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1956 NBA draft
1956 NBA draft
General information
Sport	Basketball
Date(s)	April 30, 1956
Location	New York City, New York
Overview
	92 total selections in 14 rounds
League	NBA
Territorial pick(s)	Tom Heinsohn, Boston Celtics
First selection	Si Green, Rochester Royals
	← 1955 1957 →

The 1956 NBA draft was the tenth annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 30, 1956, before the 1956–57 season. In this draft, eight NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players. In each round, the teams select in reverse order of their win–loss record in the previous season, except for the defending champion and runner-up, who were assigned the last two picks on each round. The draft consisted of 10 rounds comprising 92 players selected.

Draft selections and draftee career notes

Si Green from Duquesne University was selected first overall by the Rochester Royals. Tom Heinsohn from the College of the Holy Cross was selected before the draft as Boston Celtics' territorial pick. Heinsohn went on to win the Rookie of the Year Award in his first season.^[1] Bill Russell from the University of San Francisco was selected second overall by the St. Louis Hawks and immediately traded to the Boston Celtics for Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan.^[2] Three players from this draft, Tom Heinsohn, Bill Russell, and K. C. Jones, have been inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame after championship careers with the Boston Celtics.^[3] Elgin Baylor and Sam Jones, who were selected by the Minneapolis Lakers in the later rounds, have also been inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame, although they did not enter the league immediately after the draft. In the 1957 draft, Sam Jones was selected in the first round by the Boston Celtics, with whom he played for in his whole career.^[4] In the 1958 draft, Elgin Baylor was selected first overall by the Lakers, with whom he played for in his whole career.^[5]

Draft

Bill Russell was selected 2nd overall by the St. Louis Hawks (traded to the Boston Celtics.

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	Team	College
T	–	Tom Heinsohn^	F/C	United States	Boston Celtics	Holy Cross
1	1	Si Green	G/F	United States	Rochester Royals	Duquesne
1	2	Bill Russell^	C	United States	St. Louis Hawks (traded to Boston)^[a]	San Francisco
1	3	Jim Paxson	G/F	United States	Minneapolis Lakers	Dayton
1	4	Ronnie Shavlik	F	United States	New York Knicks	NC State
1	5	Joe Holup	F	United States	Syracuse Nationals	George Washington
1	6	Ron Sobieszczyk	G	United States	Fort Wayne Pistons (traded to New York)^[b]	DePaul
1	7	Hal Lear	G	United States	Philadelphia Warriors	Temple
2	8	Bob Burrow	F/C	United States	Rochester Royals	Kentucky
2	9	Willie Naulls⁺	F/C	United States	St. Louis Hawks	UCLA
2	10	Terry Rand^#	C	United States	Minneapolis Lakers	Marquette
2	11	Gary Bergen	C	United States	New York Knicks	Utah
2	12	Paul Judson^#	F	United States	Syracuse Nationals	Illinois
2	13	K. C. Jones^	G	United States	Boston Celtics	San Francisco
2	14	Bob Kessler^#	F	United States	Fort Wayne Pistons	Maryland
2	15	Phil Rollins	G	United States	Philadelphia Warriors	Louisville

Other picks

The following list includes other draft picks who have appeared in at least one NBA game.^[6]^[7]

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	Team	College
3	16	Dave Piontek	F/C	United States	Rochester Royals	Xavier (OH)
3	18	Jerry Bird	F	United States	Minneapolis Lakers	Kentucky
3	20	Forest Able	G	United States	Syracuse Nationals	Western Kentucky
3	22	Bill Thieben	F/C	United States	Fort Wayne Pistons	Hofstra
4	24	Johnny McCarthy	G	United States	Rochester Royals	Canisius
4	28	Swede Halbrook	C	United States	Syracuse Nationals	Wichita Vickers (NIBL)
4	29	Dan Swartz	F	United States	Boston Celtics	Morehead State
5	33	Norm Stewart	F	United States	St. Louis Hawks	Missouri
5	36	Jim Ray	G	United States	Syracuse Nationals	Toledo
6	42	Phil Jordon	F/C	United States	Minneapolis Lakers	Whitworth
6	43	Pat Dunn	G	United States	New York Knicks	Utah State
7	50	John Barber	F	United States	Minneapolis Lakers	Cal State L.A.
10	74	Bob Hopkins	F/C	United States	Syracuse Nationals	Grambling
14	90	Elgin Baylor^	F	United States	Minneapolis Lakers^[c]	Seattle

Notable undrafted players

These players were not selected in the 1956 draft but played at least one game in the NBA.

Player	Pos.	Nationality	School/club team
Rich Eichhorst	G	United States	Southeast Missouri State

Trades

^a On draft-day, the Boston Celtics acquired the draft rights to second pick Bill Russell from the St. Louis Hawks in exchange for Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan.^[2]
^b On draft-day, the New York Knicks acquired the draft rights to sixth pick Ron Sobieszczyk from the Fort Wayne Pistons in exchange for Gene Shue.^[8]
^c Baylor would not play for the Minneapolis Lakers until he was drafted by them again 1st overall in the 1958 NBA draft.

References

General

"1956 NBA Draft". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
"1952–1956 NBA Drafts". The Association for Professional Basketball Research. Retrieved September 26, 2009.
"1956 NBA Draft". The Draft Review. Retrieved October 30, 2009.

Specific

^ "Rookie of the Year". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on March 29, 2010. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
^ ^a ^b "Bill Russell Bio". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Retrieved December 28, 2009.
^ "Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Inductees". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
^ "Sam Jones Bio". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
^ "Elgin Baylor Bio". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on March 17, 2010. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
^ "1956 NBA draft".
^ "NBA Past Drafts - RealGM".
^ Janssen, Kim (October 25, 2009). "Ron Sobieszczyk, 1934-2009: Former DePaul basketball standout, played in NBA". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on March 3, 2012. Retrieved December 28, 2009.