1947 BAA draft

1947 BAA draft
General information
SportBasketball
Date(s)July 1, 1947
LocationDetroit, Michigan
Overview
80 total selections in 10 rounds
LeagueBAA/NBA
First selectionClifton McNeely, Pittsburgh Ironmen
1948 →

The 1947 BAA draft was the 1st draft of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which later became the National Basketball Association (NBA). The fledgling BAA held a joint draft with the established National Basketball League (NBL). Both leagues wanted to control salaries by stamping out competitive bidding by assigning exclusive rights to the team selecting a player. The NBL had already signed 11 players, whom they did not feel should be exposed to the draft. The players included college stars Jack Smiley, Ralph Hamilton, Harry Boykoff, John Hargis, Frank Brian, and Charlie Black. As a trade-off, the BAA teams were allowed to select players before the NBL.

The draft was held on July 1, 1947, before the 1947–48 season. The nine remaining BAA teams along with the Baltimore Bullets who joined from the American Basketball League, took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players. In the first round of the draft, the teams selected in reverse order of their win–loss record in the previous season, while the Bullets were assigned the tenth pick, the last pick of the first round. Both the Pittsburgh Ironmen and Toronto Huskies participated in this draft, but they folded before the season opened.

Draft selections and draftee career notes

The first selection of the draft, Clifton McNeely from Texas Wesleyan University, did not play in the BAA. Instead, McNeely opted for a high school coaching career in Texas. The fourth pick, Walt Dropo, also did not play in the BAA and opted for a professional baseball career instead, eventually playing 13 seasons in the Major League Baseball (MLB). The 7th and 10th picks, Jack Underman and Larry Killick, also never played in the BAA. Three players from this draft, Harry Gallatin, Andy Phillip and Jim Pollard, have been inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Wataru Misaka, selected by the New York Knicks, made the team's final roster and became the first person of color to play in modern professional basketball, just months after the Major League Baseball color line had been broken by the Brooklyn Dodgers' Jackie Robinson. Misaka was cut after playing only three games with the team.

Key

Pos. G F C
Position Guard Forward 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

Draft

Rnd. Pick Player Pos. Nationality Team School / club team
1 1 Clifton McNeely# F  United States Pittsburgh Ironmen Texas Wesleyan
1 2 Glen Selbo G/F  United States Toronto Huskies Wisconsin
1 3 Bulbs Ehlers G/F  United States Boston Celtics Purdue
1 4 Walt Dropo#  United States Providence Steamrollers Connecticut
1 5 Dick Holub C  United States New York Knicks Long Island
1 6 Chink Crossin G  United States Philadelphia Warriors Pennsylvania
1 7 Jack Underman#  United States St. Louis Bombers Ohio State
1 8 Paul Huston F  United States Chicago Stags Ohio State
1 9 Dick O'Keefe G/F  United States Washington Capitols Santa Clara
1 10 Larry Killick#  United States Baltimore Bullets Vermont

Other picks

The following list includes other draft picks who have appeared in at least one BAA/NBA game.

Rnd. Pick Player Pos. Nationality Team School / club team
2 11 Fritz Nagy G/F  United States Pittsburgh Ironmen Akron
2 12 Red Rocha+ F/C  United States Toronto Huskies Oregon State
2 13 Hank Biasatti G  Italy
 Canada
Boston Celtics Toronto Huskies (Basketball Association of America)
2 14 Bob Hubbard F/C  United States Providence Steamrollers Springfield
2 18 Ben Schadler F  United States Chicago Stags Northwestern
2 19 Jack Tingle F  United States Washington Capitols Kentucky
3 23 Gene Stump G/F  United States Boston Celtics DePaul
3 28 Jimmy Darden G  United States Chicago Stags Denver
4 33 Johnny Ezersky G/F  United States Boston Celtics Brooklyn Gothams (American Basketball League)
4 38 Gene Vance G/F  United States Chicago Stags Illinois
4 40 Harry Gallatin^ F/C  United States Baltimore Bullets Northeast Missouri
5 42 Paul Hoffman G/F  United States Toronto Huskies Purdue
5 43 Jack Hewson F/C  United States Boston Celtics Philadelphia Sphas (American Basketball League)
5 45 Ron Livingstone C  United States New York Knicks Wyoming
5 47 Andy Phillip^ G/F  United States Chicago Stags Illinois
5 48 Matt Zunic G/F  United States Washington Capitols George Washington
6 53 Andy Duncan F/C  United States New York Knicks William & Mary
6 54 Paul Napolitano G/F  United States St. Louis Bombers San Francisco
6 56 Irv Rothenberg C  United States Washington Capitols Cleveland Rebels (Basketball Association of America)
7 61 Wataru Misaka G  United States New York Knicks Utah
7 62 Jim Pollard^ F/C  United States Chicago Stags Stanford
7 63 Saul Mariaschin G  United States Washington Capitols Harvard
8 68 Don Smith G/F  United States Chicago Stags Indianapolis Kautskys (National Basketball League)
8 69 Paul Cloyd G/F  United States Washington Capitols Wisconsin
8 70 Elmer Gainer F/C  United States Baltimore Bullets Anderson Packers (National Basketball League)
9 74 John Mandic F/C  United States Washington Capitols Portland Indians (Pacific Coast Professional Basketball League)
9 75 Chick Reiser G/F  United States Baltimore Bullets Fort Wayne Pistons (National Basketball League)

Notable undrafted players

These players were not selected in the 1947 draft, but played at least one game in the NBA.

Player Pos. Nationality School/club team
Don Barksdale^ F/C  United States UCLA
Charles B. Black F/C  United States Kansas
Jake Bornheimer F/C  United States Muhlenberg
Harry Boykoff C  United States St. John's
Carl Braun^ G  United States Colgate
Fran Curran G  United States Notre Dame
Jack Dwan F/G  United States Loyola (IL)
Hoot Gibson F/C  United States Creighton
Ralph Hamilton G/F  United States Indiana
John Hargis G/F  United States Texas
Doug Holcomb F  United States Wisconsin
Boag Johnson G  United States Huntington
Walt Kirk G  United States Illinois
Bob Knight G/F  United States Weaver HS (Hartford, Connecticut)
Ray Kuka F  United States Montana State
Walt Lautenbach G/F  United States Wisconsin
Matt Mazza G/F  United States Michigan State
Dick Mehen F/C  United States Tennessee
Ken Menke G  United States Illinois
Fred Paine F  United States Westminster (PA)
Les Pugh F/C  United States Ohio State
Ray Ramsey G/F  United States Bradley
Lee Robbins F  United States Colorado
Gene Rock G  United States USC
Jack Rocker F/C  United States California
Jack Smiley F/G  United States Illinois
Jim Springer C  United States Canterbury
Sid Tanenbaum G/F  United States NYU
Mike Todorovich F/C  United States Wyoming
Jack Toomay F/C  United States Pacific
Floyd Volker F/C  United States Wyoming
Danny Wagner G  United States Texas

This page was last updated at 2023-06-17 20:36 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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