1962 NBA draft
The 1962 NBA draft was the 16th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA), conducted on March 26, 1962, in New York City, where teams selected amateur players from colleges, high schools, and other eligible pools.[1] The draft featured 16 rounds and a total of 102 picks, with 32 of those players ultimately appearing in at least one NBA game.[1] The Chicago Zephyrs, who had joined the league as the Chicago Packers for the 1961–62 season and were renamed for their second year, secured the first overall selection and chose forward Billy McGill from the University of Utah, who had led his team to the 1962 NCAA championship.[1][2] Prior to the regular draft, two territorial picks were made under NBA rules allowing teams to select local college stars without using regular draft positions: the Detroit Pistons chose forward Dave DeBusschere from the University of Detroit, and the Cincinnati Royals selected forward Jerry Lucas from Ohio State University.[3] These territorial selections, along with the ninth overall pick John Havlicek (also from Ohio State, taken by the Boston Celtics), produced three Hall of Famers who became cornerstones of championship teams—DeBusschere with the New York Knicks, Lucas with the Royals and later the Knicks, and Havlicek with the Celtics, where he contributed to eight NBA titles over his 16-season career.[1] Other standout first-round selections included third overall pick Zelmo Beaty from Prairie View A&M, selected by the St. Louis Hawks, who went on to earn two NBA All-Star selections and help the Hawks win the 1968 Western Division title before contributing to the Atlanta Hawks' playoff runs, and be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.[1][4] Fourth overall pick Len Chappell from Wake Forest, taken by the Syracuse Nationals, also earned an All-Star appearance in 1964 during his nine-year career.[1] The draft occurred amid the NBA's mid-1960s growth, with pick ordering based on the previous season's standings.[2] While McGill, the top pick, averaged 7.4 points as a rookie but managed only three NBA seasons due to injuries and inconsistent play, the class as a whole proved influential, yielding multiple All-Stars and long-term contributors that bolstered rosters during the league's expansion era.[1]Background
Date, Location, and League Context
The 1962 NBA Draft took place on March 26, 1962, in New York, New York.[1] This event featured 16 rounds and a total of 102 selections distributed among the league's nine participating teams.[1] By 1962, the NBA was entering a period of expansion following a stretch of relative stability in the late 1950s, during which the league had maintained eight franchises since 1954.[5] The addition of the Chicago Packers in 1961 marked the league's growth to nine teams, with the franchise, which had joined the league as the Chicago Packers in 1961, earning the first pick again due to its last-place finish in the 1961–62 season ahead of the 1962–63 campaign; the Packers would later rebrand as the Chicago Zephyrs for that year.[6] Concurrently, the Philadelphia Warriors relocated to San Francisco for the upcoming season, altering divisional structures and contributing to the league's westward push.[7] The broader environment underscored the NBA's evolution from its post-war consolidation into a more structured professional circuit, where mechanisms like territorial picks—allowing teams to claim players from their local areas—remained integral to bolstering fan interest and roster building.[8]Eligibility and Draft Format
The 1962 NBA Draft adhered to eligibility rules established in the league's early years, requiring players to be at least four years removed from their high school graduation, which typically meant college seniors who had exhausted their amateur eligibility.[9][10] International players were not yet a prominent part of the draft pool, with selections almost exclusively drawn from U.S. college basketball programs.[11] The draft was an annual event organized by the NBA, structured as a single-day proceeding where teams selected players in reverse order of their win-loss records from the previous season.[1] Ties in standings were resolved through coin flips, serving as an early precursor to modern lottery systems.[12] The event featured 16 rounds, enabling teams to select from a deep pool of 102 eligible prospects overall, though far fewer ultimately played in the league.[1] Teams had the flexibility to trade draft picks before or during the proceedings, but there were no formal pre-draft combines, workouts, or scouting events as seen in later eras; evaluations relied primarily on college performances and reports.[1] The recent expansion of the league with the addition of the Chicago Packers for the 1961-62 season influenced pick distribution, as the new franchise's last-place finish granted them priority in the selection order.[11]Selection Process
Territorial Picks
In the early years of the NBA, territorial picks were a special provision in the draft process that allowed teams to select players from colleges within their geographic territory prior to the regular draft selections. This practice, which began in 1947 and continued until 1965, enabled franchises to claim local talent in order to foster greater fan interest and regional loyalty by associating the team with prominent nearby college stars.[13][14] Under the rules, each team was limited to one territorial pick per draft and had to forgo its first-round selection in the standard draft order to exercise this right. The eligible players were typically those who had attended college within a 50-mile radius of the team's home arena or otherwise tied to the franchise's defined regional area, ensuring the selection strengthened local connections.[13][3] For the 1962 NBA draft, the Detroit Pistons selected Dave DeBusschere from the University of Detroit Mercy as their territorial pick, while the Cincinnati Royals chose Jerry Lucas from Ohio State University. These selections occurred outside the regular reverse-order-of-standings draft process and highlighted the system's emphasis on geographic affinity.[14][3][8] The territorial pick mechanism often yielded high-impact players, as evidenced by DeBusschere and Lucas, both of whom were later inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. By prioritizing regional stars, this pre-draft option helped teams build immediate community ties but was eventually phased out to promote a more equitable national draft system.[14][13]Draft Order Determination
The draft order for the 1962 NBA draft was established in reverse order of the teams' win-loss records from the 1961-62 NBA season, allowing the worst-performing team to select first in an effort to promote competitive balance.[1] This method had been standard in the league since the 1950s, replacing earlier territorial systems for most selections.[3] In 1962, the Chicago Packers, who had joined the league as an expansion franchise the previous year, finished the 1961-62 season with the league-worst 18-62 record and thus received the No. 1 overall pick to aid in stocking their developing roster.[15] The New York Knicks followed with the second pick after their 29-51 finish, while the St. Louis Hawks, also at 29-51, took third due to a tiebreaker resolution.[16] The remaining order continued inversely: Detroit Pistons (37-43), Syracuse Nationals (41-39), Cincinnati Royals (43-37), Philadelphia Warriors (49-31), Los Angeles Lakers (54-26), and Boston Celtics (60-20).[1] For teams with identical records, such as the Knicks and Hawks, tiebreakers were handled via coin flips or pre-existing league agreements to determine relative position.[14] With nine teams in the league at the time, the first round consisted of exactly nine picks, one per team, following any preceding territorial selections.[1] This structure underscored the expansion era's emphasis on giving priority to struggling or new franchises to foster league growth.[15]Draft Selections
First Round
The first round of the 1962 NBA draft featured seven selections, reflecting the league's format where two teams exercised territorial picks prior to the regular draft. These picks were allocated based on reverse order of the previous season's standings for the eligible teams, with the Chicago Zephyrs holding the top choice as an expansion franchise.[1][17]| Pick | Player | Position | College | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bill McGill | F/C | Utah | Chicago Zephyrs |
| 2 | Paul Hogue | C | Cincinnati | New York Knicks |
| 3 | Zelmo Beaty | F/C | Prairie View A&M | St. Louis Hawks |
| 4 | Len Chappell | F | Wake Forest | Syracuse Nationals |
| 5 | Wayne Hightower | F | Kansas | San Francisco Warriors |
| 6 | LeRoy Ellis | F/C | St. John's | Los Angeles Lakers |
| 7 | John Havlicek | F | Ohio State | Boston Celtics |