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A look back at the history of Oregon players in the NBA draft
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Gary Payton is the highest ever pick from
an Oregon School
The NBA draft is three weeks away and teams across the country are holding workouts for potential picks. While this year’s draft class will not contain a player from an Oregon school, all four Division-1 Oregon schools have had players drafted in the first round of the NBA draft.
In fact, 25 players have been selected in the first round of the NBA draft from Orgeon State (12), the University of Oregon (11), Portland State (1), and the University of Portland (1).
In honor of those players, here are 20 facts about the history of Oregon college players being selected in the first round.
1. The first Oregon player ever selected in the first round was Jim Loscutoff out of U of O. Loscutoff was selected 4th overall by Red Auerbach and the Boston Celtics. Loscutoff won seven NBA titles for the Celtics, playing a defensive stopper role. The seven titles are the most by any player from an Oregon player.
2. The Boston Celtics have taken four local products in the first round of the draft, twice as many as any other team. In addition to Loscutoff, Boston has taken Mel Counts (OSU, 7th pick in 1964), Jim Barnett (UO, 8th pick in 1966), and Freeman Williams (PSU, 8th pick in 1978).
3. The highest selected Oregonian prospect was Gary Payton, who was taken second overall by the Seattle SuperSonics in 1990 out of Oregon State. Out of the 25 players, Payton is the leader in points, assists, steals, minutes, games played, all-star appearances, and All-NBA team selections.
4. Payton is the only player on this list to win the Defensive Player of the Year award, which he won following the 1996 season. He is the only point guard ever to win the award.
5. Players other than Payton, however, have won other NBA individual awards. Terrell Brandon (UO, 11th pick in 1991) won the NBA Sportsmanship Award in 1997.
6. Ray Scott (UP, 4th pick in 1961) had a decent 11-year playing career, averaging a double-double for his career. But Scott is best remembered for winning NBA Coach of the Year honors in 1974 while coaching the Detroit Pistons.
7. Four players have made the NBA all-star game. The four are Payton, Brandon, A.C. Green, and Steve Johnson.
8. Six of the players won NBA Championships. Loscutoff leads the way with seven, while Greg Ballard, Brent Barry, Payton, Counts, and Green also won titles.
9. Out of the six players who won rings, Loscutoff, Ballard, Green, and Counts did it with the teams that drafted them. Counts and Loscutoff were Celtics, Green was a Laker, and Ballard was a member of the 1978 champion Washington Bullets.
10. The group of 25 also includes the NBA’s Iron Man. Green played 1278 consecutive games from 1986 to 2001. The previous NBA record was 906 games. Green won three titles in two stints with the Los Angeles Lakers.
11. While the group has had many good players, there have been some busts too. The fewest games played in the NBA was the 27 games played by Scott Haskin. Haskin was drafted 14th overall by the Indiana Pacers, but a series of injuries ended up derailing the OSU product’s career.
12. Another player who failed to live up to expectations was Gary Freeman. Drafted 16th by the Milwaukee Bucks, Freeman was traded midway through his rookie season to the Cavs, where he played 47 minutes for Cleveland. That was Freeman’s only season in the NBA.
The Bucks went onto win the title that year, but the Freeman pick might have cost Milwaukee a chance at long time success. In the three picks after Freeman, two NBA hall of famers were selected in Calvin Murphy and Tiny Archibald.
13. Another likely bust is Luke Jackson, who holds an unusual NBA record. Jackson was taken by the Cavs with the tenth pick in the 2004 draft. Jackson played 73 games in the NBA, but he makes the record book due to just one. Jackson has the lowest career scoring average, 3.5 points per game, of any player who has scored 30 points in an NBA game.
14. Jackson’s randon bit of trivia isn’t the only bit of fun facts from these players. In 1978, the Boston Celtics has two first round picks. Most people know the team picked Larry Bird with one of them, but not many people would know that Freeman Williams was the other.
15. Steve Johnson might be one of four of these players to make an all star team, but he also led the league in disqualifications in three separate seasons. Only Shawn Kemp and George Mikan did it more times than that.
16. Corey Benjamin toiled away for four NBA season, but he is more known as the first draft pick that the Chicago Bulls made after Michael Jordan’s second retirement.
17. Loscutoff is the only player to have his nickname hanging from the rafters in Boston. When the Celtics asked to retire his number, he said he wanted future Celtics players to use it, so they retired his nickname instead.
18. Despite Gary Payton’s defensive prowess, he is not the leader in steals per game. That honor goes to Ron Lee. Lee was the 10th pick in the 1976 draft and finished his career with a steals per game average of 1.9, besting Payton’s average of 1.8.
19. The most recent drafted player was Aaron Brooks, who was taken by the Rockets in 2007. Brooks burst onto the NBA radar this postseason, averaging 16.8 points per game, which is more than twice his career regular season average.
20. Two of the players, Barry and Fred Jones, have won the NBA slam dunk contest.
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