WARRIORS DRAFT FACTS

The Warriors have participated in the NBA Draft every year since 1947. For fun and interesting facts about the franchise's draft history, as well as some information about their upcoming selections in the 2008 NBA Draft, read below.

The Warriors’ 2008-09 team was made up of the following: First Rounder Second Rounder Undrafted Andris Biedrins Jermareo Davidson Kelenna Azubuike Marco Belinelli Monta Ellis Rob Kurz Jamal Crawford Stephen Jackson Anthony Morrow Corey Maggette Ronny Turiaf C.J. Watson Anthony Randolph . . Brandan Wright . . The Warriors own the seventh selection in the first round of this year’s draft. The following is a list of notable seventh picks: Alvin Robertson (1984) Chris Mullin (1985) Kevin Johnson (1987) Damon Stoudamire (1995) Richard Hamilton (1999) Nene (2002) Kirk Hinrich (2003) Charlie Villanueva (2005) The second round of the 2009 NBA Draft is ordered in terms of teams' records in the regular season, with the lowest winning percentages selecting first. The Warriors will not have a second-round selection this year, marking just the sixth time since 1972 that the team will not have a second-round pick. Mitch Richmond was a six-time NBA All-Star. The Warriors selected a future All-Star in the first round every year from 1988-1993: Mitch Richmond (1988) Tim Hardaway (1989) Tyrone Hill (1990) Chris Gatling (1991) Latrell Sprewell (1992) Anfernee Hardaway (1993) . The first draft pick in Warriors franchise history was Francis Crossin (University of Pennsylvania) in 1947. Crossin played three years for the Philadelphia franchise. The Warriors made a franchise-record 13 selections in the 1954 NBA Draft. Four years later, they drafted future four-time Major League Baseball All-Star Frank Howard. The 6'7 two-sport athlete from Ohio St. chose to play baseball exclusively and went on to hit 382 career home runs. Wilt Chamberlain was a territorial selection of the Philadelphia Warriors. In 1959, the Warriors were awarded the draft rights to future Hall Of Famer Wilt Chamberlain. In 1955, the NBA had created a special "territorial" draft rule that allowed a team to claim a local college player in exchange for giving up its first-round pick. The idea was to cash in on college stars who had built strong local followings, but the Philadelphia Warriors, who were owned by the cagey Eddie Gottlieb, took it one step further. They claimed Chamberlain as a territorial pick even though he had played his college ball in Kansas. Gottlieb, one of the NBA's founding fathers, argued that Chamberlain had grown up in Philadelphia and had become popular there as a high school player, and since there were no NBA teams in Kansas, they held his territorial rights. The league agreed, marking the only time in NBA history that a player was made a territorial selection based on his pre-college roots. (*via NBA.com – Wilt Chamberlain Bio) The Warriors drafted future Hall of Famer Rick Barry in 1965. The 4th overall selection in the draft, Barry was actually the Warriors’ second pick, as they took Fred Hetzel with the draft’s 2nd overall selection. Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond was the 3rd overall pick in 1963. After earning All-America honors as a senior at Bowling Green, the San Francisco Warriors selected Nate Thurmond with the third overall pick in the 1963 NBA Draft. Thurmond played alongside Wilt Chamberlain his rookie season before going on to have a Hall of Fame career of his own and being named one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players. In the 1981 draft, the Warriors made history by selecting 7’8 Yasutaka Okayama (Japan) in the eighth round. Okayama was not only the first-ever Japanese player drafted, he was also the tallest player ever selected. He never appeared in an NBA game, however. Don Nelson was drafted out of the University of Iowa in 1962. (photo: Des Moines Register) Warriors Head Coach Don Nelson was drafted with the 19th overall selection in the 1962 NBA Draft by the Chicago Zephyrs. The following is a list of the colleges and universities that have produced the most Warriors draft picks. Villanova - 13 LaSalle - 10 USF - 9 Temple - 9 California - 9 UNC - 8 UCLA - 8 St. Mary's - 8 Louisville - 8

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