the NBA draft: basketball quiz

30 September 2026. Lottery balls, second-round steals and picks teams still regret.

Quiz questions

1. The 2003 draft is remembered as one of the deepest ever. Who went first overall?
2. In 2013 the Milwaukee Bucks drafted an 18-year-old forward from the Greek club Filathlitikos. At which pick was Giannis Antetokounmpo taken?
3. Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady both went straight from high school to the NBA, yet neither was the first overall pick. Who became the first player drafted number one straight out of high school?
4. In 2002 the first pick went to a 2.29 m centre from the Shanghai Sharks. The four teams below held the top four picks that year. Which of them drafted Yao Ming?
5. Europe sent the NBA stars for decades, but for a long time none of them went first overall in the draft. Who became the first European player drafted number one?
6. All four of these were number one picks, and three of them later won an NBA title. Which of them never became a champion?
7. The NBA introduced the draft lottery so that the worst teams would stop losing on purpose for the top pick. The New York Knicks won the first one and used it on Patrick Ewing. In which year was it held?
8. Dirk Nowitzki spent his whole NBA career in Dallas, but the Mavericks did not draft him. The team that took him ninth in 1998 traded him to Dallas that same night. Which team drafted Dirk?
9. None of these four went in the first round, yet all four later became NBA champions. Which of them was picked the earliest?
10. Sacramento used the 60th and final pick of the 2011 draft on a guard who went on to outplay most of the players taken ahead of him. Who was he?

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