| 1982 NBA draft | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Sport | Basketball |
| Date(s) | June 29, 1982 |
| Location | Felt Forum, Madison Square Garden (New York City, New York) [1] |
| Network(s) | USA Network |
| Overview | |
| 225 total selections in 10 rounds | |
| League | NBA |
| First selection | James Worthy (Los Angeles Lakers) |
The 1982 NBA draft took place on June 29, 1982, at the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.
The #1 selection from this year's draft, James Worthy, was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers despite them being one of the best teams in the NBA the previous season. Their selection at #1 this year related to a previous trade that the Lakers made with the Cleveland Cavaliers, which had them trading their first round pick for Don Ford back in 1979. Worthy would help the Lakers turn the Showtime Lakers into a dynasty for the 1980s decade. Meanwhile, continued first round trade considerations that the Cavaliers' owner at the time, Ted Stepien, led to the NBA stopping any further trades with him and the team's draft picks before he traded selections throughout the entire decade, as well as led to the creation of the Ted Stepien Rule forbidding teams of trading first round draft picks in back-to-back years unless a team had a different first round pick that they kept during that time.
| 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 |
For the first time since 1978, a player that had previously qualified for entry in the NBA draft as a college underclassman (in this case, a Nigerian born player from Sam Houston State University named Yommy Sangodeyi) would later withdraw his entry into the draft pool. He would become the only underclassman player to officially withdraw his name from an NBA draft during the 1980s decade, though he would return in another draft a couple of years later. The following twelve college basketball players successfully applied for early draft entrance otherwise. [2]
John Bagley – G, Boston College (junior) Terry Cummings – F, DePaul (junior) Quintin Dailey – G, San Francisco (junior) Ollie Johnson – F, Washington State (junior) Clark Kellogg – F, Ohio State (junior) Cliff Levingston – F, Wichita State (junior) Michael McDuffen – G, Murray State (junior) LaSalle Thompson – F/C, Texas (junior) Dominique Wilkins – F, Georgia (junior) Rob Williams – G, Houston (junior) James Worthy – F, North Carolina (junior) Victor Mitchell – C, Kansas (junior)
