1977 NBA draft
The 1977 NBA draft was the National Basketball Association's annual selection of amateur and collegiate basketball players, held on June 10, 1977, at the Hotel Pierre in New York City.[1] The Milwaukee Bucks secured the first overall pick via a coin-flip tiebreaker with the Indiana Pacers and selected center Kent Benson from Indiana University, who went on to play 11 NBA seasons and accumulate 33.6 win shares.[1][2] The draft consisted of 170 selections across multiple rounds, with 65 players ultimately appearing in NBA games, reflecting the league's expansion and absorption of ABA remnants from the prior year's merger.[1] Notable early picks included guard Otis Birdsong (second overall, Kansas City Kings), who earned three All-Star nods over a 12-year career, and forward Marques Johnson (third overall, Bucks), a five-time All-Star who averaged 16.0 points per game lifetime and helped anchor Milwaukee's frontcourt alongside Benson.[1] Further down, the Phoenix Suns took forward Walter Davis fifth overall, known as 'The Man with the Velvet Touch,' who won Rookie of the Year honors in 1977-78 with 24.2 points per game, became the Suns' all-time leading scorer, and played 15 seasons.[3][4][5] Forward Adrian Dantley, selected sixth by the Seattle SuperSonics (and immediately traded to the New Orleans Jazz), emerged as the class's premier scorer, leading the league in scoring twice and totaling over 23,000 career points across 15 seasons.[1][6] The draft class contributed reliably to NBA rosters without producing transcendent superstars, as evidenced by career longevity metrics: top picks like Benson, Birdsong, Johnson, Greg Ballard (fourth overall), and Davis each logged at least 11 seasons.[7] Later rounds yielded role players and future coaches, such as Eddie Jordan (33rd overall) and John Kuester (53rd overall), but the event drew attention for anomalous selections, including the New Orleans Jazz's 137th overall pick (seventh round) of pregnant Delta State standout Lusia Harris—the second woman ever officially drafted by an NBA team after ABA precedent—and the Kansas City Kings' 139th pick of Olympic decathlete Bruce Jenner (now Caitlyn Jenner), though neither played; Harris declined due to impending motherhood.[1] Such picks underscored the era's looser eligibility norms amid the league's post-merger transition, yet empirical outcomes prioritized conventional collegiate talents in shaping team rosters.[7]Historical Context
ABA-NBA Merger Effects
The 1976 ABA-NBA merger incorporated four ABA franchises—the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets, and San Antonio Spurs—into the NBA, expanding the league from 18 to 22 teams ahead of the 1976-77 season.[8][9] These teams retained their rosters but forfeited participation in the 1976 NBA draft, instead selecting players via a dispersal draft from the folded Kentucky Colonels and Spirits of St. Louis.[8] By the 1977 draft, held on June 10, all 22 franchises exercised regular draft rights, marking the first such event post-merger.[10] The influx of established ABA talent, including high-caliber players already under contract, reduced the availability of elite prospects for the 1977 draft pool, as the merger had preemptively absorbed much of the rival league's star power.[9] Combined with the sudden increase to 22 teams, this expansion spread scouting resources thinner across a larger number of franchises, contributing to a perceived dilution in the quality of entry-level college and amateur talent entering the NBA that year.[11] Historical analyses note that while overall league play remained competitive due to the ABA infusion, the draft itself yielded fewer immediate impact players compared to prior years, reflecting the one-time absorption of ABA veterans.[11] Financial terms of the merger imposed significant constraints on the new entrants, requiring each to pay $3.2 million in indemnification to existing NBA teams and barring them from national television revenue shares for the first three years.[9][12] These limitations exacerbated cash flow issues for the Spurs, Nuggets, Pacers, and Nets, who also faced additional debts from ABA-era obligations and player association settlements totaling at least $1.7 million.[13] In response, the franchises prioritized draft selections capable of rapid contributions to bolster rosters and generate local revenue, heightening the stakes for picks amid league-wide economic pressures.[13]Pre-Draft Talent Pool and Scouting
The pre-draft talent pool for the 1977 NBA draft overwhelmingly drew from NCAA Division I programs, with the vast majority of prospects being American college seniors eligible after four years of varsity play.[1] Leading institutions included Indiana University, which produced consensus All-American center Kent Benson, a 6-foot-11, 245-pound pivot who averaged 15.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game in his final season while anchoring the Hoosiers' frontcourt.[14] Similarly, the University of North Carolina supplied guard Phil Ford, a quicksilver playmaker renowned for his darting drives and ball-handling in Dean Smith's four-corners offense, where he posted 20.2 points per game as a senior.[15] Other notable contributors came from UCLA (forward Marques Johnson), the University of Tennessee (forward Bernard King), and the University of South Carolina (guard Otis Birdsong), highlighting a concentration of talent from established powerhouses rather than widespread depth across lesser programs.[1] NBA scouting in this era centered on firsthand observations of college games, basic performance metrics like scoring and rebounding averages, and qualitative judgments of physical tools and basketball IQ, without the benefit of modern video analysis or predictive modeling.[16] Teams prioritized size and post fundamentals for interior players—Benson's rebounding dominance and shot-blocking ability made him a prototypical safe selection—while valuing perimeter quickness and scoring versatility in guards like Ford, whom scouts praised for his "tremendous quickness" despite his 6-foot-2 stature.[15] The league's centralized scouting operation, overseen by Marty Blake, generated detailed reports on approximately 250 top college candidates, focusing on defensive reliability and fit within pro schemes derived from eye tests at tournaments and regular-season matchups.[16] This approach emphasized verifiable college production over speculative athletic traits, contributing to selections like Benson, viewed as a low-risk anchor for rebuilding franchises.[14] International representation remained negligible, with scouting largely confined to domestic circuits and no systematic overseas pipelines; the sole notable non-U.S. college draftee was Canadian forward Lars Hansen from the University of Washington, picked in the fifth round after a senior year of 12.5 points and 7.3 rebounds.[1] This reflected the NBA's pre-global scouting infrastructure, where foreign talent was an afterthought absent college exposure or high-profile amateur circuits.[1] The pool's depth supported multiple first-round talents who translated to NBA roles—evidenced by later successes of picks like Johnson and King—but lacked the transcendent upside of prior drafts, prompting teams to favor proven college performers over riskier profiles amid post-merger roster needs.[17] Benson's selection as the consensus top choice exemplified this conservatism, as his efficient scoring (53.6% field goal rate at Indiana) and physicality outweighed concerns about explosive athleticism.[14]Draft Mechanics and Rules
Eligibility and Early Entry
Prior to the 1977 NBA draft, eligibility rules required prospective players to be graduating college seniors or have equivalent experience, typically meaning at least four years removed from high school graduation. Underclassmen could seek early entry by submitting a formal application to the league, which, starting with the 1977 draft, necessitated written notice renouncing any remaining collegiate eligibility—a change from prior years where withdrawals were possible if draft outcomes were unsatisfactory.[18][19] This process replaced the earlier financial hardship provision, which had been in place since 1971 following legal challenges but was phased out by 1976, allowing broader access for underclassmen without proving economic need. The NBA reviewed submissions to verify compliance, ensuring declarations were irrevocable and preventing casual or reversible entries. Only six college underclassmen successfully declared for the 1977 draft, including juniors Kenny Carr of NC State, Bernard King of Tennessee, and Brad Davis of Maryland, alongside others such as Ray Epps of Norfolk State.[20][21][22] The limited number of applicants reflected the era's cultural and structural norms, where most top talents pursued full four-year college careers for skill development, academic completion, and preserved amateur status, with professional agent influence and one-and-done strategies not yet prevalent. Early declarations were motivated primarily by opportunities for immediate professional contracts amid rising NBA salaries post-ABA merger, though few qualified or chose to forgo remaining eligibility due to risks of lower draft positions or underdeveloped games.[23][24]Pick Order and Selection Process
The first overall pick in the 1977 NBA draft was determined by a coin flip between the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers, the teams with the worst records in their respective conferences from the prior season.[25][14] The coin toss, conducted on April 15, 1977, by NBA Commissioner Larry O'Brien via conference call, resulted in the Bucks winning the right to select first, with the Pacers receiving the second pick.[25] This method resolved ties between the league's two lowest finishers, a practice used in the pre-lottery era to establish the top of the order. The remainder of the draft order followed the inverse of each team's win-loss record from the 1976–77 season, with playoff teams picking after non-playoff squads in reverse finishing position.[14] Playoff participants selected last-to-first among themselves based on postseason outcomes, ensuring that underperforming teams held priority access to incoming talent. By this point, territorial picks—previously allowing franchises to claim prominent local college players regardless of order—had been fully phased out, with the final such selection occurring over a decade earlier in 1966, shifting the process to a merit-based system tied strictly to on-court results.[26] This deterministic reverse-order format, lacking a randomized lottery, directly rewarded the league's weakest performers with premium choices, fostering incentives for intentional underperformance or "tanking" to secure advantageous positions—a dynamic that prompted ongoing fairness critiques regarding competitive balance and long-term league health.[27] Such concerns contributed to the eventual adoption of the NBA draft lottery in 1985, which introduced weighted randomization to discourage overt tanking while still favoring poor records.[27]Draft Execution
Event Details
The 1977 NBA draft took place on June 10, 1977, in New York City, preceding the start of the 1977–78 NBA season.[1] The event was organized by the league under the direction of Commissioner Larry O'Brien, who presided over the proceedings by announcing each selection as teams made their picks in predetermined order based on reverse standings from the prior season, adjusted for trades and the recent ABA-NBA merger.[1] The draft format encompassed ten rounds, allowing each of the league's 22 teams up to ten selections, though not all picks were exercised, resulting in 170 total players chosen.[1] Proceedings unfolded sequentially, with team representatives submitting choices via telephone or in person to league officials, followed by immediate public announcements to facilitate real-time reactions and negotiations among franchises. This structure emphasized efficiency, as the full event concluded in a single day without extended delays between rounds. Media coverage was constrained, lacking live television broadcast—a format not introduced for NBA drafts until the 1980s—and instead relying on wire services, newspapers, and radio updates for dissemination of selections, particularly those involving high-profile college prospects.[28] Reports centered on the procedural announcements rather than extended analysis, reflecting the era's limited technological infrastructure for sports events.Unusual and Voided Selections
In the seventh round of the 1977 NBA draft, held on June 10, the New Orleans Jazz selected Lusia Harris, a 6-foot-3-inch center from Delta State University and Olympic gold medalist, with the 137th overall pick, marking the first time an NBA team officially drafted a woman.[29] Harris, who had scored the first basket in Olympic women's basketball history at the 1976 Montreal Games, declined to try out for the Jazz shortly after announcing her pregnancy, underscoring the era's barriers to women's participation in professional men's basketball despite her collegiate dominance, including three consecutive MVP awards in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women tournament.[29] Two picks later, the Kansas City Kings chose decathlete Bruce Jenner, the 1976 Olympic gold medalist, with the 139th selection as a publicity stunt mocking the Kansas City Chiefs' tradition of drafting non-football athletes, though Jenner never pursued an NBA career and the pick carried no contractual obligation.[30] Such gimmick selections in the draft's later rounds highlighted the absence of strict eligibility verification, as teams exploited the format's length—eight rounds totaling 168 picks—to make novelty choices without immediate repercussions.[31] The Los Angeles Lakers attempted two voided selections in the draft's final stages, first nominating the fictional cartoon dog Scooby-Doo and then a wooden chair, both rejected by the NBA commissioner for failing basic player eligibility criteria, exposing enforcement gaps that allowed initial announcements before league intervention.[32] These incidents, amid broader protests by owners against the merger's dilution of talent pools, prompted no formal rule changes at the time but reflected the draft's unstructured nature prior to later reforms shortening rounds and tightening oversight.[33]Selections Overview
First-Round Picks
The first round of the 1977 NBA draft featured 22 selections made by the league's 22 teams on June 10, 1977, at the Hotel Pierre in New York City. Following the ABA-NBA merger, franchises emphasized drafting college players capable of immediate rotation contributions to address roster gaps in expanded lineups, with particular focus on frontcourt anchors for rebounding and backcourt creators for scoring efficiency. The Milwaukee Bucks secured multiple high picks due to their league-worst record from the prior season, enabling them to target size and versatility.[1]| Pick | Team | Player | College |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Milwaukee Bucks | Kent Benson | Indiana |
| 2 | Kansas City Kings | Otis Birdsong | Houston |
| 3 | Milwaukee Bucks | Marques Johnson | UCLA |
| 4 | Washington Bullets | Greg Ballard | Oregon |
| 5 | Phoenix Suns | Walter Davis | North Carolina |
| 6 | Los Angeles Lakers | Kenny Carr | North Carolina State |
| 7 | New York Nets | Bernard King | Tennessee |
| 8 | Seattle SuperSonics | Jack Sikma | Illinois Wesleyan |
| 9 | Denver Nuggets | Tom LaGarde | North Carolina |
| 10 | New York Knicks | Ray Williams | Minnesota |
| 11 | Milwaukee Bucks | Ernie Grunfeld | Tennessee |
| 12 | Boston Celtics | Cedric Maxwell | UNC Charlotte |
| 13 | Chicago Bulls | Tate Armstrong | Duke |
| 14 | Atlanta Hawks | Tree Rollins | Clemson |
| 15 | Los Angeles Lakers | Brad Davis | Maryland |
| 16 | Golden State Warriors | Rickey Green | Michigan |
| 17 | Washington Bullets | Bo Ellis | Marquette |
| 18 | Golden State Warriors | Wesley Cox | Louisville |
| 19 | Portland Trail Blazers | Lloyd Neal | Tennessee State |
| 20 | Philadelphia 76ers | Glenn Mosley | Seton Hall |
| 21 | Denver Nuggets | Anthony Roberts | Oral Roberts |
| 22 | Los Angeles Lakers | Norm Nixon | Duquesne |