60 years ago on this day (1965): the 19th annual National Basketball Association draft was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, as the nine NBA teams selected college amateur players.
It was a huge day for Wichita State, as two members of the Shockers were taken among the top seven picks in the draft.
The San Francisco Warriors had back-to-back picks to begin the draft, taking All-American Fred Hetzel of Davidson with the #1 overall pick, then All-American Rick Barry from Miami (Fla.) with the #2 pick.
With the #3 overall pick, the New York Knicks took Wichita State's Dave Stallworth, a consensus first-team All-American the year before as a junior.
After Stallworth, the Baltimore Bullets selected Jerry Sloan from Evansville at #4 (a future NBA All-Star): the Philadelphia 76ers at #5 took Billy Cunningham from North Carolina (a future Hall of Famer); and the St. Louis Hawks drafted Jim Washington from Villanova.
With the #7 overall pick, the Cincinnati Royals drafted Wichita State center Nate Bowman.
Both Stallworth and Bowman would end up winning an NBA championship together on the roster for the 1970 New York Knicks.
Neither Stallworth nor Bowman had played for the Shockers two months earlier in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament: Stallworth's college eligibility had expired, and Bowman was academically ineligible.
Prior to the regular draft, teams were allowed to make territorial draft picks, selecting college athletes who played college within 50 miles of their home pro arenas. In the territorial draft, the Knicks had taken Princeton All-American Bill Bradley, who had torched the Shockers in the national Third Place game six weeks prior for a Final Four record 58 points. Also in the territorial draft, the Los Angeles Lakers took UCLA consensus first-team All-American Gail Goodrich, who had also played the Shockers in the Final Four, with 28 points in the national semifinals in '65.