2005 NBA draft

• 1. Introduction

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  The 2005 NBA draft took place on the 28th of June, 2005, inside the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Sixteen players sat in the green room that night, flanked by families and agents, waiting to hear their names called by commissioner David Stern. One of them, Andrew Bynum, was 17 years old. He would play his first NBA game only six days after he turned 18. What unfolded that evening was not just another draft. It was a closing of a door. The question hanging over every pick, every trade, every anxious teenager in that room was this: after more than a decade of high schoolers jumping straight to the pros, would this era end quietly, or go out with a statement?

• 2. The Last High School Draft

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  Eleven high school players successfully filed for the 2005 draft, the highest number ever to do so in a single year. That figure marked the peak of a phenomenon that had been building since 1975, when the NBA first allowed a player to declare straight out of high school. The practice returned in 1995 and never stopped, giving the league eleven consecutive years of prep-to-pro entries. Three other high schoolers, Martellus Bennett, Keith Brumbaugh, and Brandon Rush, initially declared but withdrew to attend college instead.

  Andrew Bynum, from St. Joseph High School in Metuchen, New Jersey, was selected 10th overall by the Los Angeles Lakers. His selection made him the youngest player ever taken in NBA history at age 17. The other high school players drafted that night came from places as varied as Gulf Shores Academy in Houston, Texas, Skyline High School in Dallas, Texas, Lanier High School in Jackson, Mississippi, and Westchester High School in Los Angeles, California.

  The new collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and its players union changed all of this going forward. Starting with the 2006 draft, any player who completed athletic eligibility at a U.S. high school could not declare unless they turned 19 no later than December 31 of the draft year and were at least one year removed from their high school class graduation. International players faced a corresponding rise in the minimum age, from 18 to 19. The rule did not affect the 2005 class, but every pick of that draft carried the weight of finality.

• 3. Record Underclassmen

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  This draft marked the first time in NBA draft history that more than 100 college underclassmen declared. A total of 108 players filed as early entrants from college, high school, or overseas. Of those, 49 withdrew before the draft concluded, leaving 59 underclassmen officially in the pool.

  Chris Paul, a sophomore from Wake Forest, was one of them. He was selected 4th overall by the New Orleans Hornets. Deron Williams, a junior from Illinois, went 3rd to Utah. Marvin Williams, a freshman at North Carolina, was taken 2nd by Atlanta. Raymond Felton, also from North Carolina as a junior, went 5th to Charlotte. The North Carolina program alone supplied four picks in the first round.

  The international contingent was substantial as well. The NBA announced that 11 international players had filed as early-entry candidates. Players arrived from CSKA Moscow in Russia, Le Havre in France, Ülkerspor in Turkey, KK Reflex in Serbia and Montenegro, Climamio Bologna in Italy, RheinEnergie Köln in Germany, Žalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania, and two clubs in Spain. The draft that year was both the last of its high school era and the most globally diverse to that point.

• 4. Trades That Shaped the Board

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  Hours before the draft began, Utah executed a trade with Portland. The Jazz sent the 6th pick, the 27th pick, and a 2006 first-round selection to Portland in exchange for the 3rd pick. That single deal reshaped the top of the board. Utah used the 3rd pick to select Deron Williams from Illinois. Portland then used the 6th pick on Martell Webster, a high school player from Seattle Prep in Washington, and the 27th pick on Linas Kleiza from Missouri.

  Some trades had roots stretching back years before draft night. Phoenix acquired Cleveland's future first-round pick on the 1st of October 1997, in a three-team deal. That pick eventually traveled to Charlotte, which used it as the 13th selection to draft Sean May from North Carolina. Toronto's 16th pick, used on Joey Graham from Oklahoma State, traced back to a December 2004 trade that sent Vince Carter to New Jersey. New Jersey had originally secured that pick from Denver on the 15th of July 2004, in exchange for Kenyon Martin.

  The 30th pick, last in the first round, came to New York through a February 2005 trade with San Antonio, which had itself acquired the pick from Phoenix in June 2003 in exchange for the draft rights to Leandro Barbosa. New York used the selection on David Lee from Florida, a player who was notably absent from the green room invitation list despite being a future All-Star and All-NBA Team member.

• 5. A Record From an Unlikely Place

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  Robert Whaley was the 51st player selected in the 2005 NBA draft. He came from Walsh University, a school in the NAIA, meaning it competed outside the NCAA entirely. His selection stands, as of the draft's historical record, as the most recent pick from an NAIA or non-NCAA school in any round of the NBA draft. Walsh University has since moved into NCAA Division II, but Whaley's selection remains on the books as a singular footnote.

  His pick, used by the Utah Jazz, itself had a winding history. Utah acquired Chicago's 2005 second-round picks from Houston in a September 2003 trade. Houston had originally received those picks from Chicago in September 2000 in exchange for Bryce Drew. The pick traveled through two teams and five years before landing on a center from a small Ohio college.

  The green room that night held 16 invited prospects, more than the previous year's draft, chosen through collective voting by the NBA's team presidents and general managers. Among those not invited despite their eventual draft position were the 9th pick, the 10th pick, and the 16th pick. David Lee, who went 30th, was also absent from the list. The gap between the league's pre-draft expectations and what actually unfolded over 60 selections is a consistent theme of every draft class.

• 6. The Last Active Player

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  For years after 2005, players from that draft class continued competing at the highest level of professional basketball. Chris Paul, the 4th overall pick from Wake Forest, became the last of them still playing. He announced his retirement in 2026, at which point the 2005 draft class officially had no remaining active players in the NBA. That makes the 2005 class, as of his announcement, the most recent draft class to reach that milestone. Every class since then still has at least one player on an NBA roster. The 2005 draft, the last of the high school era, is now also the first among recent draft classes to have closed entirely.