2002 NBA draft

The 2002 NBA draft was held on June 17 2002, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. In this draft, National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting 57 amateur college basketball players and other first-time eligible players, such as players from non-North American leagues. This was the last draft that was broadcast on TNT, as ESPN obtained the rights for the 2003 draft via its incoming deal (which it retains to this day). The NBA announced that about 42 college and high school players, and five international players, had filed as early-entry candidates for the draft. The Chicago Bulls and the Golden State Warriors each had a 22.5% chance of acquiring the first pick, but the Houston Rockets, with just an 8.9% probability, won the NBA draft lottery on May 19. The Bulls and Warriors were second and third, respectively. As punishment for salary-cap violations during the 2001-02 season, the Minnesota Timberwolves forfeited their first-round draft pick.

The 2002 draft set a record of 17 international selections, with six of them coming in the first round.

Two months after the conclusion of his rookie season, number-two pick Jay Williams nearly lost his life in a motorcycle crash that shattered his pelvis, severed a main nerve in his leg and tore three ligaments in his left knee, including his ACL. Despite intense rehabilitation, Williams never played a game in the NBA again. When it became clear Williams could not return to the Bulls because of his injuries, the team waived him. The Bulls could have voided Williams' contract because it prohibited riding a motorcycle. However, the franchise bought out his contract for $3 million in 2004 instead of having him walk away with nothing.

The draft class was relatively weak outside of the top prospects. Several players selected early had promising careers that ended prematurely due to injury, including Yao Ming, Williams and Dajuan Wagner. Nevertheless, Yao was named a Hall of Famer—a selection predicated as much on his role in popularizing basketball in China as it was for his on-court play. Three players selected in this draft - including Yao, second-round pick Carlos Boozer and Rookie of the Year Amar'e Stoudemire - would be named to the All-NBA Team during their careers. Caron Butler was the only other player to become an All-Star. First-round pick Tayshaun Prince was also named to the NBA All-Defensive Team four times.

As of the end of the 2022–23 NBA season, Udonis Haslem was the last remaining active draft-eligible player from the 2002 class, though he went undrafted (he made his NBA debut the following season). He stopped playing after the 2022–23 season.

Nine of the players selected in this draft never played in an NBA game throughout their professional basketball careers. Three of those players were the sole selection of the draft from their respective teams: Peter Fehse (Seattle's only pick), Marcus Taylor (Minnesota's only pick) and Mladen Šekularac (Dallas' only pick).

Draft selections

Notable undrafted players

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

Early entrants

College underclassmen

This year would mark a bit of a step down in terms of the number of underclassmen entering the NBA draft when compared to last year. While it would be the second time the number of underclassmen would exceed the number of draft picks available in the NBA, this year only saw a total of 72 underclassmen from college and overseas declare their initial entry into the NBA draft. However, it would exceed the amount of withdrawn players with 24 players doing exactly that, leaving a total of 48 eligible underclassmen available for the draft this year. The following college basketball players successfully applied for early draft entrance.

• United States Lee Benson – F, Brown Mackie (freshman)
• United States Rodney Bias – F, Alabama (sophomore)
• United States Cordell Billups – G, Pierce (Washington) (sophomore)
• United States Carlos Boozer – F, Duke (junior)
• United States Curtis Borchardt – C, Stanford (junior)
• United States Caron Butler – F, Connecticut (sophomore)
• United States Mike Dunleavy Jr. – F, Duke (junior)
• United States Drew Gooden – F, Kansas (junior)
• United States Rod Grizzard – G, Alabama (junior)
• United States Marcus Haislip – F, Tennessee (junior)
• United States Rashid Hardwick – C, Eastern Oklahoma State (freshman)
• United States Adam Harrington – G, Auburn (junior)
• United States Casey Jacobsen – G, Stanford (junior)
• United States Chris Jefferies – F, Fresno State (junior)
• United States Jared Jeffries – F, Indiana (sophomore)
• Nigeria Muhammed Lasege – C, Louisville (sophomore)
• United States Tito Maddox – G, Fresno State (sophomore)
• United States Kei Madison – F, Okaloosa-Walton (sophomore)
• United States Roger Mason Jr. – G, Virginia (junior)
• United States Smush Parker – G, Fordham (sophomore)
• United States Travis Robinson – F, Jacksonville (junior)
• United States Kareem Rush – G, Missouri (junior)
• United States Jamal Sampson – F/C, California (freshman)
• United States Jerry Sanders – F, Northern Illinois (sophomore)
• United States Eddie Shelby – G, Dixie State (sophomore)
• United States Bobby Smith – G, Robert Morris (junior)
• United States Melvin Steward – G, Eastern New Mexico (junior)
• United States Marcus Taylor – G, Michigan State (sophomore)
• United States Terrell Taylor – G, Creighton (junior)
• United States Dajuan Wagner – G, Memphis (freshman)
• United States Adrian Walton – G, Fordham (freshman)
• United States Joseph Ward – F, Fort Hays State (junior)
• United States Omar Weaver – F/G, Riverside CC (freshman)
• United States Chris Wilcox – F, Maryland (sophomore)
• United States Troy Wiley – F, Rhode Island (junior)
• United States Frank Williams – G, Illinois (junior)
• United States George Williams – F, Houston (junior)
• United States Jay Williams – G, Duke (junior)
• United States Qyntel Woods – G/F, Northeast Mississippi CC (sophomore)

High school players

This would be the eighth straight year in a row where at least one high school player would declare their entry into the NBA draft directly out of high school after previously only allowing it one time back in 1975. It would also mark the first time a player directly out of high school would win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award with Amar'e Stoudemire earning the honor one year before LeBron James would enter the NBA. The following high school players successfully applied for early draft entrance.

• United States DeAngelo Collins – F, Inglewood High School (Inglewood, California)
• United States Lenny Cooke – G, Mott Adult High School (Flint, Michigan)
• Lithuania Giedrius Rinkevicius – C, Bridgton Academy (Bridgton, Maine)
• United States Amar'e Stoudemire – F, Cypress Creek High School (Orlando, Florida)

International players

The following international players successfully applied for early draft entrance.

• Germany Peter Fehse – F, Halle (Germany)
• Brazil Nenê Hilario – F, Vasco de Gama (Brazil)
• Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Nenad Krstic – Partizan (FR Yugoslavia)
• Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Mladen Šekularac – F, FMP (FR Yugoslavia)
• Georgia (country) Nikoloz Tskitishvili – F, Benetton Treviso (Italy)

Invited attendees

The 2002 NBA draft is considered to be the 24th NBA draft to have utilized what is properly considered the "green room" experience for NBA prospects. The NBA's green room is a staging area where anticipated draftees often sit with their families and representatives, waiting for their names to be called on draft night. Often being positioned either in front of or to the side of the podium (in this case, being positioned somewhere within The Theater at Madison Square Garden), once a player heard his name, he would walk to the podium to shake hands and take promotional photos with the NBA commissioner. From there, the players often conducted interviews with various media outlets while backstage. From there, the players often conducted interviews with various media outlets while backstage. However, once the NBA draft started to air nationally on TV starting with the 1980 NBA draft, the green room evolved from players waiting to hear their name called and then shaking hands with these select players who were often called to the hotel to take promotional pictures with the NBA commissioner a day or two after the draft concluded to having players in real-time waiting to hear their names called up and then shaking hands with David Stern, the NBA's commissioner at the time.

The NBA compiled its list of green room invites through collective voting by the NBA's team presidents and general managers alike, which in this year's case belonged to only what they believed were the top 16 prospects at the time. Despite the higher amount of invites for this year's draft when compared to the previous two drafts, there would still be a couple of discrepancies involved with the invitations at hand, such as a missing invitation to Chinese Hall of Fame center Yao Ming from the Chinese Basketball Association's Shanghai Sharks (which would make him the first #1 pick to not be invited to the "green room" properly since David Robinson from the U.S. Navy back in 1987) and arguably a missing invitation for future NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer, who was taken in the second round of this year's draft. With that in mind, the following players were invited to attend this year's draft festivities live and in person.

• United States Curtis Borchardt – C, Stanford
• United States Caron Butler – SF, Connecticut
• United States Mike Dunleavy Jr. – SG/SF, Duke
• United States Melvin Ely – PF/C, Fresno State
• United States Drew Gooden – PF/C, Kansas
• United States Marcus Haislip – PF, Tennessee
• Brazil Maybyner "Nenê" Hilario – PF/C, Vasco de Gama (Brazil)
• United States Casey Jacobsen – SG/SF, Stanford
• United States Jared Jeffries – PF/C, Indiana
• United States Kareem Rush – SG, Missouri
• United States Amar'e Stoudemire – PF/C, Cypress Creek High School (Orlando, Florida)
• Georgia (country) Nikoloz Tskitishvili – PF/C, Benetton Treviso (Italy)
• United States Dajuan Wagner – PG/SG, Memphis
• United States Chris Wilcox – PF/C, Maryland
• United States Jay Williams – PG, Duke
• United States Qyntel Woods – SF, Northeast Mississippi Community College

See also

• List of first overall NBA draft picks