The 1951 NBA draft was the fifth annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 25, 1951, before the 1951–52 season. In this draft, ten remaining NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players. In each round, the teams selected in reverse order of their win–loss record in the previous season. The Tri-Cities Blackhawks participated in the draft, but relocated to Milwaukee and became the Milwaukee Hawks prior to the start of the season. The draft consisted of 12 rounds comprising 87 players selected. This draft was the league’s first, and along with the 2000 NBA Draft, one of only two to date, to produce no Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame players (excluding drafts with players not yet eligible).
Draft selections and draftee career notes
Gene Melchiorre from Bradley University was selected first overall by the Baltimore Bullets. However, he never played in the NBA due to his involvement in a point shaving scandal while playing college basketball. Melchiorre would be joined by fellow Bradley teammates Bill Mann (the 21st pick of the draft) and Aaron Preece (the 72nd pick of the draft) in terms of players selected in this year's draft to never play in the NBA due to their involvement in the aforementioned point shaving scandal (other individuals involved and named at the time either went undrafted at the time, were already selected in previous drafts before this year, or were already disqualified from entering the draft this year due to the discovery at hand). Whitey Skoog from University of Minnesota was selected before the draft as Minneapolis Lakers' territorial pick.
Other picks
The following list includes other draft picks who have appeared in at least one NBA game.
Notable undrafted players
These players were not selected in the 1951 draft, but played at least one game in the NBA.