SAN ANTONIO — In the 2003 NBA Draft, the Nets had the 22nd pick. The top of their projected wish list was heavy with foreign prospects.
“We needed a point guard,” said then general manager Ed Stefanski, who sought a backup to Jason Kidd.
So the top of the list had Zoran Planinic, a 6-foot-7 point guard out of Bosnia-Herzegovina. If not for the desire for a Kidd backup, the Nets wanted a 6-8 Frenchman with assorted question marks.
But it never came to that. Boris Diaw went No. 21, one pick sooner, to the Hawks.
Diaw proved to be a true difference-maker in the 2014 NBA Finals for the Spurs who closed out the two-time defending champion Heat with a 107-84 victory in Game 5 Sunday night. Diaw contributed five points, six assists and nine rebounds in the series clincher and contributed 22 points,18 assists and 10 rebounds in the three San Antonio victories he started.
As part of the never-stop, ball-moving machine that is the Spurs offense, Diaw alleviated much of the pressure on point guard and long-time pal Tony Parker. One of Miami’s smothering tactics in 2013 and early in this series was using LeBron James on Parker but that tactic’s efficiency has been lessened by Diaw.
Diaw came off the bench in Games 1 and 2. The Spurs split those games. Coach Gregg Popovich started Diaw over Tiago Splitter in Games 3 and 4 in Miami. The Spurs routed the Heat by 19 and 21 points. He was in the starting lineup again for Sunday’s 17-point win.
“Pop just told me that I was going to start,” Diaw said before the series finale. “Trying to be a facilitator out there, just trying to make plays for others and try to make the right choices. I was just focusing on that role. Being able to be a relay. They’re pretty aggressive on their pick‑and‑rolls, so just try to be somebody that gives an outlet pass and looking for the open man.
“The more you move the ball, the more you move their defense, the more vulnerable they are.”
It was some of the stuff the Nets saw way back.
“I saw him a lot,” said Stefanski, who had Argentina’s Carlos Delfino ranked third on his 2003 draft list. “Boris had good size, not like today, he’s filled out. He was a point forward, could find the open man. The questions were athleticism and his shot. But you could tell he could play.”
The Spurs thought so, too, but they didn’t draft until 28 that year (Leandro Barbosa). In 2001, they drafted another product of France, Parker, and so they knew Diaw.
“If we scouted Tony, we knew about Boris. They were best friends since teenagers,” Spurs general manager R.C. Buford said. “So were we to draft him, we would have been thrilled but even before the draft, Boris had been here to visit Tony a lot. So we knew who he was and over the course of time, he kicked our [butt] in Phoenix quite a bit. We knew how good a player he was.”
“He really has a high basketball IQ. He raises the level for everyone,” Popovich said. “At the defensive end, he’s pretty heady, not the quickest guy in the world, but really smart. Does his work early and understands what’s going on. At the offensive end, he can score inside and out, and he passes the ball really well.
“He’s a consummate team sort of guy, so we were pretty confident that he’d be able to fit in and he’d learn the system pretty quickly,” Popovich said.
And it helped having Parker around. Parker said they have been friends since they were 14 years old.
“I played with him on the national team, so everything that you see him do today, I’ve seen him the last four, five years doing that,” Parker said. “He was playing great basketball in Phoenix, had some rough years with the Bobcats. And when the Spurs asked me about Boris and should we take him, I was like, ‘He’ll be a great fit for our team.’”
Who knows, if Atlanta had wanted a point guard 11 years ago, Diaw might be in Brooklyn.