Ranking the NBA's Top Overall Picks
Since the very beginning.
Photo: Public Domain
The NBA draft lottery is today (May 12, 2025). It will determine which among the teams that didn't make the playoffs (lottery teams) will be awarded the #1 overall pick in the 2025 draft. It will also determine the draft order of the other lottery teams.
I am ranking the most successful #1 overall picks in the draft's 78-year history. I am NOT ranking their overall greatness or accomplishments across their careers, but how well they worked out for their first team. Just as I did with ranking the NFL's top picks, I focused on the number of championships won with the drafted player. Then I look at other honors they've received while with that team.
Twenty-three players didn't work out much at all. Some others were great players, but are ranked low here because of trades or other circumstances in which they didn't spend much time with the first team they played for. Recently drafted players will be ranked low, only because they haven't accomplished much yet, and it does not reflect their ability.
When I say "the team that drafted him," in a few cases, that isn't technically correct. One team may have drafted a player and immediately traded him to another. I treat the team that acquired a rookie before the season started as the team that "drafted" him. Also, LeBron's second stint with the Cavaliers doesn't count for this list because that wasn't a draft signing or a re-signing; it was a free agent signing.
Key:
C - Championships (won Finals)
AN - All-NBA honors
MVP - Won the Most Valuable Player Award
AS - Named to All-Star team
RY - Awarded Rookie of the Year
DPY - Defensive Player of the Year
GP: Games Played
The Champions. 17 of 78 NBA champion teams have at least one #1 overall pick playing for the team that drafted him. (As you may be aware, some of these players played with each other.) This list is ranked in order of championships, followed by the totality of other accomplishments with their first team:
1997 Tim Duncan, Spurs - 5 C, 15 AN, 2 MVP, RY
1979 Magic Johnson, Lakers - 5 C 10 AN, 3 MVP
1982 James Worthy, Lakers - 3 C 2 AN, 7 AS
1984 Hakeem Olajuwon Rockets - 2 C, 12 AN, 1 MVP
1987 David Robinson, Spurs - 2 C, 10 AN, 1 MVP, RY
1969 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bucks - 1 C, 5 AN, 3 MVP, RY
1974 Bill Walton, Trailblazers - 1 C, 2 AN, 1 MVP
2011 Kyrie Irving, Cavaliers - 1 C, 1 AN, 5 AS, RY
1966 Cazzie Russell, Knicks - 1 C (off bench); later was an All-Star with another team
The MVPs (earned an MVP but no championship with their first team): The Most Valuable Player award started after the 1955-56 season. Thirty-six players have won it; eleven were top overall picks who received their first MVP while playing for their first team. In addition to the six already mentioned, they are:
2003 LeBron James, Cavaliers - 6 AN, 2 MVP, RY
1960 Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati Royals - 10 AN, MVP
1958 Elgin Baylor, Lakers - 10 AN, MVP, RY
1996 Allen Iverson, 76ers - 7 AN, MVP, RY
2008 Derrick Rose, Bulls - 1 AN, 1 MVP, 3 AS, RY
All-NBA players: 27 top picks earned all-NBA (1st, 2nd, or 3rd team) honors with the team that drafted them. In addition to the 13 above, they are:
1985 Patrick Ewing, Knicks - 7 AN, RY
2004 Dwight Howard, Magic - 6 AN, 3 DPY
2002 Yao Ming, Rockets - 5 AN
2009 Blake Griffin - 4 AN, RY
2012 Anthony Davis, Pelicans - 3 AN, 5 AS
1992 Shaquille O'Neal, Magic - 3 AN, RY
2015 Karl-Anthony Towns, Timberwolves - 2 AN,4 AS, RY
2016 Ben Simmons, 76ers - 2 AN, 3 AS, RY
1990 Derrick Coleman, Nets - 2 AN, RY
1986 Brad Daugherty, Cavaliers - 1 AN, 5 AS
1991 Larry Johnson, Hornets - 1 AN, 2 AS, RY
2020 Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves - 1 AN, 2 AS
2010 John Wall, Wizards - 1 AN, 5 AS
2005 Andrew Bogut, Bucks - 1 AN
Other All-Stars. If you were an all-star selection but not an All-NBA selection, it indicates you were very good but likely not good enough to be the very best player on a championship squad:
1970 Bob Lanier, Pistons - 7 AS
1961 Walt Bellamy, Chicago Packers (became Baltimore Bullets) - 4 AS, RY
1968 Elvin Hayes, Rockets - 4 AS
1983 Ralph Sampson, Rockets - 4 AS
1973 Doug Collins, 76ers - 4 AS
2019 Zion Williamson, Pelicans - 2 AS
1957 Rod Hundley, Lakers - 2 AS
1981 Mark Aguirre, Mavericks - 2 AS
1988 Danny Manning, Clippers - 2 AS
1994 Glenn Robinson, Bucks - 2 AS
1967 Jimmy Walker, Pistons - 2 AS
2022 Paolo Banchero, Magic - 1 AS, RY
2021 Cade Cunningham, Pistons - 1 AS
2000 Kenyon Martin, Nets - 1 AS
1971 Austin Carr, Cavaliers - 1 AS
1980 Joe Barry Carroll, Warriors, 1 AS
Starter on a Finals team
2018 DeAndre Ayton, Suns. Ayton has no championships or honors, but he was the center for a Suns team that made the Finals one year and won 64 games another, indicating play worthy of all-star consideration.
Rookies of the Year: The Rookie of the Year was first awarded following the 1952-53 season. Drafting a player who becomes Rookie of the Year suggests that the team did something right. 23 top picks have won Rookie of the Year honors. Here are the remaining six not listed above.
2023 Victor Wembanyama, Spurs - RY, All-Defensive
1993 Chris Webber, Warriors - RY (one season with the team)
1999 Elton Brand, Bulls RY; traded after two seasons
2014 Andrew Wiggins, Timberwolves - RY, champion on a later team
1953 Ray Felix, Bullets - RY, (one season with the team)
1949 Howie Shannon RY, 122 career games played
Time will tell:
2024 Zaccharie Risacher, Hawks (2nd place Rookie of the Year)
Solid careers:
1959 Bob Boozer, Royals - All-Star and champion on a later team.
1978 Mychal Thompson, Trailblazers - 7-year starter for the team drafting him; later 2x champ on another team.
Does he count?
In 1975, David Thompson was drafted #1 by the Virginia Squires of the NBA and the Denver Nuggets of the ABA; the Nuggets joined the NBA in 1976. With the Nuggets in the NBA: excluding his ABA rookie season (with the same franchise), his time with the Nuggets led to 2 All-NBAs and 3 All-Stars. That would rank 22nd on this list. If he doesn't count, then he'd be 75th.
Jags ("just a guy"), busts, injury-shortened careers, or never played, in descending order of number of seasons or games played for the team that drafted them:
1998 Michal Olowokandi, Clippers - 7 seasons
2006 Andrea Bargnani, Raptors - 7 seasons
1972 LaRue Martin, Trailblazers - 4 seasons
2001 Kwame Brown, Wizards - 4 seasons
1965 Fred Hetzel, Warriors - 3 seasons
1977 Kent Benson, Bucks - 3 seasons
1963 Art Heyman, Knicks - 2 seasons
1976 John Lucas, Rockets - 2 seasons
1995 Joe Smith, Warriors - 2 seasons
1964 Jim Barnes, Knicks - 82 games total
2007 Greg Oden, Trailblazers - 82 games
1962 Billy McGill, Chicago Zephyrs - 60 games
2013 Anthony Bennett - 52 games
1989 Pervis Ellison, Kings - 34 games
2017 Markelle Fultz, 76ers - 33 games
1955 Dick Ricketts, Hawks - 29 games
1948 Andy Tonkovich, Providence Steamrollers - 17 games
1956 Si Green, Royals - 13 games
1954 Frank Selvy, Bullets - 11 games
1952 Mark Workman, Hawks - 5 games
1950 Chuck Share, Celtics - never played with the team; played in another league, then rights traded (first draft under National Basketball Association name)
1947 Clifton McNeely, Pittsburgh Ironmen, never played (first draft, when the league was called the Basketball Association of America); became a high school coach instead
1951 Gene Melchiorre, Bullets - never played, banned for college point-shaving scandal.
To be fair to the Baltimore Bullets (same franchise as today's Washington Wizards) for drafting the worst #1 overall pick of all time, the draft was in April, and the discovery of Melchiorre's involvement in college basketball point-shaving wasn't known until his arrest that July. The NBA Commissioner had no choice but to ban all players involved in the scandal for life.
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