A brief history of the NBA Draft

The player chosen first in 1951 was 5’ 8” and then he was banned by the NBA

The NBA draft, which kicks off Wednesday afternoon, has a fascinating history.

Here are some highlights:

*Clifton McNeely was the first pick in the first draft in 1947 of the Basketball Association of America (which in 1949 merged with the National Basketball League to become the NBA). The 5’ 10” McNeely was selected by the Pittsburgh Ironmen but chose not to play professionally. After graduating from Texas Wesleyan University, McNeely worked at a gas station and then became the basketball coach at Pampa High School in Pampa, Texas. 

McNeely and Eugene "Squeaky" Melchiorre, who was chosen first by the Baltimore Bullets in 1951, are the only two overall first picks to never play professionally. Melchiore, who was 5’ 8”, was involved in a point-shaving scandal during his senior year at Bradley University in which he and 31 other players from six other colleges conspired to hold scores down. After the draft, all of the players involved in the scandal were banned for life from playing in the NBA. Evidently, “Squeaky” was anything but squeaky clean.

In the early days of the NBA, college hoops were more popular than the pro game. As a result, the NBA instituted a territorial draft which was held prior to the regular draft. In the territorial draft, teams could choose a college player who played within 50 miles of the NBA team’s home arena. The theory was that stars from nearby college teams would draw fans for the pro teams. Teams that made a selection in the territorial draft paid a price: they forfeited their first-round pick.

A total of 22 players were selected in the territorial draft and half of them ended up in the basketball Hall of Fame. Among them were Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas and Wilt Chamberlain. 

Temple’s Bill Mlkvy was chosen in the territorial draft in 1951 by the Philadelphia Warriors. Mlkvy, the so-called “Owl without a vowel,” played one year for the Warriors while also attending dental school at Temple. When the Warriors forced Mlkvy to choose between the two, he decided to give up his basketball career to become a dentist.

Chamberlain was selected by the Warriors in the territorial draft in 1959, but there was a twist: He went to college at the University of Kansas, which is more than 1,000 miles from Philadelphia. According to this 2012 post, Warriors owner/general manager Eddie Gotlieb coveted The Big Dipper because Chamberlain’s high school team would sell out the 10,000-seat Palestra. “Gottlieb argued that since Kansas was not within 50 miles of any NBA team, he could claim Chamberlain based on his high school,” the post says.

The first international player chosen in the draft was Manuel Raga of Mexico, who was selected 167^th by the Atlanta Hawks in 1970. Raga never played in the NBA. The first truly impactful international player and the first international player chosen first overall, was Hakeem Olajuwon in 1984. 

Early on, there was no limit to the number of draft rounds. Teams picked until they chose to stop. The 1960 and 1968 drafts consisted of 21 rounds.

The number of rounds in the draft was gradually winnowed down and has been two rounds since 1989. (By comparison, the NFL and NHL drafts are seven rounds and the MLB draft is 20.)

The draft lottery was instituted in 1985 with the seven teams with the worst record in the previous season having an equal shot at getting the top pick. That year the ping pong ball bounced in favor of the New York Knicks who chose Patrick Ewing. (Read MUCH more on the controversy surrounding that night here.)

In 1990, the NBA adopted a “weighted” draft lottery that expanded the number of teams in the lottery but gave the teams with the worst records a greater chance of getting better picks.

According to a history of the draft that once appeared on the NBA website and is now available through waybackmachine.com, the Orlando Magic “defied” the lottery odds by getting the first pick in the draft two years in a row.  In 1992, the Magic “parlayed” the second-worst record (21-61) into LSU center Shaquille O'Neal. O'Neal helped Orlando make a 20-win improvement and the Magic just missed the playoffs at .500 in 1993. With just one chance out of 66, the Magic scored the No. 1 pick yet again and selected Michigan forward Chris Webber, trading him immediately to the Warriors for the draft rights to the No. 3 pick, Memphis guard Penny Hardaway and three future draft picks.”

Today the lottery includes the 14 teams that don’t make the playoffs.