1975 NBA draft

The first two picks in the draft belonged to the teams that finished last in each conference, with the order determined by a coin flip.

[2] Before the draft, 18 college underclassmen and 2 high school players were declared eligible for selection under the "hardship" rule.

[4] This was the most recent NBA draft to be held in a month other than June until 2020, but the off-season was earlier at the time.

[7] Marvin Webster, the 3rd pick, also opted to join the ABA with the Nuggets before moving to the NBA in 1976.

[9] Gus Williams, the 20th pick, joined the Seattle SuperSonics after two seasons with the Golden State Warriors.

[12] Alvan Adams from the University of Oklahoma, who went on to win the Rookie of the Year Award in his first season, was selected 4th by the Phoenix Suns.

[13] Adams and 6th pick Lionel Hollins are the only other players from this draft who was selected to an All-Star Game.

[17] They also became the second and third players to go directly from high school basketball to professional league, after Moses Malone in the 1974 ABA Draft.

[21][22] In the tenth round, the New Orleans Jazz selected a Soviet basketball player Alexander Belov with the 161st pick.

Belov, who was playing with Spartak Leningrad before the draft, stayed with the club until the end of his career.

The draft itself attracted strong opposition from the ABA who accuse the NBA trying to reduce confidence in the stability of their league.

[47] The other players selected were Mel Bennett, Skip Wise and Charles Jordan in the second, third and fourth-round respectively.

After the Virginia Squires folding before the ABA–NBA merger in June 1976, Bennett joined the team that drafted him, the Philadelphia 76ers.

[49] Under the merger agreement, the Jazz and the Lakers had to yield their rights to Malone and Olberding and they regained their 1977 first-round picks.