NBA first overall draft pick
Encyclopedia : N : NB : NBA : NBA first overall draft pick
The National Basketball Association's first overall pick is the player who is selected first amongst all eligible draftees by a team during the annual player draft. The first pick is awarded to the team that wins the NBA Draft Lottery, often the direct result of having losing season record. The team that is awarded the first pick attracts plenty of media attention to their organization, whilst the player who is selected first overall is often thrust into the spotlight, attracting the attention of both players and fans from around the world. Notable first picks include Magic Johnson (1979), Shaquille O'Neal (1992), and Tim Duncan (1997).
China's Yao Ming (2002) and Italy's Andrea Bargnani (2006) are the only two players without competitive experience in the United States to be drafted first overall. Four other non-Americans, all with U.S. college experience, have been drafted first overall—Mychal Thompson (Bahamas) in 1977, Akeem Olajuwon (Nigeria) in 1984, Michael Olowokandi (Nigeria) in 1998, and Andrew Bogut (Australia) in 2005. Duncan is American by birth, but is considered an "international" player by the NBA because he is originally from the U.S. Virgin Islands.
List of first overall picks
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.