Karl-Anthony Towns was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the first pick in the NBA Draft, while Europeans were taken with two of the first five selections.
Towns, 19, averaged 10.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocked shots a game last season for a University of Kentucky squad that went unbeaten until losing to Wisconsin in the national college championship tournament semi-finals.
“This is what you live for,” Towns said. “I’m going to go in right away and be as versatile as I can be. I’m coming with a winning attitude. I’m not coming to look for individual success. I’m coming to look for team success.”
Minnesota has not reached the playoffs since 2004 and has not enjoyed a winning season since 2005.
The T-Wolves, who won last month’s NBA Draft Lottery to claim the top overall pick, could become the first NBA club to have three consecutive No 1 selections playing together in one season, having obtained 2013 top choice Anthony Bennett and 2014 top pick Andrew Wiggins last year in a trade that sent star forward Kevin Love to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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The Los Angeles Lakers landed Ohio State guard D’Angelo Russell with the second pick while centre Jahlil Okafor was taken third by the Philadelphia 76ers.
“It’s a surreal moment,” Russell said. “I’m a winning player and I feel like I will fit in really well.”
Latvian power forward Kristaps Porzingis, who played for Sevilla last season, was selected fourth overall by the New York Knicks, whose host-city fans booed loudly when the choice was announced after already enduring a 17-65 season.
Porzingis became only the second player from his homeland to be taken in the draft and could become only the third Latvian to play in the NBA.
“It was my dream to play for the Knicks,” he said. “Hopefully I can be part of something special. These people don’t know me, might think I’m soft, European, a bust. I’m different. It’s my passion that sets me apart.”
Since China’s Yao Ming was taken first overall by Houston in 2002, there have been 19 international players taken with lottery-decided picks and none have become all-stars.
Orlando selected fifth and the Magic took Croatian swingman Mario Hezonja, who played last season at Barcelona, making him the highest-ever pick from his homeland, surpassing the 12th-overall selection of Dario Saric last year. Hezonja, 20, averaged 7.7 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists a game in 22 appearances last season for the Spanish club.
Another Kentucky big man, centre Willie Cauley-Stein, was taken sixth by Sacramento.
Emmanuel Mudiay, a point guard from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who played for China’s Guangdong Southern Tigers last year, went seventh to the Denver Nuggets.
Mudiay, who came to the United States in 2001 at age five, averaged 18.0 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.6 steals for the Tigers last season.
“I’m just going to be myself, show what I’m about, my competitive spirit,” Mudiay said.
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