Welcome to the Total Sports Recall podcast as on this episode we move to Part Three of a four part series looking back at the history of first overall draft picks in all the major sports. I’m your host Harv Aronson and thus far in past episodes I covered Major League Baseball and the National Football League. Now we turn to professional basketball.
In the past two episodes I covered the first top 20 picks dating back to the first years of the draft for both baseball and football. In covering basketball however, since there were two competitive leagues in the past, the National Basketball Association and the American Basketball Association, I’m going to look back at just the top 10 draft picks for each league from the NBA’s draft inception and then the ABA’s draft inception.
So 20 players will be mentioned but just for the first 10 years of each league.
NBA DRAFT PICKS
Let’s begin with the league that is still playing. That would be the NBA because the ABA only lasted from 1967 to 1975 before closing shop. When the league folded, an agreement with the NBA was reached that allowed four franchises to move into the NBA. They were the Indian Pacers, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs, and the New Jersey Nets, all of which are still playing today in the league however the Nets now call Brooklyn home.
While we are only reviewing the overall number one pick for each league, the ABA did have some outstanding players drafted in later picks that became big stars not just in the ABA but in the NBA as well. Some of those bigger names are Rick Barry, Billy Cunningham, Julius “Dr. J” Erving, Artis Gilmore, and George the “Iceman” Gervin.
I’ll begin with the NBA then move onto the ABA.
1947 - Clifton McNeeley (Pittsburgh Ironmen)
McNeeley holds the honor of being the first basketball player drafted in a pro selection process. The Pittsburgh Ironmen though played in a league called the Basketball Association of America which would become what we know now as the NBA.
McNeeley played his college ball at Texas Wesleyan University where in his senior season he was the top scorer in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. While the Ironmen drafted McNeeley he never set foot on a pro hardwood floor instead opted to become a coach at Pampa High School in Texas.
McNeeley passed away in 2003 but was inducted into the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame, the Slidell ISD Hall of Fame, the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame, and the Texas Wesleyan University Hall of Fame. At Pampa High School their gymnasium is named McNeely Fieldhouse.
1948 - Andy Tonkovich (Providence Steam Rollers)
Long before the tragic story of Marshall University that became the film “We are Marshall” was the selection of Andy Tonkovich as he played his college basketball for Marshall the Thundering Herd. At Marshall Tonkovich was the star of the team that won the NAIB title in 1947.
His performance that year earned him a spot on the All-Tournament team as well as being on the NAIB All-American first team. At that time his 1,578 points was the school’s all-time record.
After being drafted by the Providence Steam Rollers, Tonkovich played just 17 games as a rookie and quit the team at the halfway mark of the season playing instead for the Wheeling Bluesin the All-American Basketball League where he was also a coach while manning the hardwoods. After quitting basketball he would go on to become a physical education teacher and head coach for high schools. Tonkovich also coached baseball.
Tonkovich was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1973 and to the Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame in 1985. He passed away inj 2006 and was then posthumously elected to the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Hall of Fame in 2014.
1949 - Howie Shannon (Providence Steam Rollers)
This shooting guard who also played small forward played two years of pro ball first with the Providence Steam Rollers and then one season with the Boston Celtics. Shannon would go into a coaching career after leaving the NBA first with Topeka High School in Kansas then with his alma mater Kansas State as an assistant.
From 1964 to 1967 he was the head coach at Viginia Tech leaving the school with a 104-67 record. In 1967 behind his leadership Virginia Tech reached the Mideast Regional finals losing to Dayton University.
In 1960 Shannon was the head coach of the Puerto Rican basketball team for the Olympics. Lung cancer ended Howie Shannon’s life on August 16, 1995 when he was 72 years old. While playing fot the Providence Steam Rollers he was named Rookie of the Year for the 1949 season. For his two professional seasons he averaged 10.8 points per game with an assist average of 2.5 per game. He played in 122 games overall.
1950 - Chuck Share (Boston Celtics)
Chuck Share was easily the best player drafted number one through the first four years of the pro draft. Coming out of Bowling Green University, Share left behind a legacy that saw him set the school’s all-time scoring record it 1,730 points. Share was also the first very successful big man standing six feet 11 inches. In 1949 while playing in the famed Madison Square Garden he scored 39 points while playing Loyola.
When then Boston Celtics head coach Red Auerbach prepared for making the league’s first overall pick Bob Cousy was one of the available but instead he chose Share. When the complaints started rolling in Auerbach responded with this quote, “We need a big man. Little men are a dime a dozen. I’m supposed to win, not go after local yokels.”
Then Share did not even sign with Boston, instead he inked a contract with the Waterloo Hawks in the National Professional Basketball League an organization the existed all of one year that being for the 1950-1951 season. Still having his rights the Celtics traded him to the Fort Wayne Pistons. Share would be traded one more time in 1953 this time to the Milwaukee Hawks where he would spend the next seven season before returing with the Minneapolis Lakers playing for them only in the 1960 season.
Share and his Hawks won the league title in 1958. Following retirement he went into business for himself eventually passing at the age of 85 in 2012. Posthumously he was inducted into the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame in 2017 and prior to his death in 1964 Bowling Green State University made him a member of their Hall of Fame.
1951 - Gene Melchiorre (Baltimore Hawks)
This 1951 first overall pick went by the nickname “Squeaky.” Unfortunately Gene Melchiorre will forever have an asterisk next to his name because he never played a second on an NBA floor. This is because he was banned from the NBA after it was discovered he was involved in point shaving while playing ball at Bradley University.
The point shaving scandal went down like this…on July 24, 1951 Melchiorre and four of his teammates came forward and made it known that those five players took bribes to keep the scores down in games against St. Joseph’s University and Oregon State University.
Three of the men including Melchiorre pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor under New York State law. They were facing three years in prison but the assistant district attorney gave them leniency for their cooporation and all three were handed a suspended sentence.
Despite the scandal the Baltimore Hawks made Melchiorre the league’s first pick. However then president of the NBA Maurice Podoloff banned all the players involved in the point shaving incident not permitted to play in the NBA and that ban was for life.
Despite not having a basketball career, Melchiorre had a successful business career and had a long life. He passed away on September 27, 2019 at the age of 92.
1952 - Mark Workman (Milwaukee Hawks)
Mark Workman had an outstanding high school career leading his Charleston High School in West Virginina to the state title in his junior year. In his gradutation year he averaged 32.8 points per game.
That season he poured in 63 points in one game. Workman joins “Hot Rod” Hundley as the only over number one picks that came out of the same high school. Also a track star Workman starred in the shot put, javelin and discus throw.
West Virginia University was his school of choice staying close to home and before he departed for his freshman season local auto salesmen gifted him a new Chrysler New York to make the trip to school. That became the first vehicle in the Workman family.
Workman’s college career got off to a tragic start when the Mountaineers basketball coach Lee Patton recruited Workman was killed in an unfortunate automobile accident. Thus Mark Workman never got to play for the man that recruited him.
Workman marched on with his college career averaging 26.1 points per game in the 1950-1951 season and then a year later his average dropped to 23.1 but his rebound per game was an impressive 17.5 as his team finished 23-4. In 1952 Workman was names a NCAA All-American. Workman had high scoring games in his college career of 50 and 44 points.
He still holds some WVU school records which are most field goals in one game with 22, free throws for one game which were 17, and points scored in one half of basketball when he put up 37 in one game. He also ranks in four other scoring marks inside the top 10.
After being drafted by the Milwaukee Hawks, Workman opted to not play in the NBA and instead went on tour to Europe with the Harlem Globetrotters. When he returned he did play in five games for Milwaukee but was then traded to the Philadelphia Warriors.
His performance paled in comparison to what he accomplished in college and he played just one season there before playing one final season with the Baltimore Bullets retiring in 1954. He then became a businessman before becoming ill and passing away at the age of 53 in 1983.
1953 - Ray Felix (Baltimore Bullets)
Ray Felix holds a special distinction when talking NBA draft. As the first overall pick in 1953 he became the first African American to be drafted first overall in the history of the draft. Felix was born in New York city and having lived there for many years, the Big Apple is a breeding ground for great basketball players on the outside courts around the big city. Felix is one of those and he played his college ball at Long Island University at Brooklyn.
After the Bullets drafted the 6 foot 11 inch Felix, he played on season in the American Basketball League with the Manchester British-Americans. The league lasted just two seasons folding in 1953 after winning the title with Felix on the roster. Once he joined the Bullets in the NBA he won the Rookie of the Year Award for 1954 when he averaged 13.3 rebouns scoring 17.6 points per game. As he was named an All-Star Felix became just the second African-American to be named as such in NBA history up to that time.
Felix was in Baltimore for just one season traded on January 24, 1960 to the New York Knicks. After six seasons in New York Felix was on the move again this time traded to the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers. His career spanned nine seasons, one with Baltimore, six with the Knicks, and two with the Lakers. During his career Felix developed a rivalry with hall of famer Bill Russell who in one incident punched Felix in the head rendering him unconscious.
Following retirement he spent years working in New York City. At age 60 Ray Felix passed away from a heart attack on July 28, 1991.
1954 - Frank Selvy (Baltimore Bullets)
Frank Selvy was an outstanding college and pro basketball player and his first name was given to him in honor of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who had become President the day before Selvy was born. At college where he starred on the hardwoods for Furman University, Selvy was a two-time All-American as well as winning the Southern Conference player of the year twice.
Selvy made history on February 13, 1964 while playing for Furman he poured in 100 points as his team defeated Newberry College. No other Division I team has accomplished this feat in history. Once in the NBA, Selvy had a long and successful pro career playing from 1954 until he retired 10 years later.
He would play for multiple teams startging with the Baltimore Bullets and then the Milwaukee/St. Louis Hawks in 1958 but also that season with the Minneapolis Lakers, New York Knicks, and the following season with the Syracuse Nationals. He finished his career back with the Lakers.
From 1964 to 1970 he coached at his alma mater Furman first as an assistant and then as head coach. A book about Frank Selvy’s life was published in 2016 and he lived to the age of 91 when he passed away in 2024.
1955 - Dick Ricketts (St. Louis Hawks)
While Dick Ricketts only played three seasons in the NBA a claim he can make that the previous players already mentioned can’t match is that Rickets also played in Major League Baseball as he played one season for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1959. Rickets was a pitcher and his one season in baseball did not turn out so well as his record that year was 1-6 with an ERA of 5.82.
Originally from Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Rickets played his college ball at Duquesne University and his jersey number 12 has been retired by the school. Dick’s brother Dave had a more successful career in the MLB spending six seasons with the Cardinals and another five as a coach. Tragically Dick Rickets suffered from leukemia and lost his life to the disease in 1988 at the age of 54.
1956 - Si Green (Rochester Royals)
Interestingly enough Si Green like the previously mentioned Dick Ricketts played his college ball at Duquesne and as Ricketts’ number 12 was retired by the school so was Green’s number 11. The difference between the two is that Green had a longer and more successful pro career. Green played for a handful of teams as a pro that were the Rochester Royals, The Easton Madisons, Cincinnati Royals, St. Louis Hawks, Chicago Packers, Blatimore Bullets, Boston Celtics, New Haven Elms, and the Wilmington Blue Bombers.
Green’s career began in 1956 and ended in 1967. Green’s birth name is not the name he came to be known as at birth named Sihugo Lewis. He grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brookly, New York. His birth name came from his Native American grandmother.
The name “Si” came as a nickname slapped on him early in life and his mother upon remarrying took the name Green thus Si’s last name he is known by. Green would spend the rest of his life in Pittsburgh and lung cancer tragically took his life in 1980 at the very young age of 47.
ABA DRAFT PICKS
Now we turn to the old American Basketball Association. For you old timers like me, surely you remember the red white and blue basketballs they used. Perhaps you may recall and or maybe you were not aware that the great Julius Erving better known as “Dr. J” got his start in the ABA.
As I am discussing only overall number one picks, the ABA sent some other great players to the NBA once they folded including Pete Maravich, David Thompson, Nate Archibald, Cazzie Russell, Dan Issel, Billy Knight, Artis Gilmore, and Rudy Tomjanovich.
The ABA had just nine drafts in their short history so let’s take a look at those nine men drafted first overall by and ABA Team.
1967 - Jimmy Walker (Indiana Pacers)
Interesting fact about Jimmy Walker right off the bat. He is the father for former NBA player Jalen Rose who was part of the infamous “Fab Five” at the University of Michigan. However, Walker split from Rose’s mother before he was born and was never a part of his life. For Rose, obviously playing b-ball was in his blood.
As for Jimmy Walker, (Providence Friars) yes he was drafted by the Indiana Pacers in 1967 with the league’s first overall pick but the Detroit Pistons in the NBA also made him the first round pick. Off to the NBA went Walker.
He would spend six seasons with the Pistons then one year in Houston with the Rockets and closed out his career retiring in 1976 with the Kansas City-Omaha Kings. Twice Jimmy Walker was an NBA All-star, and twice first-team All-American at Providence University. For his pro career he averaged 16.7 points per game.
Walker died from lung cancer in 2007 and his estranged son Jalen Rose had earlier spoken with his natural born father by phone and the two were going to meet and had planned on doing so the month that Walker had passed so they never did meet. Rose did however attend his funeral.
1968 – Elvin Hayes/Houston Mavericks (Houston Cougars)
1969 – Lew Alcindor/New York Nets (UCLA Bruins)
1970 – Bob Lanier/New York Nets (St. Bonaventure Bonnies)
1971 -Jim McDaniels/Utah Stars (Western Kentucky Hilltoppers)
1972 – Bob McAdoo/Virginia Squires (North Carolina Tar Heels)
1973 – Dwight Lamar/San Diego Conquistadors (Southwestern Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns)
1974 – Tom McMillen/Virginia Squires (Maryland Terrapins)
1975 – Marvin Webster/Denver Nuggets (Morgan State Bears)
RECAP
If you wish to reach me at this show the official email is [email protected]. Also feel free to check out my writing and podcast portfolio at www.clippings.me/totalsportsrecall.
This is Harv Aronson wishing everyone a great next two weeks and it is my hope you will tune in again to the Total Sports Recall Podcast.
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