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1947 BAA draft
1947 BAA draft
General information
Sport	Basketball
Date(s)	June 2, 1947
Location	The Leland Hotel (Detroit, Michigan)
Overview
	80 total selections in 10 rounds
League	BAA
First selection	Clifton McNeely, Pittsburgh Ironmen
	1948 →

The 1947 BAA draft was the 1st draft of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which later merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to become the National Basketball Association (NBA). The fledgling BAA held a joint draft with the established 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.^[2]

The draft was held on June 2, 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.^[3] 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).^[4]^[5] 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.^[6]

Wataru Misaka, selected by the New York Knicks,^[7] 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.^[8] Misaka was cut after playing only three games with the team.^[9]

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^{[n 1]}	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.^[10]^[11]

Rnd.	Pick	Player	Pos.	Nationality^{[n 1]}	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

Notes

^ ^a ^b Nationality indicates the player's national team or representative nationality. If a player has not competed at the international level, then the nationality indicates the national team which the player is eligible to represent according to FIBA rules.

References

General

"1947 BAA Draft". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved September 11, 2009.
"1947–1948 BAA Drafts, 1949–1951 NBA Drafts". The Association for Professional Basketball Research. Retrieved September 11, 2009.

Specific

^ ^a ^b Bradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810890695., pg. 1
^ Bradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. pp. 1–2. ISBN 9780810890695.
^ Cook, Bob (September 13, 2007). "Oden's injury a cruel blow for cursed Blazers". NBCSports.com. NBC Universal. Archived from the original on February 21, 2009. Retrieved September 11, 2009.
^ Montville, Leigh (July 19, 1993). "What Ever Happened To...: Walt Dropo". Sports Illustrated. Time Inc. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved September 10, 2009.
^ "Walt Dropo Bio". baseball-reference.com. Archived from the original on October 20, 2009. Retrieved September 11, 2009.
^ "Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Inductees". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
^ Wertheim, Jon (February 11, 2012). "Decades before Lin's rise, Misaka made history for Asian-Americans". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
^ Goldstein, Richard (November 26, 2019). "Wat Misaka, 95, First Nonwhite in Modern Pro Basketball, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
^ Vecsey, George (August 10, 2009). "Pioneering Knick Returns to Garden". The New York Times. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
^ "1947 BAA Draft".
^ "NBA Past Drafts - RealGM".