Bulls First-Round Draft Picks

 

Arturas Karnisovas surprised many observers this week when he made Florida State forward Patrick Williams the first draft pick of his tenure as the Bulls' president of basketball operations. 

How does a player who did not start in college end up going fourth overall in the NBA draft? Well, Karnisovas had an answer for that. ‘‘I just think that the more study you do on Patrick,’’ Karnisovas said, ‘‘the more you realize that this is what the NBA is today. We need players in our league that can play multiple positions. He’s an elite athlete. He showed that in college. He wasn’t as consistent, but he was at such a young age and started to pick up at the end of the season.’’

The six-foot-eight, 225-pound Williams was named to the Atlantic Coast Conference All-Freshman team and was also the conference's Sixth Man of the Year. 

    

MICHAEL JORDAN

 

It seems safe to say that Williams won't go down as the greatest draft pick in Bulls history, because that honor is reserved for a man who wore number 23 and led the Bulls to six world championships. That man, Michael Jordan, is to date the only Hall of Famer among the 63 first-round picks that preceded Williams. Scottie Pippen, another Hall of Famer, was selected by the Seattle Supersonics with the fifth overall pick and traded to the Bulls the same day in 1987. Elton Brand (1999) and Derrick Rose (2008) are the only players selected by the Bulls with the first overall pick in the NBA draft.

Below is the complete list of Bulls first-round draft choices over the years. Each player's overall draft position is in parentheses, and an asterisk indicates a Hall of Famer.

 

1966 - Dave Schellhase, Purdue (10)
1967 - Clem Haskins, Western Kentucky (3)
1968 - Tom Boerwinkle, Tennessee (4)
1969 - Larry Cannon, LaSalle (5)

 

1970 - Jimmy Collins, New Mexico State (11)

1971 - Kennedy McIntosh, Eastern Michigan (15)

1972 - Ralph Simpson, Michigan State (11)

1973 - Kevin Kunnert, Iowa (12)

1974 - Maurice Lucas, Marquette (14)

1974 - Cliff Pondexter, California State - Long Beach (16)

1975 - none 

1976 - Scott May, Indiana (2)

1977 - Tate Armstrong, Duke (13)

1978 - Reggie Theus, UNLV (9)

1979 - David Greenwood, UCLA (2)

 

1980 - Kelvin Ransey, Ohio State (4)

1981 - Orlando Woolridge, Notre Dame (6)

1982 - Quintin Dailey, San Francisco (7)

1983 - Sidney Green, UNLV (5)

1984 - Michael Jordan, North Carolina (3)*

1985 - Keith Lee, Memphis State (11)

1986 - Brad Sellers, Ohio State (9)

1987 - Olden Polynice, Virginia (8)

1987 - Horace Grant, Clemson (10)

1988 - Will Perdue, Vanderbilt (11)

1989 - Stacey King, Oklahoma (6)
1989 - B.J. Armstrong, Iowa (18) 

1989 - Jeff Sanders, Georgia Southern (20)

 

1990 - none

1991 - Mark Randall, Kansas (26)

1992 - Byron Houston, Oklahoma State (27)

1993 - Corie Blount, Cincinnati (25)

1994 - Dickey Simpkins, Providence (21)

1995 - Jason Caffey, Alabama (20)

1996 - Travis Knight, Connecticut (29)

1997 - Keith Booth, Maryland (28)

1998 - Corey Benjamin, Oregon State (28) 

1999 - Elton Brand, Duke (1)
1999 - Ron Artest, St. John's (16)

 

2000 - Marcus Fizer, Iowa State (4)
2000 - Chris Mihm, Texas (7)
2000 - Dalibor Bagaric, Benston Zagreb - Croatia (24)
2001 - Eddy Curry, Thornwood High School, Illinois (4)
2002 - Jay Williams, Duke (2)
2003 - Kirk Hinrich, Kansas (7)
2004 - Ben Gordon, Connecticut (3)

2005 - none
2006 - LaMarcus Aldridge, Texas (2)
2006 - Rodney Carney, Memphis (16)
2007 - Joakim Noah, Florida (9)
2008 - Derrick Rose, Memphis (1)

2009 - James Johnson, Wake Forest (16)

2009 - Taj Gibson, USC (26)

 

2010 - Kevin Seraphin, Cholet Basket - France (17)

2011 - Norris Cole, Cleveland State (28)

2011 - Jimmy Butler, Marquette (30)

2012 - Marquis Teague, Kentucky (29)

2013 - Tony Snell, New Mexico (20)

2014 - Jusuf Nurkic, Cedevita Zagreb - Croatia (16)

2014 - Gary Harris, Michigan State (19)

2015 - Bobby Portis, Arkansas (22)

2016 - Denzel Valentine, Michigan State (14)

2017 - Justin Patton, Creighton (16)

2018 - Wendell Carter Jr., Duke (7)

2018 - Chandler Hutchison, Boise State (22)

2019 - Coby White, North Carolina (7)

 

2020 - Patrick Williams, Florida State (4)

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