ORLANDO, Fla. -- At 9 a.m. on Wednesday, as the NBA Pre-Draft Camp's mass of first-round bubble men, second-round hopefuls and likely free agents were commencing their daily drills at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex, a possible No. 1 overall pick was in a more secretive setting 15 minutes away. In a quiet, white-walled high school gym, LSU's Tyrus Thomas was halfway through his morning workout, standing at the free-throw line during a brief pause in the action.

Thomas' basketball trainer, ex-Tiger and NBA vet Randy Livingston, bounced him the ball and said, "This is the difference between 15 [points] and 20, between 13 and 18." Thomas dribbled at the stripe and proceeded to announce his shots in a peculiar fashion.

"New York City one!"

Rim, backboard, in.

"New York City two!"

Swish.

Those are lines, Thomas later explained, from the 1999 Eddie Murphy-Martin Lawrence joint Life, and he was reciting them arbitrarily -- but was willing to acknowledge their geographical significance. Thomas has been in Orlando, along with Livingston, strength and conditioning guru Tom Shaw and workout partner Nick Lewis of San Diego since Mother's Day, on a mission to polish his game and his body for the June 28 draft in New York City.

There, the 6-foot-9 Thomas will be in the running with fellow forwards Andrea Bargnani of Italy's Bennetton Treviso, LaMarcus Aldridge of Texas and Adam Morrison of Gonzaga to become the first player selected in a wide-open draft. Toronto, holder of the No. 1-pick, is rumored to favor Bargnani, as the team plans to add Bennetton GM Maurizio Gherardini to its front office this summer. But that's no guarantee; one of Thomas' agents, Michael Siegel, said the Raptors planned to see Thomas workout later this week. If Toronto passes, it would be a shock to see Thomas fall past Chicago at No. 2.

On this day, the observers were Thomas' reps, Siegel and Brian Elfus; two of his uncles, Darcy and Shedrich Franklin (Shedrich is set to become Tyrus' "day-to-day guy" and travel companion for his rookie year); as well as three guys from Nike, who had to watch Thomas, a footwear free agent, strut his stuff in a pair of Kevin Garnett-model kicks made by adidas. Curious high school students -- a few kids gathering for summer conditioning -- periodically peeped through the glass in the gym's doors, eager to catch a glimpse of the future NBA star on their home hardwood. Or perhaps they were just concerned Thomas will inflict irreparable damage to their facilities; in one drill, he picked balls up off the floor near the block and then dunked them with such force that the basket's entire ceiling-support system was shaking.

Even Shaw, who spent the early months of 2006 at the Disney complex training athletes such as USC's Reggie Bush, Virginia's D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Ohio State's Santonio Holmes for the NFL Draft, was wowed by Thomas' explosiveness. "Were you here for that drill?" Shaw asked me after the session. "Now that was impressive."

NBA scouts, all of whom have seen or at least heard about Thomas' stunning performances against Duke and Texas in the Sweet 16 -- the shot-swatting, rim-rocking showcases that vaulted him to No. 1-pick range -- are already well aware of his athleticism. What they're more interested in are things such as Thomas' shooting range, which wasn't on extensive display at LSU, and his ability to play with his back to the basket, since many of his points were scored with either face-up moves or follow-ups off of rebounds.

Livingston has stepped up on that end; he says Thomas is "a sponge" who has eagerly worked on smoothing out his shooting motion, which already featured an attractive, high release. "I've been getting the one-two step down," Thomas said of his footwork, "and it makes my shot more relaxed." Livingston's other aim has been to teach Thomas a mid-post game similar to the moves favored by vaunted NBA four-men Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki. Those are skills, Livingston says, that simply aren't a part of the college basketball curriculum. Shaw, meanwhile, has Thomas hitting the weights and drinking multiple 42-grams-of-protein shakes per day to help him put on weight. He's added eight pounds and inflated his bench press from 200 pounds to 240 in less than a month.

It's all part of an effort to shed the Baton Rouge-bred Thomas of his "raw athlete" rep and brand him as a physical specimen who has the skills to make a decent, immediate contribution as a pro. When he arrived at LSU in 2003, he was truly raw -- a scrawny, 6-7, 185-pound swingman who barely earned a scholarship. He then redshirted his true freshman year due to a bulging disc in his neck. Many NBA scouts didn't get their first look at him until early 2006, in the road leading up to his breakout NCAA tournament showing.

As Thomas took a water break during the Wednesday workout, he dropped another bit of random pop culture on the small gathering of onlookers, signing the refrain to the ultra-cheesy Boyz II Men song It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday in falsetto. It elicited a few laughs, because it came out of nowhere. And in the context of Thomas' own situation, it was an appropriate joke. None of his recent career stages lasted long enough for him to dwell upon; he's undergone a meteoric rise from under-recruited high school senior, to an unknown LSU redshirt, to a national college phenomenon. And it's rather easy for Thomas to think about the future, when in just 20 days he could make his biggest leap of all: to the top spot on the draft board.