew ire from some of Spurs brass until his play%2C scouting raised profile

Before Tony Parker was the guy leading the San Antonio Spurs' against the Miami Heat in their charge for a fifth NBA championship, he was a grainy figure on general manager R.C. Buford's TV.

It was a different time in the NBA in 2001, when technology didn't allow for instant-gratification scouting and there was still a needle-in-the-haystack reality when it came to finding talent overseas. But the small-market Spurs simply had to go this route, finding players where others didn't because they couldn't cut the big-city checks or entice the stars to come their way.

So Sam Presti, then a 24-year-old Spurs scout and now general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder, would show up at Buford's home, after the kids had gone to bed, with a duffel bag full of VHS tapes of this young French wizard. He dreamed of finding the next great player to put beside superstar Tim Duncan.

They got their man in the 2001 draft, taking Parker 28th and handing him over to coach Gregg Popovich and his sink-or-swim ways.

"I just remember how excited R.C. was after it worked out in the draft," Presti told USA TODAY Sports. "The draft is a different animal, so you never know how the board will ultimately work or fall. There was some uneasiness about whether or not he would be available at our pick.

"The draft is a different animal, so you never know how the board will ultimately work or fall. There was some uneasiness about whether or not he would be available at our pick, and I just recall RC being really, really excited that Tony was there."

Twelve years later, the excitement hasn't remained so much as it has returned. Parker, 31, averaged 20.3 points per game this season, his highest average since the 2008-09 season and second best of his career. He played in his fifth All-Star Game while nearly matching his career high in assists per game and averaged 24.5 points, 9.5 assists per game in a Western Conference finals sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies. The NBA Finals start Thursday at American Airlines Arena in Miami at 9 p.m. ET (ABC).

There were times only a few years ago when it seemed as if this story would end up much differently. But the appreciation is at an all-time high.

GROWING UP: Parker thrust into fire right away

It all started when Duncan was drafted first overall in 1997. Aging veterans Avery Johnson and Terry Porter were handling point guard duties back then, and the team needed someone younger to take over.

But it wasn't a smooth transition early on. In his first workout with the Spurs, he played terribly and had Popovich wondering if his personnel men had lost their minds.

"My first three or four years, it was definitely tough coming from France, a different country and (Popovich) wanted me to grow fast," Parker told NBATV last weekend. "Sometimes I had a hard time because I felt like he was never happy, that he is a hard coach to please. But when I look back at it, he made me very strong mentally and now I really appreciate all those moments and the growing pains."

While this Spurs dynasty might never have come about if they hadn't found Parker, it hasn't been an easy road.

"He came into a difficult situation," Buford said of Parker. "He was handed the ball as a 19-year-old (and told to) go run a team that had two future Hall of Famers (Duncan and David Robinson). He (was) trying to grow into a leadership role … and you've got a coach who's very demanding, a system that's pretty sophisticated. ... That wouldn't have been easy.

"There have been times during his time here that he hasn't played like he's playing now — when he was younger you wondered where he was going to get to. But again, I think the last three or four years, he's become a big focal point of what we do."

The love-at-first-sight beginning never segued into a perfect marriage between Parker and the Spurs. There were early clashes with Popovich and the near-constant refrain that Parker wasn't a fit for their one-of-a-kind culture. He heard them all: not tough enough, not defensive-minded, too prone to taking it easy during practice.

Some wondered if his time in San Antonio would be cut short. But a funny thing happened not long after trade rumors involving Parker surfaced in the summer of 2011: the Spurs' gained a new appreciation of him, in part because of the sort of technology that was nowhere to be found at the outset of his career.

A player-tracking system called SportVU, that uses cameras inside arenas, provided data that painted a different picture of Parker. It quantified all the extra work that Parker did during games and helped them understand why all the added responsibility meant he may not stay in fifth gear for every minute of the next day's practice.

He was running longer and harder than the rest of them, hitting the floor at three times the rate of any of his teammates and paying a collective toll that deserved to be taken into account when it came to how he was perceived by his bosses. The hard-driving Popovich will never let players off easy, but there was, Buford said, "an acknowledgement of the workload that goes into playing that position."

TAKING OVER: Leadership role grows over time

More importantly, Parker shored up all those pet peeves that used to drive his coach mad. He improved defensively, showed an ability to play with poise more consistently, and became the engine of a Spurs' offense that has long since relied on his ability to make it go.

"I think the overall relationship with Pop shows a great deal of growth from Tony," Buford said. "There's a lot of the time when Pop sits there and lets Tony run the group. And if you look in the huddles, there's times when Tony sits down in the timeouts and takes over the huddle. I just think the respect that he's earned from everybody is really evident.

"There are very few nights that he's going to have outrageous turnovers, and then (there was) the purpose that he took over the game (against the Grizzlies in Game 4) with — they're not shortcuts. At one point, he might have taken a lazy shot or the path-of-least-resistance play. He doesn't do those (now). His attention to detail defensively, his attention to detail in practice, all of it is there."

In the interview with NBATV, Parker acknowledged he had to make adjustments to his game in order to become a true team leader.

"I'm getting better and better to choose my moments, when to be aggressive," he said. "For a lot of years, it was Timmy's (Duncan) time in the fourth quarter, and as the team transitioned to me and Pop challenged me and it became my team, I felt like it was my responsibility to be aggressive in those moments and make sure I stay in control."

If ever there was a sign that Parker had come so far from his start, it was there in Duncan's words after San Antonio finished off the Grizzlies.

"He's amazing, and he's evolved so much over the last couple of years," Duncan said. "To get back to this point with him at the helm, I'm just going to do everything I can to get these four games in and try to win four more for both of us."

The Spurs had 10 days rest between games as they waited to find out who their opposition in the Finals would be. It gave Parker time to scout out both teams in the Eastern Conference Finals. What was in looking for?

"Just how they play, just little stuff," Parker said. "At that stage, in the Finals, it's, 'Who's going to want it more and play with a lot more energy and cut the turnovers, mental mistakes, stuff like that?' All the little stuff is huge in the Finals."

The irony of Parker's re-emergence in these playoffs is not lost on Presti, whose team's title contention was undercut by the meniscus tear suffered by Oklahoma City point guard Russell Westbrook on April 26. The Thunder downed the Spurs in the 2012 Western Conference finals and were favored to to top them again this time around. But the Spurs are still here, with Parker leading the way like never before.

"I'm happy for him on a personal level," Presti said. "He's put in a lot of hard work and has overcome plenty of peaks and valleys — as any great player has to. I think I can certainly tell you that our team has a very, very deep respect for him not only on the floor but also his role within that evolution of that team and their sustained excellence."