The

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

(NBA) holds an annual

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

where teams select eligible players to join the league. While most NBA players are drafted, undrafted players occasionally earn roster spots as well. Sometimes, they even outperform more celebrated draft picks. The number of rounds in the draft has evolved since the first one in 1947. The

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Jan ...

and 1968 drafts were 21 rounds, before settling at 10 rounds by 1974 (in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

, however, the draft was held in eight); it was reduced to seven rounds in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

. After negotiations with the

National Basketball Players Association The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) is a labor union that represents National Basketball Association (NBA) players. It was founded in 1954, making it the oldest trade union of the four major professional sports leagues in the Unit ...

, the draft has been two rounds since

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

, leaving undrafted players free to negotiate with any team. Unlike with

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL), undrafted players are less likely to become recognizable stars in the NBA. Only one modern-day undrafted player has been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame— Ben Wallace in 2021. The first undrafted player to be voted an

NBA All-Star The National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game is an annual exhibition basketball game. It is the main event of the NBA All-Star Weekend. Originally, the All-Star Game featured a conference-based format, featuring a team composed of ...

starter in 2003, Wallace played the most career games of any undrafted player with 1,088 games played in 15 seasons, won an

NBA championship The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is awa ...

, was a four-time All-Star, and was a four-time winner of the

NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award The NBA's Defensive Player of the Year Award is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given since the 1982–83 NBA season to the best defensive player of the regular season. The winner is selected by a panel of 124 sportswrite ...

. Other undrafted players have made significant contributions. John Starks was the first undrafted player in the modern era to become an All-Star in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

Udonis Haslem Udonis Johneal Haslem ( born June 9, 1980) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Florida Gators, where he was a key member of four N ...

became the first undrafted player to lead a franchise (

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

) in career

rebounds 'Rebound' is a term used in sports to describe the ball (or puck or other object of play) becoming available for possession by either opponent after an attempt to put the ball or puck into the goal has been unsuccessful. Rebounds are generally ...

in 2012, and he was a member of each of the Heat's three championship teams. Mike James from the 1998 draft was the first undrafted player to average 20 points in a season (20.3) in 2006. Jorge Garbajosa was the first to be named All-Rookie First Team in 2007. Undrafted in the 2016 draft, the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. They play their home games a ...

Fred VanVleet Fredderick Edmund VanVleet Sr. (born February 25, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A point guard, VanVleet played college basketball for Wichita State Un ...

holds the single-game scoring record for an undrafted player with 54 points on February 2, 2021.

Troy Hudson Troy Elderon Hudson (born March 13, 1976) is an American retired professional basketball point guard. He played 11 years in the National Basketball Association (NBA) after going undrafted in 1997. He averaged a career-high 14.2 points per game w ...

, who enjoyed an 11-year NBA career after being passed over in the 1997 draft, alluded to his rise in his 2007 album ''

Undrafted In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

''.

List of undrafted players

The following players were undrafted in the specified year, but later played in at least one official regular season or playoff game in their career.

Professional players before/around the BAA's debut

The following players had previously played professional basketball before or around the inception of the Basketball Association of America (now NBA) but had played for the BAA/NBA at least once afterward.

Notes

References

{{NBA Drafts Undrafted players Undrafted players