by Scott Meckley

Created on: June 30, 2009   Last Updated: July 03, 2009

1950 was the year of the first NBA Draft. The Boston Celtics had the very first pick ever and selected Chuck Share of Bowling Green Ohio. The NBA Draft has had it shares of ups and downs throughout the 59 year history of it. So far to this date the highest first pick with the best scoring in his rookie year was Walt Bellamy of the Chicago Packers who are now the Washington Wizards.

He averaged 31.6 points per game and averaged 19 rebounds per game. I have seen many players who were great players in college like Christian Latener, Bryant Reeves come to the NBA and completely bust.

Over the years many teams would tank a season just to get the number one pick so in 1985 came the NBA Draft Lottery. In The NBA Draft Lottery in 1985 the top seven teams with the worst records had an equal chance to land the number one pick. This went on until 1987 when the NBA Board Of Governors decided to use the lottery process for only the top three draft choices whereas teams 4-14 got to pick in the order of there records. This meant that a team with the first worst record will pick no later than fourth, second no later than fifth and third no later than sixth.

In 1990 The NBA Draft Lottery changed again giving the team with the worst record the highest chance in the NBA draft lottery. The team with the worst record had 11 chances to win the lottery, the second worst ten chances and so on. Despite the odds against them the Orlando won the lottery in both 1992 and 1993 when they selected Shaquille O Neal in 92 and Chris Webber in 93 who they traded to Golden State for Anfernee Penny Hardaway.

Again in 1994 the NBA Draft Lottery changed again with the worst team having a 25 percent chance or 250 combinations out of 1000of landing the first pick , the second worst pick 19.9%, or 199 combinations, the third 15.6% or 156 combinations, the fourth 11.9%or 119 combinations, the fifth 8.8% or 88 combinations, the sixth 6.3% or 63 combinations, the seventh 4.3% or 43 combinations, the eighth 2.8% or 28 combinations, the 9th 1.7% or 17 combinations, the tenth 1.1% or 11 combinations, the eleventh 0.8% or 8 combinations, the twelvth 0.7% or 7 combinations, the thirteenth 0.6% or 6 combinations and the fourteenth 0.5% or 5 combinations out of 1000 to land the first pick. Some of the draft in the last years have had players in it who have gone to become the face of the franchise.

Lebron James has really helped out the Cleveland Cavaliers so much and changed the face of that franchise but yet hasn't been fortunate enough to win a championship with them yet. Carmelo Anthony was selected 3rd by the Denver Nuggets in the 2003 NBA draft and has really helped Denver. An NBA Draft if the right player is selected can change the face of your team. Dallas Mavericks use to be one of the worst team in the league for so many years and then years ago they traded Robert Tractor Traylor to Milwaukee Bucks and got a player by the name of Dirk Nowitzki who has really change the Dallas Mavericks franchise.

Since that time Dallas has been a playoff team and even got to the finals in 2006 but ending up losing to Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat. I actually though can't wait to see how this draft class of 2009 which players like Blake Griffin, James Harden, Stephen Curry, Hasheem Thabeet and Jonny Flynn will pan out. The best draft I've ever seen with so much talent was the 2003 draft. With players like Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh those four alone makes to me the 2003 draft the best draft class ever.

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