Draft Selections and Draftee Career Notes
Tom Thacker from the University of Cincinnati was selected before the draft as Cincinnati Royals' territorial pick. Art Heyman from Duke University was selected first overall by the New York Knicks. Two players from this draft, Nate Thurmond and Gus Johnson, have been inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Thurmond was also named in the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History list announced at the league's 50th anniversary in 1996. Thurmond's achievements include seven All-Star Game selections and five All-Defensive Team selections. Johnson's achievement include four All-NBA Team selections and five All-Star Game selections. Two players from this draft, 4th pick Eddie Miles and 13th pick Jim King, have also been selected to an All-Star Game.
Reggie Harding, who was the first player drafted out of high school when he was drafted last year, was drafted again by the Detroit Pistons with the 48th pick. He finally enter the league after spending a year in Midwest Professional Basketball League (MPBL) due to the rules that prevent a high school player to play in the league until one year after his high school class graduated. Larry Brown from the University of North Carolina was selected with the 55th pick. However, he never played in the NBA. He spent his playing career within the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) before joining the newly-formed American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1967. He played there for five seasons, earning one All-ABA Team selection and three ABA All-Star Game selections. After his playing career, he became a head coach. He coached nine NBA teams, most recently with the Charlotte Bobcats. He won the NBA championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004 and went to the NBA Finals two other times; with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2001 and with the Pistons in 2005. In between his NBA coaching career, he also coached the Kansas Jayhawks of the University of Kansas for five seasons, winning the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship in 1988. He is the only coach to win both an NCAA title and an NBA championship. As a player, he won the gold medal with the United States national basketball team at the 1964 Olympic Games. He then coached the U.S. national team to a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympic Games, becoming the only U.S. male basketball participant to both play and coach in the Olympics. Rod Thorn, the 2nd pick, also had a coaching career. He was the interim head coach of the Chicago Bulls in 1982.
Read more about this topic: 1963 NBA Draft
Famous quotes containing the words draft, selections, draftee, career and/or notes:
“If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us, and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.”
—Malcolm X (1925–1965)
“Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“Why not draft executive and management brains to prepare and produce the equipment the $21-a-month draftee must use and forget this dollar-a-year tommyrot? Would we send an army into the field under a dollar-a-year General who had to be home Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays?”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Lap me in soft Lydian airs,
Married to immortal verse,
Such as the meeting soul may pierce
In notes with many a winding bout
Of linked sweetness long drawn out,
With wanton heed and giddy cunning,
The melting voice through mazes running,
Untwisting all the chains that tie
The hidden soul of harmony;”
—John Milton (1608–1674)