1983 NBA draft

The 1983 NBA draft took place on June 28, 1983, in New York City. A total of 226 players were selected over 10 rounds by the league's 23 teams.

1983 NBA draft
General information
Sport	Basketball
Date(s)	June 28, 1983
Location	Felt Forum (New York City, New York)
Network(s)	USA Network ESPN
Overview
226 total selections in 10 rounds
League	NBA
First selection	Ralph Sampson (Houston Rockets)
← 1982 1984 →

The first overall pick of this draft was 7’4” center Ralph Sampson, predicted as an NBA superstar since high school. The three-time College Player of the Year had spent all four years of his college career at the University of Virginia, and was taken first by the Houston Rockets. Displaying his graceful above-the-rim game and ability to run the court like a guard, he got off to a certain Hall of Fame bound start as an NBA All-Star and NBA Rookie of the Year before injuries several seasons in derailed his career.

Sampson was joined in the Hall by University of Houston Cougars standout Clyde “The Glide” Drexler, taken number 14 by the Portland Trail Blazers. Despite there being only 23 teams at the time of the draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers were awarded the 24th pick out of courtesy. Then-owner Ted Stepien was infamous for repeatedly trading first-round picks in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which, considering Cleveland's morose records in that time period, eventually culminated in the NBA creating a rule banning teams from dealing all of their first-round picks in consecutive years.

Four players from the 1983 draft later served or now serve as coaches—Doc Rivers for the Philadelphia 76ers, Randy Wittman for the Washington Wizards, Byron Scott for the Los Angeles Lakers from 2014 to 2016, and point guard of the 1983 NCAA championship North Carolina State Wolfpack Sidney Lowe.

While Scott won the Coach of the Year award in 2008, Rivers won an NBA Championship with the Celtics in that same year.

7’7” Manute Bol was selected in the 5th round by the Clippers, but the NBA rejected the pick on technicalities. Manute had never filed draft paperwork, and his passport listed him at 19 (at the time, 19 years was too young to be drafted).^[1]

Florida State star Mitchell Wiggins, father of future No. 1 overall draft pick Andrew Wiggins, was drafted 23rd by the Indiana Pacers.

Draft

 

Ralph Sampson was selected first overall by the Houston Rockets.

 

Clyde Drexler was selected fourteenth overall by the Portland Trail Blazers.

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

Round	Pick	Player	Pos.	Nationality	Team	School/club team
1	1	Ralph Sampson^	C	United States	Houston Rockets	Virginia (Sr.)
1	2	Steve Stipanovich	C	United States	Indiana Pacers	Missouri (Sr.)
1	3	Rodney McCray	SF	United States	Houston Rockets (from Cleveland via Philadelphia)	Louisville (Sr.)
1	4	Byron Scott	SG	United States	San Diego Clippers	Arizona State (Jr.)
1	5	Sidney Green	PF	United States	Chicago Bulls	UNLV (Sr.)
1	6	Russell Cross	C	United States	Golden State Warriors	Purdue (Jr.)
1	7	Thurl Bailey	PF	United States	Utah Jazz	NC State (Sr.)
1	8	Antoine Carr	PF	United States	Detroit Pistons	Wichita State (Sr.)
1	9	Dale Ellis*	SG	United States	Dallas Mavericks	Tennessee (Sr.)
1	10	Jeff Malone^+	SG	United States	Washington Bullets	Mississippi State (Sr.)
1	11	Derek Harper	PG/SG	United States	Dallas Mavericks (from Atlanta via Cleveland)	Illinois (Jr.)
1	12	Darrell Walker	SG	United States	New York Knicks	Arkansas (Sr.)
1	13	Ennis Whatley	PG	United States	Kansas City Kings	Alabama (So.)
1	14	Clyde Drexler^	SG	United States	Portland Trail Blazers	Houston (Jr.)
1	15	Howard Carter	SG	United States	Denver Nuggets	LSU (Sr.)
1	16	Jon Sundvold	PG	United States	Seattle SuperSonics	Missouri (Sr.)
1	17	Leo Rautins	SF	Canada	Philadelphia 76ers (from New Jersey)	Syracuse (Sr.)
1	18	Randy Breuer	C	United States	Milwaukee Bucks	Minnesota (Sr.)
1	19	John Paxson	PG	United States	San Antonio Spurs	Notre Dame (Sr.)
1	20	Roy Hinson	C	United States	Cleveland Cavaliers (from Phoenix)	Rutgers (Sr.)
1	21	Greg Kite	C	United States	Boston Celtics	BYU (Sr.)
1	22	Randy Wittman	SG	United States	Washington Bullets (from Los Angeles)	Indiana (Sr.)
1	23	Mitchell Wiggins	SG	United States	Indiana Pacers (from Philadelphia)	Florida State (Sr.)
1	24	Stewart Granger	PG	Canada	Cleveland Cavaliers *	Villanova (Sr.)
2	25	Sidney Lowe	PG	United States	Chicago Bulls	NC State (Sr.)
2	26	Leroy Combs	SF	United States	Indiana Pacers	Oklahoma State (Sr.)
2	27	John Garris	PF	United States	Cleveland Cavaliers	Boston College (Sr.)
2	28	Rod Foster	PG	United States	Phoenix Suns	UCLA (Sr.)
2	29	Larry Micheaux	PF	United States	Chicago Bulls	Houston (Sr.)
2	30	Mark West	C	United States	Dallas Mavericks	Old Dominion (Sr.)
2	31	Doc Rivers^+	PG	United States	Atlanta Hawks	Marquette (Jr.)
2	32	Michael Britt^#	SF	United States	Washington Bullets	UDC (Sr.)
2	33	Dirk Minniefield	PG	United States	Dallas Mavericks	Kentucky (Sr.)
2	34	Guy Williams	F	United States	Washington Bullets	Washington State (Sr.)
2	35	Darrell Lockhart	C	United States	San Antonio Spurs	Auburn (Sr.)
2	36	Scooter McCray	PF	United States	Seattle SuperSonics	Louisville (Sr.)
2	37	David Russell^#	SF	United States	Denver Nuggets	St. John's (Sr.)
2	38	Chris McNealy	PF	United States	Kansas City Kings	San Jose State (Sr.)
2	39	Granville Waiters	C	United States	Portland Trail Blazers	Ohio State (Sr.)
2	40	Jim Thomas	SG	United States	Indiana Pacers	Indiana (Sr.)
2	41	Ted Kitchel^#	SF	United States	Milwaukee Bucks	Indiana (Sr.)
2	42	Mike Davis^#	SG	United States	Milwaukee Bucks	Alabama (Sr.)
2	43	Pace Mannion	SF	United States	Golden State Warriors	Utah (Sr.)
2	44	Horace Owens^#	SG	United States	New Jersey Nets	Rhode Island (Sr.)
2	45	Paul Williams^#	SF	United States	Phoenix Suns	Arizona State (Sr.)
2	46	Kevin Williams	PG	United States	San Antonio Spurs	St. John's (Sr.)
2	47	Kenneth Lyons^#	PF	United States	Philadelphia 76ers	North Texas State (Sr.)

 

Doc Rivers was selected thirty-first overall by the Atlanta Hawks

*Compensation for draft choices previously traded away by Ted Stepien.

Notable post-second round picks

These picks have played at least one game in the NBA but were not selected in the first or second rounds.^[2][3]

Round	Pick	Player	Pos.	Nationality	Team	School/club team
3	56	Larry Anderson	SG	United States	Cleveland Cavaliers	UNLV (Sr.)
3	48	Craig Ehlo	SG	United States	Houston Rockets	Washington State (Sr.)
3	50	Paul Thompson	SF	United States	Cleveland Cavaliers	Tulane (Sr.)
3	53	Mike Holton	SG	United States	Golden State Warriors	UCLA (Sr.)
3	54	Bob Hansen	SG	United States	Utah Jazz	Iowa (Sr.)
3	57	Darren Daye	SF	United States	Washington Bullets	UCLA (Sr.)
3	58	John Pinone	SF	United States	Atlanta Hawks	Villanova (Sr.)
3	59	Bruce Kuczenski	PF	United States	New Jersey Nets	Connecticut (Sr.)
3	62	Tom Piotrowski	C	United States	Portland Trail Blazers	La Salle (Sr.)
4	75	Ron Crevier	C	Canada	Chicago Bulls	Boston College (Sr.)
4	77	Peter Thibeaux	SF	United States	Golden State Warriors	Saint Mary's (Sr.)
4	82	Mark Jones	PG	United States	New York Knicks	St. Bonaventure (Sr.)
4	90	Brant Weidner	PF	United States	San Antonio Spurs	William & Mary (Sr.)
4	91	Carlos Clark	SG	United States	Boston Celtics	Ole Miss (Sr.)
5	97	Manute Bol	C	Sudan	San Diego Clippers (Pick voided on technicalities)^[1]	None
5	101	Ken Austin	PF	United States	Detroit Pistons	Rice (Sr.)
5	102	Jim Lampley	C	United States	Dallas Mavericks	Arkansas–Little Rock (Sr.)
6	139	Sedale Threatt	SG	United States	Philadelphia 76ers	West Virginia Tech (Sr.)
7	152	Dane Suttle	SG	United States	Kansas City Kings	Pepperdine (Sr.)

Early entrants

College underclassmen

The following college basketball players successfully applied for early draft entrance.^[4]

•   Russell Cross – F, Purdue (junior)
•   Clyde Drexler – G/F, Houston (junior)
•   Derek Harper – G, Illinois (junior)
•   Doc Rivers – G, Marquette (junior)
•   Byron Scott – G, Arizona State (junior)
•   Ennis Whatley – G, Alabama (sophomore)

See also

• List of first overall NBA draft picks

References

General

• . NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on March 21, 2010. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
• "1983 NBA Draft". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
• "1982–1986 NBA Drafts". The Association for Professional Basketball Research. from the original on 16 November 2010. Retrieved December 11, 2010.

Specific

1. "A Gift From On High". CNN. June 28, 2010.
2. "1983 NBA Draft | Basketball-Reference.com".
3. "NBA Past Drafts - RealGM".
4. "1983 Underclassmen". The Draft Review. Retrieved December 13, 2022.

External links

• NBA.com