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1986 NBA draft

{{cite book|last=Bradley|first=Robert D.|title=The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts|year=2013|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978...

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The 1986NBA draft was held on June 17, 1986.

Overview and aftermath

This draft holds the record for the most players chosen who later debuted in the NBA, with 66.

Drug and health issues involving drafted players

Various drug-related problems plagued players in the 1986 NBA draft. Most notable was the death of the #2 overall pick, Len Bias. The highly touted forward died from an overdose of cocaine less than two days after being selected by the defending champion Boston Celtics. Other problems involving drugs hampered the careers of centers Chris Washburn, Roy Tarpley, and William Bedford.

Successful second-round players

While a number of first-round selections were unable to make an impact in the league, the 1986 draft featured a number of talented second-round selections who made an impact on the league. Dennis Rodman became one of the leading defenders and rebounders in NBA history and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Mark Price, Kevin Duckworth, and Jeff Hornacek were all multiple NBA All-Stars. Johnny Newman, Nate McMillan, and David Wingate had long, productive careers as role players.

International draftees

This draft contained two exceptional international players, both of whom had abbreviated NBA careers for unusual reasons. Third-round selection Dražen Petrović was coming off an All-Star caliber fourth season in 1991 when he was killed in an automobile accident. He has since been elected to both the Naismith Hall of Fame and the FIBA Hall of Fame. Arvydas Sabonis, a resident of the Soviet Union and one of the greatest centers in basketball history, was not permitted to play in the United States during his prime because of Cold War antagonisms. He was already a two-time Olympic medal winner — a gold in 1988 with the USSR, and a bronze in 1992 with Lithuania - before finally being allowed to join the NBA in 1995, four years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. By that time he had lost much of his mobility to a string of knee and Achilles tendon injuries. Still, he finished second in both the Sixth Man Award and Rookie of the Year voting. After the 1995–96 season, he won a second Olympic bronze medal with Lithuania. He played seven seasons with Portland before returning to Lithuania to finish his career. Sabonis entered the FIBA Hall in 2010 and the Naismith Hall in 2011.

Other draftee contributions to the game

This draft is also known for the number of players who made important contributions to the sport of basketball beyond playing. For example, Nate McMillan followed a highly successful run on the court with the Seattle SuperSonics by becoming head coach, and then spent seven seasons as head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. Scott Skiles coached the Milwaukee Bucks, then became the first coach to lead the Chicago Bulls to the playoffs in the post-Michael Jordan era.

Larry Krystkowiak became the head coach of the Bucks, then became head coach at the University of Utah in 2011. John Salley won four championship rings with three different NBA teams (Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers) before becoming one of the hosts of The Best Damn Sports Show Period on Fox Sports Network. Mark Price served as an assistant coach at Georgia Tech, a shooting consultant with Memphis (one season) and Atlanta (two seasons), a shooting coach for Golden State (one season), and in December 2011 was named Player Development Coach for the Orlando Magic.[2]

Jeff Hornacek would also be a full-time assistant head coach for the Utah Jazz for two seasons before accepting a job as the head coach for the Phoenix Suns in the 2013–14 NBA season. He moved on to became the head coach for the New York Knicks from 2016 to 2018. Pete Myers, selected in the sixth round as the 120th overall pick, was an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls from 2001 to 2010 and Golden State Warriors starting in 2011. Jim Les, the 70th overall pick, was an assistant coach for the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs from 1999 to 2001, then was head coach at Bradley University from 2002 to 2011 and UC Davis since 2011.

Jay Bilas, who was selected in the fifth round as the 108th overall pick but never played in the NBA, is an ESPN college basketball analyst.

Draft selections

Brad Daugherty was selected 1st overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Chuck Person was selected 4th overall by the Indiana Pacers.
Roy Tarpley was selected 7th overall by the Dallas Mavericks.
Ron Harper was selected 8th overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Johnny Dawkins was selected 10th overall by the San Antonio Spurs.
Arvydas Sabonis was selected 24th overall by the Portland Trail Blazers.
Mark Price was selected 25th overall by the Dallas Mavericks (traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers).
Dennis Rodman was selected 27th overall by the Detroit Pistons.
Jeff Hornacek was selected 46th overall by the Phoenix Suns.
Dražen Petrović was selected 60th overall by the Portland Trail Blazers.
  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.

* compensation for draft choices traded away by Ted Stepien

Notable undrafted players

These players who declared or were automatically eligible for the 1986 draft were not selected but played in the NBA.

Early entrants

College underclassmen

For the fourth year in a row and the eighth time in nine years, no college underclassman would withdraw their entry into the NBA draft. However, it would be the first time in NBA history that a player that qualified for the status of a "college underclassman" would be playing professional basketball overseas, as Cedric Henderson (who had previously played for the University of Georgia for a year before travelling to Italy to play for the Simac Olimpia Milano) would qualify as an official entry there, expanding the list of official players there from eight to nine. Excluding him, however, the following college basketball players successfully applied for early draft entrance.[4]

Other eligible players

This year marked the first official year that a player that would not be considered a typical, proper "college underclassman" would qualify for entry in an NBA draft as an underclassman of sorts.

Invited attendees

The 1986 NBA draft is considered to be the ninth NBA draft to have utilized what's 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 in the Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum for the fifth year in a row[6]), 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. 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.[7] 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 11 prospects at the time.[8]

However, while the NBA avoided having a play wait in the green room beyond the first round for a fifth straight year in a row, one of the players invited in Len Bias would tragically lose his life two days after this draft concluded due to a drug overdose. Nevertheless, the following players were invited to attend this year's draft festivities live and in person.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑Bradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810890695.
  2. ↑"Magic Name Mark Price Player Development Coach". NBA.com. December 9, 2011.
  3. ↑Rogers was born in the United States, but represents Spain internationally.
  4. ↑"1986 Underclassmen". The Draft Review. August 4, 2007. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
  5. ↑Goldaper, Sam (May 20, 1986). "Albeck Dismissed, This Time By Bulls". The New York Times. p. 9. Retrieved December 13, 2022.
  6. 12Maurer, Matthew (September 16, 2023). "1986 Green Room Invites - The Draft Review". The Draft Review. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
  7. ↑Review, The Draft (June 18, 2024). "Error 404 - The Draft Review". The Draft Review. Retrieved July 13, 2026.
  8. ↑"Green Room - The Draft Review". The Draft Review. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
  • SI.com's twenty-year retrospective on the 1986 NBA DraftArchived 2008-09-19 at the Wayback Machine