Time was, teams approached the NBA draft with muttered prayers and crossed fingers. They conducted no pre-draft workouts or interviews, just rolled the dice based on what they had seen of a player in college or international play.
For all but the elite players, it was even more of a crapshoot. With so little interaction going on between employers and future employees, players sat back on draft day and hoped the phone would ring. If it did, they rarely had a clue who might be on the other end.
It's evolved, to say the least. Today, most NBA teams bring in players six at a time for drills and competitive halfcourt games, and that's after having stalked them through their seasons and pored over recordings of any of their games they care to see, and then scouted them in pre-draft camps where they are poked, prodded, interviewed and auditioned in drills and scrimmages.