1975 NBA Draft

The 1975 NBA Draft featured 18 teams and produced six future NBA All-Stars: David Thompson, Alvan Adams, Lionel Hollins, Dan Roundfield, World B. Free and Gus Williams. Thompson was later inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Atlanta owned the first overall selection after acquiring New Orleans' pick in the 1974 Pete Maravich trade. The Hawks selected NC State superstar David Thompson, but Thompson instead signed with the Denver Nuggets of the ABA and did not join the NBA until the leagues merged in 1976.

The draft was also notable for Philadelphia selecting Darryl Dawkins fifth overall and Atlanta selecting Bill Willoughby 19th. Both entered professional basketball directly from high school, an extremely rare route at the time.

Several major NBA contributors were found outside the first round. Gus Williams went 20th, World B. Free 23rd, Dan Roundfield 28th and future NBA coach Mike Dunleavy was not part of this class until the following year. The 1975 draft also included international star Aleksander Belov, selected by New Orleans in the tenth round.

David Thompson: Atlanta selected NC State superstar David Thompson first overall with a pick obtained from the New Orleans Jazz in the Pete Maravich trade. Thompson was also the first selection in the 1975 ABA Draft and chose to sign with the Denver Nuggets. He joined the NBA with Denver after the 1976 NBA-ABA merger and eventually became a four-time NBA All-Star and Basketball Hall of Famer.

Pete Maravich trade: Atlanta's No. 1 selection originally belonged to New Orleans. The Jazz sent the pick to Atlanta as part of the May 1974 trade that brought Pete Maravich to New Orleans. Atlanta ultimately used the selection on David Thompson.

Darryl Dawkins: Philadelphia selected 18-year-old center Darryl Dawkins fifth overall directly from Maynard Evans High School in Orlando, Florida. Dawkins became one of the first players of the modern NBA era to move directly from high school into the league.

Bill Willoughby: Atlanta selected Bill Willoughby 19th overall directly from Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, New Jersey. Along with Dawkins, Willoughby helped establish the precedent for players entering the NBA without first playing college basketball.

Alvan Adams: Phoenix selected Oklahoma center-forward Alvan Adams fourth overall. Adams immediately won the 1975-76 NBA Rookie of the Year Award and was named an All-Star during his rookie season. He spent his entire 13-season NBA career with Phoenix.

Lionel Hollins: Portland selected Arizona State guard Lionel Hollins sixth overall. Hollins became an NBA All-Star and a major contributor to Portland's 1977 championship team. He later had a long NBA coaching career.

World B. Free: Philadelphia selected Lloyd Free 23rd overall in the second round. Later known as World B. Free, he became one of the league's most explosive scorers and was named an NBA All-Star in 1980.

Gus Williams: Golden State selected USC guard Gus Williams 20th overall. Williams later became a two-time NBA All-Star and a central figure on Seattle's 1979 NBA championship team.

Dan Roundfield: Cleveland selected Central Michigan forward Dan Roundfield 28th overall. Roundfield later became a three-time NBA All-Star and one of the league's top defensive forwards with Atlanta.

Joe Bryant: Golden State selected La Salle forward Joe Bryant 14th overall using a pick acquired from Chicago in the Nate Thurmond trade. Bryant played eight NBA seasons and later played professionally in Europe. He was the father of future Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

Junior Bridgeman: The Lakers selected Louisville forward Junior Bridgeman eighth overall with a pick obtained from Cleveland. Less than three weeks after the draft, Los Angeles traded Bridgeman, Dave Meyers, Elmore Smith and Brian Winters to Milwaukee for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Walt Wesley.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar trade: Two players chosen in the first eight picks of this draft, Dave Meyers and Junior Bridgeman, were included in the June 1975 blockbuster that sent Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from Milwaukee to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Kansas City Kings: The franchise had previously been known as the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, but dropped "Omaha" before the 1975 draft. The club is therefore listed as the Kansas City Kings on this page.

Aleksander Belov: New Orleans selected Soviet center Aleksander Belov 161st overall in the tenth round. Belov never played in the NBA but was one of the Soviet Union's most celebrated players and was later inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame.

Six NBA All-Stars: David Thompson, Alvan Adams, Lionel Hollins, Dan Roundfield, World B. Free and Gus Williams all became NBA All-Stars.

174 selections: The 1975 NBA Draft contained 174 official selections over 10 rounds. Basketball-Reference records 53 members of the draft class as eventually appearing in the NBA.