ATLANTA — Only once in the history of the NBA draft have we seen the first four players selected hail from somewhere outside of the college basketball industrial complex. Despite the influx of international talent and alternative pathways to the league, it doesn’t happen often. The year was 2001, and those four players were Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler, Pau Gasol and Eddy Curry, in that order—three American high schoolers and a budding international star from Spain, all bigs.
It is presently 2022 and this is very much October, so it goes without saying that nothing is certain in the context of the forthcoming draft, but there’s a possibility—perhaps not a strong one, but one that’s reasonable enough to discuss right now—that the 2023 class might mirror that elusive feat.