If Wednesday's 2000 NBA Draft in Minneapolis had allowed for a few more players, Jarrett Stephens might have gotten the telephone call he was waiting for.

Instead, Stephens sat through the entire five-hour ordeal, waiting fruitlessly to hear his name called on TNT.

When it wasn't, he hung his head low to the ground, between his massive legs. What now? he must have asked.

Right then, that question was answered. The phone rang, but Jarrett knew it couldn't be from one of the 29 NBA teams.

"He was rather quiet," Stephens' mom, Inez, said. "Deep in thought, I guess."

Jarrett was wrong. It was from Vancouver, who had previously selected LSU's Stromile Swift with the second pick.

The Grizzlies, along with the New Jersey Nets, who called minutes later, told Stephens of their interest in having him work out with their teams.

"They just told me they wanted me to come to training camp," Stephens said about the Vancouver call. "They said I had a really good shot of making the team."

Stephens' not being drafted came as a surprise to the Penn State graduate, who said he was confident about going somewhere.

"I was pretty much just as shocked as you were," Stephens said. "It was surprising. But you can never tell what different people from different teams are thinking."

His mother was wondering, too. As Inez watched the draft with her son, though, it dawned on her that as the draft became filled with lesser-known players and younger projects, the spot that might have been her son's was starting to slip away.

"There were a lot of foreigners," Inez said. "Early people, too. They probably all were a contributing factor in Jarrett's not going."

Moments after the call came, Jarrett sat in another room with his agent, Jim Christian. Together, the two explored the former Penn State player's options, of which there are many, including free agent tryout camps and playing overseas.

"He said the decision would be Jarrett's, and they'd look at all the options," Inez said.

Right now, Stephens is set to attend a summer workout camp, either in Utah or Boston. He said the camp would last about a week, and it would include numerous NBA prospects, including many who were fortunate enough to have their names called Wednesday.

As for playing overseas, Stephens has thought about doing it, but first, he'd have to exhaust all his opportunities in the United States.

Scouts have said the main knock against Stephens' chances has been his height. As a 6-foot-5, 255-pound power forward, he could dominate inside in the college ranks by using his wide body.

In the pros, however, that lack of inches up top could frustrate Stephens inside, and he probably wouldn't post similar numbers to his double-double average in college.

Penn State assistant men's basketball coach Christian Appleman agreed, yet he mentioned that scouts often can't see a player's intangibles, such as his work ethic, his posture underneath or how he attacks the boards.

"We talked a little bit about him in the office yesterday, about why he didn't go," Appleman said via e-mail. "We thought there were a lot of factors."

Like Stephens' mother, Appleman also named the foreign selections and the early-entry candidates as big reasons for Stephens' misfortune in the draft.

"Whenever that happens," Appleman said, "it knocks a whole lot of players down. But I don't think it's anything he's too discouraged about. "If he continues to play the way he did at his tryout camps, he'll be fine," Appleman added. "It's just a matter of him trying or a team picking him where he's going to fit what they need.

"It's a two-way street, he said. "They're helping each other."

Stephens, however, probably could have used a bit of help Wednesday.

With the 59th pick in the 2000 NBA Draft, the Vancouver Grizzlies select. . .Jarrett Stephens, forward, Penn State University.

In a perfect world, that would have happened for Stephens.

However, as he found out Wednesday, nothing's perfect.