2002 NBA draft

2002 NBA draft
General information
Sport	Basketball
Date(s)	June 26, 2002
Location	Madison Square Garden (New York City, New York)
Network(s)	TNT
Overview
57 total selections in 2 rounds
League	NBA
First selection	Yao Ming (Houston Rockets)

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.^[1] 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.^[2] 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.^[3][4] The Bulls and Warriors were second and third, respectively. As punishment for salary-cap violations during the 2000–01 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.^[5]

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.^[6]

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 stop 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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[n 1]	Team	School or club team
1	1	Yao Ming^^	C	China	Houston Rockets	Shanghai Sharks (China)
1	2	Jay Williams	PG	United States	Chicago Bulls	Duke (Jr.)
1	3	Mike Dunleavy Jr.	SF/SG	United States	Golden State Warriors	Duke (Jr.)
1	4	Drew Gooden	PF/C	United States	Memphis Grizzlies	Kansas (Jr.)
1	5	Nikoloz Tskitishvili	PF/C	Georgia	Denver Nuggets	Benetton Treviso (Italy)
1	6	Dajuan Wagner	PG	United States	Cleveland Cavaliers	Memphis (Fr.)
1	7	Nenê Hilario	C/PF	Brazil	New York Knicks (traded to Denver)[7]	Vasco da Gama (Brazil)
1	8	Chris Wilcox	PF/C	United States	Los Angeles Clippers (from Atlanta)	Maryland (So.)
1	9	Amar'e Stoudemire^*~	PF/C	United States	Phoenix Suns	Cypress Creek HS (Orlando, Florida)
1	10	Caron Butler^+	SF	United States	Miami Heat	Connecticut (So.)
1	11	Jared Jeffries	PF/C	United States	Washington Wizards	Indiana (So.)
1	12	Melvin Ely	C/PF	United States	Los Angeles Clippers	Fresno State (Sr.)
1	13	Marcus Haislip	PF	United States	Milwaukee Bucks	Tennessee (Jr.)
1	14	Fred Jones	SG	United States	Indiana Pacers	Oregon (Sr.)
1	15	Boštjan Nachbar	SF/PF	Slovenia	Houston Rockets (from Toronto)	Benetton Treviso (Italy)
1	16	Jiří Welsch	SG/SF	Czech Republic	Philadelphia 76ers (traded to Golden State)	Union Olimpija (Slovenia and Adriatic League)
1	17	Juan Dixon	PG	United States	Washington Wizards (from New Orleans)	Maryland (Sr.)
1	18	Curtis Borchardt	C	United States	Orlando Magic (traded to Utah)	Stanford (Jr.)
1	19	Ryan Humphrey	PF	United States	Utah Jazz (traded to Orlando)	Notre Dame (Sr.)
1	20	Kareem Rush	SG	United States	Toronto Raptors (from Seattle via New York, traded to Los Angeles Lakers)	Missouri (Jr.)
1	21	Qyntel Woods	SF	United States	Portland Trail Blazers	Northeast Mississippi CC (So.)
1	22	Casey Jacobsen	SG	United States	Phoenix Suns (from Boston)	Stanford (Jr.)
1	23	Tayshaun Prince	SF	United States	Detroit Pistons	Kentucky (Sr.)
1	24	Nenad Krstić	C/PF	Yugoslavia	New Jersey Nets	Partizan Belgrade (Sinalco Superleague and Adriatic League)
1	25	Frank Williams	PG	United States	Denver Nuggets (from Dallas, traded to New York)[7]	Illinois (Jr.)
1	26	John Salmons	SF/SG	United States	San Antonio Spurs (traded to Philadelphia)	Miami (Sr.)
1	27	Chris Jefferies	SF	United States	Los Angeles Lakers (traded to Toronto)	Fresno State (Jr.)
1	28	Dan Dickau	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)[8]
2	30	Steve Logan^#	PG	United States	Golden State Warriors	Cincinnati (Sr.)
2	31	Roger Mason Jr.	SG	United States	Chicago Bulls	Virginia (Jr.)
2	32	Robert Archibald	PF	United Kingdom	Memphis Grizzlies	Illinois (Sr.)
2	33	Vincent Yarbrough	SF	United States	Denver Nuggets	Tennessee (Sr.)
2	34	Dan Gadzuric	C	Netherlands	Milwaukee Bucks (from Houston)	UCLA (Sr.)
2	35	Carlos Boozer^*	PF	United States	Cleveland Cavaliers	Duke (Jr.)
2	36	Miloš Vujanić^#	PG	Yugoslavia	New York Knicks	Partizan Belgrade (Sinalco Superleague and Adriatic League)
2	37	David Andersen	C	Australia	Atlanta Hawks	Virtus Bologna (Italy)
2	38	Tito Maddox	PG	United States	Houston Rockets (from Miami)	Fresno State (So.)
2	39	Rod Grizzard^#	SG	United States	Washington Wizards (from Phoenix via Denver)	Alabama (Jr.)
2	40	Juan Carlos Navarro	PG	Spain	Washington Wizards	FC Barcelona (Spain)
2	41	Mario Kasun	C	Croatia	Los Angeles Clippers	Opel Skyliners (Germany)
2	42	Ronald Murray	SG	United States	Milwaukee Bucks	Shaw (Sr.)
2	43	Jason Jennings^#	C	United States	Portland Trail Blazers (from Toronto via Chicago)	Arkansas State (Sr.)
2	44	Lonny Baxter	PF	United States	Chicago Bulls (from Indiana)	Maryland (Sr.)
2	45	Sam Clancy^#	PF	United States	Philadelphia 76ers	USC (Sr.)
2	46	Matt Barnes	SF	United States	Memphis Grizzlies (from Orlando)	UCLA (Sr.)
2	47	Jamal Sampson	C	United States	Utah Jazz (traded to Orlando)	California (Fr.)
2	48	Chris Owens	PF	United States	Milwaukee Bucks (from New Orleans, traded to Memphis)	Texas (Sr.)
2	49	Peter Fehse^#	PF	Germany	Seattle SuperSonics	Halle (Germany)
2	50	Darius Songaila	PF	Lithuania	Boston Celtics	Wake Forest (Sr.)
2	51	Federico Kammerichs^#	SF	Argentina	Portland Trail Blazers	Ourense (Spain)
2	52	Marcus Taylor^#	PG	United States	Minnesota Timberwolves	Michigan State (So.)
2	53	Rasual Butler	SF	United States	Miami Heat (from Detroit via Toronto and Houston)	La Salle (Sr.)
2	54	Tamar Slay	SG	United States	New Jersey Nets	Marshall (Sr.)
2	55	Mladen Šekularac^#	SG	Yugoslavia	Dallas Mavericks	FMP Železnik (Sinalco Superleague and Adriatic League)
2	56	Luis Scola	PF	Argentina	San Antonio Spurs (from L.A. Lakers)	TAU Cerámica (Spain)
2	57	Randy Holcomb	PF	United States  Libya	San Antonio Spurs (traded to Philadelphia)	San Diego State (Sr.)
2	58	Corsley Edwards	PF	United States	Sacramento Kings	Central Connecticut (Sr.)

1. Nationality indicates the player's national team or representative nationality. If a player has not competed at the international level, then the nationality indicates the national team which the player is eligible to represent according to FIBA rules.

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
Maurice Baker	PG	United States	Oklahoma State (Sr.)
J. R. Bremer	PG	United States	St. Bonaventure (Sr.)
Devin Brown	SG	United States	UTSA (Sr.)
Josh Davis	PF/SF	United States	Wyoming (Sr.)
Reggie Evans	PF	United States	Iowa (Sr.)
Alex Garcia	SG/SF	Brazil	COC Ribeirão Preto (Brazil)
Lynn Greer	PG/SG	United States	Temple (Sr.)
Anthony Grundy	PG/SG	United States	NC State (Sr.)
Adam Harrington	PG/SG	United States	Auburn (Sr.)
Lorinza Harrington	PG/SG	United States	Wingate (Sr.)
Udonis Haslem	PF	United States	Florida (Sr.)
Linton Johnson	SF	United States	Tulane (Sr.)
Arvydas Macijauskas	SG	Lithuania	Lietuvos Rytas (Lithuania)
D.J. Mbenga	C	DR Congo  Belgium	Leuven Bears (Belgium)
Keith McLeod	PG	United States	Bowling Green (Sr.)
Jannero Pargo	PG	United States	Arkansas (Sr.)
Smush Parker	PG/SG	United States	Fordham (So.)
Predrag Savović	SG	Yugoslavia	Hawaii (Sr.)
Awvee Storey	PF/SF	United States	Arizona State (Sr.)
Yuta Tabuse	PG	Japan	BYU–Hawaii (Fr.)

Early entrants

College underclassmen

The following college basketball players successfully applied for early draft entrance.^[9]

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

High school players

The following high school players successfully applied for early draft entrance.^[9]

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

International players

The following international players successfully applied for early draft entrance.^[9]

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

See also

• List of first overall NBA draft picks
• NBA records

References

1. NBA.com: 2002 Draft Handbook
2. NBA.com. Twenty-Four Early Entry Candidates Withdraw from Draft 2002. Retrieved June 26, 2007.
3. NBA.com. Ties Broken for NBA Draft Order of Selection. April 24, 2002. Retrieved June 26, 2007.
4. "Cavaliers Win NBA Draft Lottery 2003". NBA.com. Archived from the original on December 26, 2007. Retrieved April 20, 2007.
5. Lago, Joe. Draft record set with 17 foreign-born picks. June 26, 2002. Retrieved June 26, 2002.
6. Nance, Roscoe. Bulls, Jay Williams agree to contract buyout. February 2, 2004. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
7. The Knicks traded #7 pick along with Marcus Camby and Mark Jackson to the Nuggets for Antonio McDyess, #25 pick and a 2003 second-round pick.
8. "NBA Restores Timberwolves' 2005 Draft Pick". NBA.com. Archived from the original on September 1, 2012. Retrieved January 28, 2011.
9. "2002 Underclassmen". The Draft Review. August 4, 2007. Retrieved December 23, 2022.