By David DuPree, USA TODAY


SAN ANTONIO — R.C. Buford knew the first time he saw Tony Parker play that he was going to be a star. Convincing Gregg Popovich was another matter.
Popovich, head coach of the San Antonio Spurs and the team's general manager at the time, was not impressed after watching the French teenager get manhandled in a private workout in 2001, calling him "just another little skinny guy."

Buford, serving as Popovich's assistant general manager, believed in Parker and wouldn't take no for an answer.

He had a second-year intern, Sam Presti, make a tape of Parker.

"Once Pop watched it and saw Tony could do all of the things he thought he couldn't do, it opened his eyes a bit," Buford says. "And the second time Tony came through, five minutes into the workout, Pop grabbed everybody to the side and said, 'This guy will start for us 10 games into his rookie year.' "

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As a result of Buford's persistence, the Spurs selected Parker with the 28th and last first-round pick in the 2001 draft. Parker was starting by the fifth game.

"If it wasn't for R.C., I wouldn't be here," said the two-time NBA All-Star, a significant piece of the Spurs' past two NBA titles.

And if it wasn't for the self-effacing Buford, now senior vice president/general manager, the Spurs' franchise might not be where it is either. San Antonio will host the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals (9 ET, ESPN).


GAME 2 PREVIEW: DuPree's moves and countermoves

It's Buford's vision and eye for talent and vision which not only landed Parker but also have helped build the Spurs into one of the more successful franchises in professional sports. In addition to having a hand in drafting Manu Ginobili, Buford mentored Cleveland Cavaliers GM Danny Ferry and is grooming one of the NBA's most respected young personnel men in Presti, who has gone from intern to vice president/assistant general manager at the age of 30.

Over the past 10 seasons, the Spurs have won three NBA championships (in 1999, 2003 and 2005) and have the best cumulative record during that span of any franchise in the four major pro sports, 559-229 (.709 winning percentage).

"I trust him implicitly," Spurs owner Peter Holt said of Buford. "He is always looking at the big picture and long term. So we never get ourselves in too awkward a position in terms of contracts or dollars so that we have flexibility, which is so hard to do these days. We have the main three (Tim Duncan, Parker and Ginobili), but we've always managed to bring the right players in around them."

Buford not only finds them and gets them to San Antonio, he also takes a personal interest.

"He doesn't make any promises that he doesn't keep," Parker said. "You know from the very beginning what is expected of you, what you have to do to play here, and they do everything they can to help you."

A basketball education

Buford, 47, had a limited collegiate career at Texas A&M and Oklahoma State, and readily admits: "I was terrible." But coaching, scouting and administration was another thing. He could have followed his father, a succcessful businessman in Wichita. He took the long road instead.

"He kind of created this career for himself, and he did so because he was unyielding," said Doran Gentry, a high-school classmate of Buford. "He was true to his passion, true to his heart — that's been the key to his success."

Buford joined Larry Brown's staff at Kansas in 1983 as a graduate assistant, and was with the Jayhawks when Brown led them to the 1986 Final Four and 1988 NCAA championship. In 1988, he followed Brown to San Antonio, where Popovich also was hired to the staff as an assistant.

"I worked for Larry Brown for 11 years as an assistant coach and also with Pop," Buford said. "That's not Basketball 101; that's basketball Ph.D. everyday."

He again stayed with Brown when Brown moved to the Los Angeles Clippers in February 1992, but then joined Lon Kruger's staff at the University of Florida in 1993. After the Gators made the 1994 Final Four, Buford interviewed for the head-coaching job at Pepperdine. It proved to be the best job he didn't get.

In 1994, Popovich became the Spurs' executive vice president and general manager, and he hired Buford as head scout. Holt bought into the team in 1996, and the three have been together since.

"We built this thing together," Buford said. "My role in the whole deal is I am very process oriented. I function better if it is a step-by-step process. It works because we've had good players. The system has helped us not screw it up."

Liked Parker's maturity

Buford was sold on Parker as a player at the 2000 Nike Hoop Summit, an annual all-star game pitting 19-and-under players from the United States against prospects from the rest of the world.

"He was playing out of position at the two guard, and the other team had Zach Randolph and Darius Miles and a bunch of big-time American players," Buford recalled. "Tony just kicked their behinds and acted like it was no big deal.

"I just thought Tony had a maturity about him, and I liked the fact that he had been in a pro locker room since he was 16 and knew how to deal with a mature locker room like we had."

Two years earlier, Buford was instrumental in another Parker-like deal as the Spurs selected Argentine star Ginobili in the 1999 draft. San Antonio had an agreement with Dallas in which the Mavericks would select Gordan Giricek with the 40th pick and trade his rights to the Spurs, who traded his rights before he ever played with San Antonio. (Giricek is with Utah.) But it was picking Ginobili in the second round with the 57th pick which has paid big dividends.

"I think we were spot on with Tony," Buford said. "With Manu, if we were that good, we'd have taken him at 40 instead of Giricek and not waited until 57. So there is a lot of luck that goes into this, too."

While Parker came to the Spurs the year he was drafted, Ginobili was drafted in 1999 and didn't join the Spurs until the 2002-03 season.

"We know what we are looking for (hard-working, high-character, team-oriented, mentally tough, coachable and unselfish players), and the important component of it is knowing what works and what doesn't work — and that qualifies your risk," Buford said. "There are NBA players who aren't necessarily Spurs, and there are Spurs who may not fit someplace else."

One of those could be Fabricio Oberto, the Spurs' starting center and a Ginobili teammate on the Argentine Olympic team. Not drafted by any NBA team, he signed with the Spurs last year after seven seasons in Europe.

"(Buford's) got a unique eye for talent because he has a great imagination," Presti said. "He can look at guys and ask the right questions and be creative as to where and how they will fit into things down the road.

"He envisions the developmental paths they should take that would best benefit them and the team. He just takes a broader perspective on this whole thing than most people in similar positions."

Buford used to spend 120 days a year on the road, many in Europe, but he has cut that back to about 50. His wife, Beth, is a former player on the LPGA Tour and they have two children: son Chase, who will be a 6-3 freshman guard at Kansas next season, and daughter C.C., a high-school freshman.

Buford is involved in the NBA's Basketball without Borders program.

He was a camp director in 2004, when he met 15-year-old Alexis Wangmene, a 6-9, 212-pound teenager from Cameroon. He and his wife became Wangmene's legal guardians. Wangmene will play as a freshman at Texas next season.

Ferry, who went from being a Spurs player to working with Buford and is in his second season running the Cavs, says Buford has a productive process for success.

"He's very intelligent and can look at things from outside the box, and ... do it without an ego," Ferry said. "He gives all of those who work with him the opportunity to do things and make contributions — and he listens to you."

Added Popovich: "A lot of guys can't judge competitiveness, but R.C. can. He knows who is going to be able to take a hit and who is going to stick their nose in there, who can be criticized and who can't, and who can handle adversity and those kinds of things."

Buford, however, hates publicity and sidesteps any accolades.

"He is so selfless and wants to stay in the background and not talk about himself," Presti said. "That's why you see very few quotes by him or about him. He just doesn't want publicity."

Holt puts it more bluntly.

"He's too self-deprecating," the owner said. "What's interesting is he looks at things differently than Pop and I do. In other words, we'll be talking about something one way and he always comes from a different angle, and then we all end up where we should be."

******

Contributing: Steve Berkowitz


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