1968 NBA draft

1968 NBA draft
General information
SportBasketball
Date(s)April 3, 1968 (first round)
May 8 and 10, 1968 (Other rounds)
LocationNew York City, New York
Overview
214 total selections in 21 rounds
LeagueNBA
First selectionElvin Hayes, San Diego Rockets
← 1967
1969 →

The 1968 NBA draft was the 22nd annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 3, 1968, and May 8 and 10, 1968 before the 1968–69 season.[1] In this draft, 14 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players. A player who had finished his four-year college eligibility was eligible for selection. If a player left college early, he would not be eligible for selection until his college class graduated. The first two picks in the draft belonged to the teams that finished last in each division, with the order determined by a coin flip.[2] The San Diego Rockets won the coin flip and were awarded the first overall pick, while the Baltimore Bullets were awarded the second pick. The remaining first-round picks and the subsequent rounds were assigned to teams in reverse order of their win–loss record in the previous season. Six teams that had the best records in previous season were not awarded second round draft picks. Two expansion franchises, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns, took part in the NBA Draft for the first time and were assigned the seventh and eighth pick in the first round, along with the last two picks of each subsequent round. The St. Louis Hawks relocated to Atlanta and became the Atlanta Hawks prior to the start of the season.[3] The draft consisted of 21 rounds comprising 214 players selected.

  1. ^ "Atlanta Gets Cage Hawks". Ocala Star-Banner. May 5, 1968. Retrieved March 16, 2010.
  2. ^ "Evolution of the Draft and Lottery". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on March 21, 2010. Retrieved March 16, 2010.
  3. ^ "Hawks: Franchise History". NBA.com/Hawks. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on March 19, 2010. Retrieved March 16, 2010.