Basketball Draft Quotes

My confidence level is, I think I can be a first-round pick; I think I can be a professional basketball player.

Kobe Bryant has always been my favorite player, and he was drafted No. 13, too, in 1996.

I thought it was pathetic: The league just decided that Grant Hill would go right to the top.

I was invited to play with the New York Knicks. I was never drafted, but I was invited to the rookie camp.

When I got traded to the Lakers in '97, Kobe Bryant was just a rookie.

It made the most sense for us to select Sam Bowie. It was almost a no-brainer.

Cooper was my road roommate, and also happened to be the first African American player drafted by a National Basketball Association team.

Draft night for me - I watched it in my dorm in college. And it started off with just me and a friend, because I knew I probably wasn't going to get picked right away. I thought it was going to be a little later. But, you know, you watch the whole thing. You never know what might happen, so you gotta watch.

Strong college basketball is great for the NBA.

When the draft lottery came out, and the Clippers said they were gonna draft me, I went to Google to find out more about the Clippers because I didn't know a lot. And I was like, 'Okay, team owned by Donald Sterling.' So then I typed in 'Donald Sterling' in Google, and the first thing that pops up is 'Donald Sterling racist.'

If I watch a basketball game, I don't really care if a guy hit a three-pointer with three seconds left. I mean, I can like that. But I'm more interested in who drafted him and what makes him special.

Ken Heitz got drafted by the Bucks the same year I did. He went to their camp just for the experience, then dropped out to attend Harvard Law School. I always admired his combination of athleticism and brains.

I've been saying it before the lottery, before the Phoenix Suns even had the No. 1 pick. I've just been talking it into the existence. I'm not saying I'm the best player in the draft and trying to be cocky like that, but I was just saying I'm going to be the No. 1 pick, regardless.

After the NBA and ABA merged, players could come out after high school. Still, there were only a few cases prior to Kevin Garnett coming out in 1995, so Nike and the other companies were only involved in the college game.