The results are so lopsided, you’d think a Duke grad is running the NBA.
Wait a minute. He is.
Adam Silver, who doubles as chair of the 37-member Duke Board of Trustees, is the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, reportedly earning somewhere north of $10 million annually. That’s enough to make most players envious.
Silver, Duke Class of 1984, has been NBA commissioner since 2014. In that time, totally by coincidence, the Blue Devils produced three of the last seven No.1 draft choices,
most recently Cooper Flagg this past June.
In fact, in this century only Duke players were the first picks in the NBA draft from ACC schools.
There’s more. The ’25 draft saw Flagg chosen first, Kon Knueppel fourth, and Khaman Maluach tenth. The only other time an ACC team supplied three of the top 10 draftees was in 2019, when Blue Devils Zion Williamson went first, R.J. Barrett third, and Cam Reddish tenth. (UNC accounted for two of the top five and four of the top 14 in 2005.)
Fourteen ACC players were the first selected in an NBA draft in the last 63 years, an average of better than one every five seasons (22.2 percent). Nearly half of those top picks played at Duke (6 of 14, 42.9 percent).
Flagg was the fourth ACC Player of the Year from Duke chosen first, after Art Heyman (1963), Elton Brand (1999), and Williamson (2019). Duke’s Kyrie Irving (2013) and Paolo Banchero (2022) also were the NBA’s top selection, although not tabbed an ACC Player of the Year.
Four other POYs from the ACC went first – NC State’s David Thompson, UVa’s Ralph Sampson, Maryland’s Joe Smith, and Wake’s Tim Duncan.
Duke’s six No.1 selections are twice as many as the next nearest NCAA school — Kentucky with three. Seventeen schools supplied a pair of the NBA’s top picks.
Of the eight ACC Players of the Year picked first, only Duncan went on to a Hall of Fame career, although Irving, a nine-time NBA all-star, stands a good chance of commanding that honor too. It’s too early for a verdict to be rendered on Williamson, Panchero, or Flagg.
Twenty schools have been ACC members over the years, with South Carolina withdrawing in 1971 and Maryland departing after the 2014 season. The Terrapins twice supplied the NBA’s top selection – in 1976 John Lucas II, father of Miami coach Jai Lucas, and Joe Smith in 1995. Lucas, along with Duke’s one-and-done Irving, were the sole ACC playmakers picked first in a draft.
Other than Duke, only Maryland and North Carolina had more than one player chosen first by the pros. The last time a Tar Heel was the top selection in the NBA draft was Brad Daugherty in 1986. The last time any ACC player other than a Blue Devil went first was Wake Forest’s Duncan.
Surprisingly, where once North Carolina players were considered the crème de la crème of college basketball (and Duke products were denigrated as pro prospects), lately Tar Heels haven’t fared particularly well in the estimation of NBA teams. When Drake Powell went late in the ’25 draft, it marked just the second time in the past five years UNC had a first-rounder, any first rounder. The other was Day’Ron Sharpe, who went 29th in 2021. That’s two late first-round choices in five years, exceeding the length of Hubert Davis’ tenure and an indication of the program’s decline in talent from years past.
Meanwhile 13 ACC schools have never produced a player selected first in the draft. Louisville (Pervis Ellison, 1989) and Syracuse (Derrick Coleman, 1990) also supplied a draft’s top choice, but long before joining the ACC.
table.tableizer-table { font-size: 12px; border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } .tableizer-table td { padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #CCC; } .tableizer-table th { background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold; }| DEVILISHLY DISTINGUISHED | |
|---|---|
| ACC Players Picked First In NBA Draft | |
| 2025 | Cooper Flagg, D |
| 2022 | Paolo Banchero, D |
| 2019 | Zion Williamson, D |
| 2011 | Kyrie Irving, D |
| 1999 | Elton Brand, D |
| 1997 | Tim Duncan, WF |
| 1995 | Joe Smith, M |
| 1986 | Brad Daugherty, NC |
| 1983 | Ralph Sampson, V |
| 1982 | James Worthy, NC |
| 1976 | John Lucas, M |
| 1975 | David Thompson, NCS |
| 1963 | Art Heyman, D |
