2012 NBA draft

The 2012 NBA draft was held on June 28, 2012, at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The draft started at 7:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time (2300 UTC), and was broadcast in the United States on ESPN. In this draft, National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players. The New Orleans Hornets, who had a 13.70 percent probability of obtaining the first selection, won the NBA draft lottery on May 30. The Charlotte Bobcats and the Washington Wizards were second and third, respectively. This draft marked the first time that the first two players selected were from the same school (Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist were teammates at Kentucky). It also set a record of having six players from one school (Kentucky) being selected in the two rounds of the draft and was the first draft to have the first three selections be college freshmen all from the same conference (Southeastern Conference). Bernard James was the oldest player drafted in an NBA draft, being 27 years old at the time of the draft.

The draft contained seven players who combined for 10 championships as well as having Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard both named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021. Six players have participated in an All-Star Game. Draymond Green won NBA championships with the Golden State Warriors in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022, as well as being named an All-Star in 2016–2018 and 2022. Green was named the Defensive Player of the Year in 2017, while also leading the league in steals that season. Anthony Davis won a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020 and was an All-Star from 2014–2021, and 2024–2025, as well as the NBA All Star Game MVP in 2017. He also was the NBA blocks leader in 2014, 2015, and 2018. Damian Lillard became the fourth player to be unanimously named Rookie of the Year. Lillard was an All-Star in 2014, 2015, 2018–2021, and 2023–2025, the All-Star Game MVP in 2024, as well as the winner of the Three-Point Contest in 2023 and 2024. Khris Middleton won a championship with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021 and was selected as an All-Star in 2019–2020, and 2022.

Of the players drafted, 30 were forwards, 21 were guards, and 9 were centers. The draft marked the first appearance of the Brooklyn Nets and the last draft appearance for the New Orleans Hornets. After the 2012–13 season, the franchise was renamed as the New Orleans Pelicans. New Orleans made their first draft appearance as the Pelicans in 2013. Four of the players selected in this draft never played in an NBA game throughout their professional basketball careers. Two of those players were the sole selection of the draft by their respective teams: İlkan Karaman (Brooklyn's only pick) and Marcus Denmon (San Antonio's only pick).

Source:

These players were not selected in the 2012 NBA Draft but have played at least one game in the NBA.

The first 14 picks in the draft belong to teams that missed the playoffs; the order was determined through a lottery. The lottery was only used to determine the teams that obtained the first three picks in the draft. The remaining first-round picks and the second-round picks were assigned to teams in reverse order of their win–loss record in the previous season. To determine the top three picks, fourteen ping pong balls numbered 1–14 were placed into a lottery machine. Four random balls were selected for each of the three picks and there were a total of 1,001 combinations. The lottery was weighted so that the teams with the worst records had better chances at the first pick. For example, the Charlotte Bobcats had the worst record from the previous season, so they were assigned 250 of the 1,001 combinations, which meant they had a 25% chance of getting the first pick.

The lottery was held on May 30, 2012, in the Disney/ABC Times Square Studio in New York City. The New Orleans Hornets won the rights to the first overall selection with a 13.7% chance to win. The Hornets were a league-owned team at the time, leading to continued conspiracy theories about the lottery process. The Bobcats won the second overall pick, despite having the highest odds to win the lottery.

Below were the chances for each team to get specific picks in the 2012 draft lottery, rounded to three decimal places.

^ 1: Brooklyn Nets' pick was conveyed to the Portland Trail Blazers.
^ 2: Minnesota Timberwolves' pick was conveyed to the New Orleans Hornets via the Los Angeles Clippers.

The draft was conducted under the eligibility rules established in the league's now-expired 2005 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with its players union. The CBA that ended the 2011 lockout instituted no immediate changes to the draft, but called for a committee of owners and players to discuss future changes. The basic eligibility rules for the draft are listed below:

• All drafted players must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft. In terms of dates, players eligible for the 2012 draft must be born on or before December 31, 1993.
• Any player who is not an "international player", as defined in the CBA, must be at least one year removed from the graduation of his high school class. The CBA defines "international players" as players who permanently resided outside the U.S. for three years prior to the draft, did not complete high school in the U.S., and have never enrolled at a U.S. college or university.
• The basic requirement for automatic eligibility for a U.S. player is the completion of his college eligibility. Players who meet the CBA definition of "international players" are automatically eligible if their 22nd birthday falls during or before the calendar year of the draft (i.e., born on or before December 31, 1990). U.S. players who were at least one year removed from their high school graduation and have played minor-league basketball with a team outside the NBA are also automatically eligible.
• A player who is not automatically eligible must declare his eligibility for the draft by notifying the NBA offices in writing no later than 60 days before the draft. For the 2012 draft, this date fell on April 29. Under NCAA rules, players will only have until April 10 to withdraw from the draft and maintain their college eligibility.

A player who has hired an agent will forfeit his remaining college eligibility, regardless of whether he is drafted. Also, while the CBA allows a player to withdraw from the draft twice, the NCAA mandates that a player who has declared twice loses his college eligibility.

On May 3, 2012, the league announced a list of 67 early entry candidates which consisted of 50 collegiate players and 17 international players. At the withdrawal deadline, 11 early entry candidates withdrew from the draft, leaving 49 collegiate players and 7 international players as the early entry candidates for the draft.

(All players are Americans except as indicated.)

Players who do not meet the criteria for "international" players are automatically eligible if they meet any of the following criteria:

• They have completed 4 years of their college eligibility.
• If they graduated from high school in the U.S., but did not enroll in a U.S. college or university, four years have passed since their high school class graduated.
• They have signed a contract with a professional basketball team outside the NBA, anywhere in the world, and have played under that contract.

Players who meet the criteria for "international" players are automatically eligible if they meet any of the following criteria:

• They are least 22 years old during the calendar year of the draft. In terms of dates, players born on or before December 31, 1990, are automatically eligible for the 2012 draft.
• They have signed a contract with a professional basketball team outside the NBA within the United States, and have played under that contract.

The NBA annually invites 10 to 15 players to sit in the so-called "green room", a special room set aside at the draft site for the invited players plus their families and agents. This season, the following 14 players were invited (listed alphabetically). All players represented the United States of America.

Prior to the day of the draft, the following trades were made and resulted in exchanges of draft picks between the teams.

The following trades involving drafted players were made on the day of the draft

• List of first overall NBA draft picks
• NBA records

• 2012 NBA Draft Official Site
• 2012 NBA Draft at ESPN Archived October 18, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
• Real GM 2012 NBA Draft Recap Archived July 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine