The 1967 ABA draft was the first draft done by the American Basketball Association (ABA), an upstart rivaling league to the National Basketball Association (NBA) that they would eventually merge with as a part of the NBA nearly a decade later. This fledgling draft was held as a "secret draft" after the conclusion of a three-day-long league's meeting ironing out the finer details regarding most (though not every part) of the new league in question for the upcoming months, such as replacing an originally planned ABA team held in Kansas City, Missouri with one that would operate out in Denver, Colorado that eventually became the Denver Rockets (now known as the Denver Nuggets) and later deciding upon whether to add a new ABA team in the city of Milwaukee (which they ultimately decided not to do, likely because that city alongside Phoenix, Arizona would be the two locations chosen for the NBA's expansion the following year in 1968, p. 31). After concluding their meeting on April 2, 1967, the eleven team owners (which included three franchises who were officially operating under tentative names at the time, retroactively speaking) would take turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players. A player who had finished his four-year college eligibility (or was close to finishing his four-year college eligibility) at the time of this draft was eligible for selection. If a player left college early, he would not be considered eligible for selection until his college class graduated, though the ABA would take exception to certain players at hand, if deemed necessary on their end. 130 players were selected in the draft.Staff. "NEW COURT LOOP DRAFTS PLAYERS; 11 Teams Pick 130 Athletes --Seagren on List", The New York Times, April 3, 1967. Accessed September 1, 2010. Due to this being the first season of the ABA existing, the new league would determine the draft ordering of teams by a draft lottery for the first round (which the Indiana Pacers won) with the reverse ordering of the lottery being the official draft order for the second round, followed by a new draft lottery for the third round (alongside territorial picks for certain teams that round) then resulting in the reverse ordering of that being the fourth round's draft order, with subsequent odd-numbered rounds resulting in a new random rounding order and subsequent even-numbered rounds resulting in the reversal of that previous round's ordering in question. However, the proper draft order listing for this year's ABA draft would not be made publicly available as of 2025.
Draftee career notes Jimmy Walker from Providence College was selected first overall by the Indiana Pacers. In addition to him being selected as the #1 pick by both the ABA and NBA, he was also drafted in the 1967 National Football League (NFL) Draft, despite never having played college football. He was drafted last in the 17-round draft by the New Orleans Saints. Earl Monroe from Winston-Salem State University, who went on to win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award, was drafted somewhere in the first round by the Pittsburgh Pipers, who would later win the first ever ABA championship. Of the players drafted by the ABA this year, Monroe, Walt Frazier, Louie Dampier, and Mel Daniels have been inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for the work they have done as players either in the ABA or the rivaling NBA, with two of these players also being named as both the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History and NBA 75th Anniversary Team and the other two players being named as members of the ABA All-Time Team. In addition to them, both Phil Jackson and Pat Riley became very successful head coaches in the NBA following their careers spent in the NBA, becoming Hall of Fame worthy coaches (and an executive in the case of Pat Riley) in the process. Not only that, but the post-draft period saw ABA commissioner George Mikan allow for some players that had previously been banned by the NBA due to their apparent involvement in the 1961 NCAA University Division men's basketball gambling scandal, such as Doug Moe, Tony Jackson, Charlie Williams (who would play in college until graduating in 1965, but was barred from playing in the NBA afterward), and future Hall of Famers Roger Brown and Connie Hawkins to all get second chances in the ABA, with each of them even being named All-Stars there at least once throughout their careers.Pluto, Terry, Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association (Simon & Schuster, 1990), , pg. 81https://vault.si.com/vault/1969/07/21/scorecard
Three out of six players that had played throughout the ABA's entire existence (Byron Beck of the Denver Rockets (later becoming the Nuggets), Louie Dampier of the Kentucky Colonels, and Bob Netolicky of the Indiana Pacers) were taken through this year's draft period by teams that selected them, with Byron Beck and Louie Dampier being the only players to stay with the teams that first drafted them throughout the ABA's entire existence up until the ABA-NBA merger came to pass in 1976, with Beck staying with the Denver franchise once they made it to the NBA. (The other three players to have played throughout the entirety of the ABA's existence, Gerald Govan, Stew Johnson, and Freddie Lewis, had previously been drafted by the NBA in prior years before entering the ABA, with Lewis also previously entering the NBA in 1966 and later returning to the NBA following the ABA-NBA merger.) Interestingly, Byron Beck would be drafted by the Denver Rockets while previously going to the University of Denver, while Louie Dampier would be drafted by the Kentucky Colonels while previously attending the University of Kentucky. Louie Dampier and Mel Daniels would see the most ABA All-Star selections throughout the entire league's existence at seven appearances each (out of nine overall games). Twelve players who were draft eligible this year (out of 92 overall ABA All-Stars) would make it to at least one ABA All-Star Game, with ten of them actually being drafted from this year's ABA draft specifically (Louie Dampier, Mel Daniels, Jimmy Jones, Bob Netolicky, Byron Beck, Rich Jones, Bob Verga, George Carter, Randolph Mahaffey, and Trooper Washington were selected in the ABA draft this year), while only Larry Bunce and DeWitt Menyard were both able to make it to the inaugural ABA All-Star Game despite going undrafted in the ABA this year. Mel Daniels also had five total All-ABA Team selections (one of which happened during his rookie year and his first four spots being First Team selections), while Louie Dampier had four total All-ABA Second Team selections (one of which also was during his rookie year) and Jimmy Jones had three total All-ABA First Team selections; Daniels and Dampier later became two out of nine ABA players to join an All-ABA Team while playing their rookie seasons in the ABA, while all three of these players also tied three other players for the most All-ABA Team appearances in each of their respective spots throughout the league's existence. Daniels also won the ABA's inaugural Rookie of the Year Award in 1968, as well as became a two-time MVP for the ABA in 1969 and 1971 and was named the ABA All-Star Game's MVP in 1971 despite his team losing that year (one of two All-Star MVPs in the ABA being named for the losing squad), with him also being one of three different ABA players to have his number retired by the Pacers (four players overall retired as of 2025). This year would also see multiple football players get selected from this year's ABA draft with the aforementioned Jimmy Walker from the Indiana Pacers being a Mr. Irrelevant selection for the New Orleans Saints, Gene Washington from the Indiana Pacers being selected either at or near the end of the ABA draft joining the Minnesota Vikings instead, and Ron Widby from the New Orleans Buccaneers foregoing his professional basketball career to become a punter for the Dallas Cowboys after a season of play. Another New Orleans Buccaneers selection in Bob Seagren would also later become an Olympic gold medalist in pole vaulting for the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City alongside a silver medalist in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany.
Historic draft notes