Five for five: Following historic season, Duke sets program record in 2022 NBA draft

An already historic Duke basketball season added one more crowning achievement Thursday night.

Thursday night’s NBA draft saw five Blue Devils selected, with four in the first round including No. 1 overall pick Paolo Banchero, to establish a new program record.

Four times previously – in 1986, 1999, 2017 and 2018 – Duke had four players picked. The 1999 draft, when four Blue Devils were selected in the first 14 picks, marked the first time a school had four players selected in the first round.

But the team that represented the Blue Devils in Mike Krzyzewski’s 42nd and final season as their head coach, the one that reached the Final Four and won its first ACC regular-season championship since 2010, topped them all.

No other ACC team has had five players selected in the same draft since the NBA reduced it to a two-round event in 1989.

Starting with Banchero going No. 1 to the Orlando Magic, Mark Williams (No. 15, Charlotte), A.J. Griffin (No. 16, Atlanta) and Wendell Moore (No. 26, Dallas but traded to Minnesota) were all first-round picks. That gives Duke 46 first-rounders and 29 lottery picks during Krzyzewski’s tenure at the school.

Walking on stage to greet NBA commissioner Adam Silver, himself a Duke grad, Banchero broke into tears.

“It was a very emotional moment,” Banchero said. “I’ve never cried tears of joy in my life, and I was telling everyone I wasn’t going to cry no matter what pick I was picked. It just hit me. I couldn’t stop it.”

He lauded Duke’s staff for preparing him to become the draft’s top pick after just one year of college basketball.

“I feel like they really, really prepared me as best as anyone could,” Banchero said. “I was a good player when I came in, but I think they really took me to another level and helped transform me as a player. They helped me with a lot of things, helped improve my game in a lot of ways.”

Banchero is the fifth player in Duke’s long basketball history to be the NBA draft’s No.1 overall pick, joining Art Heyman (1963, New York Knicks), Elton Brand (1999, Chicago), Kyrie Irving (2011, Cleveland) and Zion Williamson (2019, New Orleans). No school has seen more of its players selected No. 1 overall.

In recent history, Banchero’s selection means Duke has produced a top-three selection in seven of the last nine NBA drafts. Duke’s eight top-three picks since 2014 are six more than any other college program in that span covering nine drafts.

A 7-foot-2 sophomore center, Williams will be paired with one of the NBA’s young stars in LaMelo Ball with the Hornets.

“Really excited,” Williams said. “Obviously, he’s a great point guard. He can make plays and can score and can do a little bit of everything. So I’m really excited for that.”

Griffin joins his father, Toronto Raptors assistant coach Adrian Griffin, in the NBA.

“Man, he gave me so much advice,” Griffin said. “Just to be here today and just to share this moment with him, he just always told me the truth, always gave me the best advice a father could. I’m just truly grateful and blessed to be able to have a father like him. I’m just excited to see — trying to get that first win against him.”

Dallas officially drafted Moore but the Mavericks had already agreed to trade the No. 26 pick of the first round to Houston, along with Boban Marjanovic, Sterling Brown, Trey Burke, Marquese Chriss to acquire big man Christian Wood from the Rockets.

Minnesota acquired Moore after trading its own first-round pick at No. 29, plus two future second-round picks, to Houston.

That completed Duke’s first-round haul.

The night became a record for the Blue Devils when Keels, a freshman guard, went to the New York Knicks in the second round at No. 42 overall.

Duke is among four schools that have produced more than 100 NBA draft picks. Kentucky (138) leads the way, followed by UCLA (122), North Carolina (116) and Duke (106).