2002 NBA draft

Template:Short description Template:Infobox sports draft The 2002 NBA draft was held on June 26, 2002, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. In this draft, National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting 57 amateur college basketball players and other first-time eligible players, such as players from non-North American leagues. This was the last draft that was broadcast on TNT, as ESPN obtained the rights for the 2003 draft via its incoming deal (which it retains to this day). The NBA announced that about 42 college and high school players, and five international players, had filed as early-entry candidates for the draft. The Chicago Bulls and the Golden State Warriors each had a 22.5% chance of acquiring the first pick, but the Houston Rockets, with just an 8.9% probability, won the NBA draft lottery on May 19. The Bulls and Warriors were second and third, respectively. As punishment for salary-cap violations during the 2001-02 season, the Minnesota Timberwolves forfeited their first-round draft pick.

The 2002 draft set a record of 17 international selections, with six of them coming in the first round.

Two months after the conclusion of his rookie season, number-two pick Jay Williams nearly lost his life in a motorcycle crash that shattered his pelvis, severed a main nerve in his leg and tore three ligaments in his left knee, including his ACL. Despite intense rehabilitation, Williams never played a game in the NBA again. When it became clear Williams could not return to the Bulls because of his injuries, the team waived him. The Bulls could have voided Williams' contract because it prohibited riding a motorcycle. However, the franchise bought out his contract for $3 million in 2004 instead of having him walk away with nothing.

The draft class was relatively weak outside of the top prospects. Several players selected early had promising careers that ended prematurely due to injury, including Yao Ming, Williams and Dajuan Wagner. Nevertheless, Yao was named a Hall of Famer—a selection predicated as much on his role in popularizing basketball in China as it was for his on-court play. Three players selected in this draft - including Yao, second-round pick Carlos Boozer and Rookie of the Year Amar'e Stoudemire - would be named to the All-NBA Team during their careers. Caron Butler was the only other player to become an All-Star. First-round pick Tayshaun Prince was also named to the NBA All-Defensive Team four times.

As of the end of the 2022–23 NBA season, Udonis Haslem was the last remaining active draft-eligible player from the 2002 class, though he went undrafted (he made his NBA debut the following season). He stopped playing after the 2022–23 season.

Nine of the players selected in this draft never played in an NBA game throughout their professional basketball careers. Three of those players were the sole selection of the draft from their respective teams: Peter Fehse (Seattle's only pick), Marcus Taylor (Minnesota's only pick) and Mladen Šekularac (Dallas' only pick).

Draft selections

File:YaoMingonoffense2 crop.jpg

Yao Ming was selected 1st overall by the Houston Rockets.

File:Nene Hilario Nuggets (cropped).jpg

Nenê was selected 7th overall by the New York Knicks (traded to the Denver Nuggets.)

File:Amar'e Stoudemire 00054226.jpg

Amar'e Stoudemire was selected 9th overall by the Phoenix Suns.

File:Caron Butler.JPG

Caron Butler was selected 10th overall by the Miami Heat.

File:Tayshaun Prince.jpg

Tayshaun Prince was selected 23rd overall by the Detroit Pistons.

File:Carlos Boozer.jpg

Carlos Boozer was selected 35th overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

File:Luis Scola 2010.jpg

Luis Scola was selected 56th overall by the San Antonio Spurs (traded to the Houston Rockets.)

PG

Point guard

SG

Shooting guard

SF

Small forward

PF

Power forward

C

Center

^	Denotes player who has been inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
*	Denotes player who has been selected for at least one All-Star Game and All-NBA Team
+	Denotes player who has been selected for at least one All-Star Game
#	Denotes player who has never appeared in an NBA regular-season or playoff game
~	Denotes player who has been selected as Rookie of the Year

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	Team	School or club team
1	1	^*	C	China	Houston Rockets	Shanghai Sharks (China)
1	2		PG	United States	Chicago Bulls	Duke (Jr.)
1	3		SF/SG	United States	Golden State Warriors	Duke (Jr.)
1	4		PF/C	United States	Memphis Grizzlies	Kansas (Jr.)
1	5		PF/C	Georgia	Denver Nuggets	Benetton Treviso (Italy)
1	6		PG	United States	Cleveland Cavaliers	Memphis (Fr.)
1	7		C/PF	Brazil	New York Knicks (traded to Denver)	Vasco da Gama (Brazil)
1	8		PF/C	United States	Los Angeles Clippers (from Atlanta)	Maryland (So.)
1	9	^~	PF/C	United States	Phoenix Suns	Cypress Creek HS (Orlando, Florida)
1	10	+	SF	United States	Miami Heat	Connecticut (So.)
1	11		PF/C	United States	Washington Wizards	Indiana (So.)
1	12		C/PF	United States	Los Angeles Clippers	Fresno State (Sr.)
1	13		PF	United States	Milwaukee Bucks	Tennessee (Jr.)
1	14		SG	United States	Indiana Pacers	Oregon (Sr.)
1	15		SF/PF		Houston Rockets (from Toronto)	Benetton Treviso (Italy)
1	16		SG/SF		Philadelphia 76ers (traded to Golden State)	Union Olimpija (Slovenia and Adriatic League)
1	17		PG	United States	Washington Wizards (from New Orleans)	Maryland (Sr.)
1	18		C	United States	Orlando Magic (traded to Utah)	Stanford (Jr.)
1	19		PF	United States	Utah Jazz (traded to Orlando)	Notre Dame (Sr.)
1	20		SG	United States	Toronto Raptors (from Seattle via New York, traded to Los Angeles Lakers)	Missouri (Jr.)
1	21		SF	United States	Portland Trail Blazers	Northeast Mississippi CC (So.)
1	22		SG	United States	Phoenix Suns (from Boston)	Stanford (Jr.)
1	23		SF	United States	Detroit Pistons	Kentucky (Sr.)
1	24		C/PF		New Jersey Nets	Partizan Belgrade (Sinalco Superleague and Adriatic League)
1	25		PG	United States	Denver Nuggets (from Dallas, traded to New York)	Illinois (Jr.)
1	26		SF/SG	United States	San Antonio Spurs (traded to Philadelphia)	Miami (Sr.)
1	27		SF	United States	Los Angeles Lakers (traded to Toronto)	Fresno State (Jr.)
1	28		PG	United States	Sacramento Kings (traded to Atlanta)	Gonzaga (Sr.)
1	29	Forfeited pick			Minnesota Timberwolves (forfeited their first-round pick due to salary cap violations)
2	30	#	PG	United States	Golden State Warriors	Cincinnati (Sr.)
2	31		SG	United States	Chicago Bulls	Virginia (Jr.)
2	32		PF		Memphis Grizzlies	Illinois (Sr.)
2	33		SF	United States	Denver Nuggets	Tennessee (Sr.)
2	34		C	Netherlands	Milwaukee Bucks (from Houston)	UCLA (Sr.)
2	35	*	PF	United States	Cleveland Cavaliers	Duke (Jr.)
2	36	#	PG		New York Knicks	Partizan Belgrade (Sinalco Superleague and Adriatic League)
2	37		C	Australia	Atlanta Hawks	Virtus Bologna (Italy)
2	38		PG	United States	Houston Rockets (from Miami)	Fresno State (So.)
2	39	#	SG	United States	Washington Wizards (from Phoenix via Denver)	Alabama (Jr.)
2	40		PG	Spain	Washington Wizards	FC Barcelona (Spain)
2	41		C		Los Angeles Clippers	Opel Skyliners (Germany)
2	42		SG	United States	Milwaukee Bucks	Shaw (Sr.)
2	43	#	C	United States	Portland Trail Blazers (from Toronto via Chicago)	Arkansas State (Sr.)
2	44		PF	United States	Chicago Bulls (from Indiana)	Maryland (Sr.)
2	45	#	PF	United States	Philadelphia 76ers	USC (Sr.)
2	46		SF	United States	Memphis Grizzlies (from Orlando)	UCLA (Sr.)
2	47		C	United States	Utah Jazz (traded to Orlando)	California (Fr.)
2	48		PF	United States	Milwaukee Bucks (from New Orleans, traded to Memphis)	Texas (Sr.)
2	49	#	PF	Germany	Seattle SuperSonics	Halle (Germany)
2	50		PF	Template:Flagcountry	Boston Celtics	Wake Forest (Sr.)
2	51	#	SF		Portland Trail Blazers	Ourense (Spain)
2	52	#	PG	United States	Minnesota Timberwolves	Michigan State (So.)
2	53		SF	United States	Miami Heat (from Detroit via Toronto and Houston)	La Salle (Sr.)
2	54		SG	United States	New Jersey Nets	Marshall (Sr.)
2	55	#	SG		Dallas Mavericks	FMP Železnik (Sinalco Superleague and Adriatic League)
2	56		PF		San Antonio Spurs (from L.A. Lakers)	TAU Cerámica (Spain)
2	57		PF	United States Libya	San Antonio Spurs (traded to Philadelphia)	San Diego State (Sr.)
2	58		PF	United States	Sacramento Kings	Central Connecticut (Sr.)

Notable undrafted players

These eligible players were not selected in this draft but played at least one game in the NBA.

Player	Position	Nationality	School or club team
	PG	United States	Oklahoma State (Sr.)
	PG	United States	St. Bonaventure (Sr.)
	SG	United States	UTSA (Sr.)
	PF/SF	United States	Wyoming (Sr.)
	PF	United States	Iowa (Sr.)
	SG/SF		COC Ribeirão Preto (Brazil)
	PG/SG	United States	Temple (Sr.)
	PG/SG	United States	NC State (Sr.)
	PG/SG	United States	Auburn (Sr.)
	PG/SG	United States	Wingate (Sr.)
	PF	United States	Florida (Sr.)
	SF	United States	Tulane (Sr.)
	SG	Template:Flagcountry	Lietuvos Rytas (Lithuania)
	C	DR Congo	Leuven Bears (Belgium)
	PG	United States	Bowling Green (Sr.)
	PG	United States	Arkansas (Sr.)
	PG/SG	United States	Fordham (So.)
	SG		Hawaii (Sr.)
	PF/SF	United States	Arizona State (Sr.)
	PG		BYU–Hawaii (Fr.)

Early entrants

College underclassmen

This year would mark a bit of a step down in terms of the number of underclassmen entering the NBA draft when compared to last year. While it would be the second time the number of underclassmen would exceed the number of draft picks available in the NBA, this year only saw a total of 72 underclassmen from college and overseas declare their initial entry into the NBA draft. However, it would exceed the amount of withdrawn players with 24 players doing exactly that, leaving a total of 48 eligible underclassmen available for the draft this year. The following college basketball players successfully applied for early draft entrance.

• Template:Flagicon Lee Benson – F, Brown Mackie (freshman)
• Template:Flagicon Rodney Bias – F, Alabama (sophomore)
• Template:Flagicon Cordell Billups – G, Pierce (Washington) (sophomore)
• Template:Flagicon Carlos Boozer – F, Duke (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Curtis Borchardt – C, Stanford (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Caron Butler – F, Connecticut (sophomore)
• Template:Flagicon Mike Dunleavy Jr. – F, Duke (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Drew Gooden – F, Kansas (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Rod Grizzard – G, Alabama (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Marcus Haislip – F, Tennessee (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Rashid Hardwick – C, Eastern Oklahoma State (freshman)
• Template:Flagicon Adam Harrington – G, Auburn (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Casey Jacobsen – G, Stanford (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Chris Jefferies – F, Fresno State (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Jared Jeffries – F, Indiana (sophomore)
• Template:Flagicon Muhammed Lasege – C, Louisville (sophomore)
• Template:Flagicon Tito Maddox – G, Fresno State (sophomore)
• Template:Flagicon Kei Madison – F, Okaloosa-Walton (sophomore)
• Template:Flagicon Roger Mason Jr. – G, Virginia (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Smush Parker – G, Fordham (sophomore)
• Template:Flagicon Travis Robinson – F, Jacksonville (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Kareem Rush – G, Missouri (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Jamal Sampson – F/C, California (freshman)
• Template:Flagicon Jerry Sanders – F, Northern Illinois (sophomore)
• Template:Flagicon Eddie Shelby – G, Dixie State (sophomore)
• Template:Flagicon Bobby Smith – G, Robert Morris (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Melvin Steward – G, Eastern New Mexico (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Marcus Taylor – G, Michigan State (sophomore)
• Template:Flagicon Terrell Taylor – G, Creighton (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Dajuan Wagner – G, Memphis (freshman)
• Template:Flagicon Adrian Walton – G, Fordham (freshman)
• Template:Flagicon Joseph Ward – F, Fort Hays State (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Omar Weaver – F/G, Riverside CC (freshman)
• Template:Flagicon Chris Wilcox – F, Maryland (sophomore)
• Template:Flagicon Troy Wiley – F, Rhode Island (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Frank Williams – G, Illinois (junior)
• Template:Flagicon George Williams – F, Houston (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Jay Williams – G, Duke (junior)
• Template:Flagicon Qyntel Woods – G/F, Northeast Mississippi CC (sophomore)

High school players

This would be the eighth straight year in a row where at least one high school player would declare their entry into the NBA draft directly out of high school after previously only allowing it one time back in 1975. It would also mark the first time a player directly out of high school would win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award with Amar'e Stoudemire earning the honor one year before LeBron James would enter the NBA. The following high school players successfully applied for early draft entrance.

• Template:Flagicon DeAngelo Collins – F, Inglewood High School (Inglewood, California)
• Template:Flagicon Lenny Cooke – G, Mott Adult High School (Flint, Michigan)
• Template:Flagicon Giedrius Rinkevicius – C, Bridgton Academy (Bridgton, Maine)
• Template:Flagicon Amar'e Stoudemire – F, Cypress Creek High School (Orlando, Florida)

International players

The following international players successfully applied for early draft entrance.

• Template:Flagicon Peter Fehse – F, Halle (Germany)
• Template:Flagicon Nenê Hilario – F, Vasco de Gama (Brazil)
• Template:Flagicon Nenad Krstic – Partizan (FR Yugoslavia)
• Template:Flagicon Mladen Šekularac – F, FMP (FR Yugoslavia)
• Template:Flagicon Nikoloz Tskitishvili – F, Benetton Treviso (Italy)

Invited attendees

The 2002 NBA draft is considered to be the 24th NBA draft to have utilized what is properly considered the "green room" experience for NBA prospects. The NBA's green room is a staging area where anticipated draftees often sit with their families and representatives, waiting for their names to be called on draft night. Often being positioned either in front of or to the side of the podium (in this case, being positioned somewhere within The Theater at Madison Square Garden), once a player heard his name, he would walk to the podium to shake hands and take promotional photos with the NBA commissioner. From there, the players often conducted interviews with various media outlets while backstage. From there, the players often conducted interviews with various media outlets while backstage. However, once the NBA draft started to air nationally on TV starting with the 1980 NBA draft, the green room evolved from players waiting to hear their name called and then shaking hands with these select players who were often called to the hotel to take promotional pictures with the NBA commissioner a day or two after the draft concluded to having players in real-time waiting to hear their names called up and then shaking hands with David Stern, the NBA's commissioner at the time.

The NBA compiled its list of green room invites through collective voting by the NBA's team presidents and general managers alike, which in this year's case belonged to only what they believed were the top 16 prospects at the time. Despite the higher amount of invites for this year's draft when compared to the previous two drafts, there would still be a couple of discrepancies involved with the invitations at hand, such as a missing invitation to Chinese Hall of Fame center Yao Ming from the Chinese Basketball Association's Shanghai Sharks (which would make him the first #1 pick to not be invited to the "green room" properly since David Robinson from the U.S. Navy back in 1987) and arguably a missing invitation for future NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer, who was taken in the second round of this year's draft. With that in mind, the following players were invited to attend this year's draft festivities live and in person.

• Template:Flagicon Curtis Borchardt – C, Stanford
• Template:Flagicon Caron Butler – SF, Connecticut
• Template:Flagicon Mike Dunleavy Jr. – SG/SF, Duke
• Template:Flagicon Melvin Ely – PF/C, Fresno State
• Template:Flagicon Drew Gooden – PF/C, Kansas
• Template:Flagicon Marcus Haislip – PF, Tennessee
• Template:Flagicon Maybyner "Nenê" Hilario – PF/C, Vasco de Gama (Brazil)
• Template:Flagicon Casey Jacobsen – SG/SF, Stanford
• Template:Flagicon Jared Jeffries – PF/C, Indiana
• Template:Flagicon Kareem Rush – SG, Missouri
• Template:Flagicon Amar'e Stoudemire – PF/C, Cypress Creek High School (Orlando, Florida)
• Template:Flagicon Nikoloz Tskitishvili – PF/C, Benetton Treviso (Italy)
• Template:Flagicon Dajuan Wagner – PG/SG, Memphis
• Template:Flagicon Chris Wilcox – PF/C, Maryland
• Template:Flagicon Jay Williams – PG, Duke
• Template:Flagicon Qyntel Woods – SF, Northeast Mississippi Community College

See also

• List of first overall NBA draft picks