The 1989 NBA draft took place on June 27, 1989, in New York City. Despite eight of the top ten picks being considered busts, including the first two picks Pervis Ellison and Danny Ferry, the draft produced many talented players such as Shawn Kemp, Glen Rice, Sean Elliott, Nick Anderson, Dana Barros, Tim Hardaway, Vlade Divac, Clifford Robinson, B. J. Armstrong and Mookie Blaylock.
The draft was reduced from three rounds in the previous year to the two-round format that is still in use to the present day. As a result, NBA drafts from this season until 1995 produced the lowest number of total draft picks selected at 54 overall selections.
This was the first draft for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic, prior to their inaugural season. This was also the first draft televised prime time on U.S. national television.
Notable undrafted players
These players were not selected in the 1989 draft but played at least one game in the NBA.
Early entrants
College underclassmen
For the seventh year in a row and the eleventh time in twelve years, no college underclassman would withdraw their entry into the NBA draft. Not only that, but this would be the fourth year in a row where a player that qualified for the status of a "college underclassman" would be playing professional basketball overseas, with the French-born Rudy Bourgarel playing for the Boulogne-Levallois in France after leaving Marist College. In addition to that, this would also be the first year where an international player would be considered a direct underclassman to participate in an NBA draft, with Vlade Divac from the KK Partizan Belgrade of the Eastern Bloc nation known as SFR Yugoslavia (now since separated, with Divac representing Serbia) being the first ever international underclassman to be taken directly from an overseas team without previously going to an American college or playing for any prior American institution. Including those two players and Andrew Gaze, who had previously played in Australia for multiple years before playing only one season at Seton Hall University while being over the age of 22 by that time, the number of underclassmen would officially be considered a grand total of fourteen players instead of eleven (or twelve including Gaze). Regardless, the following college basketball players successfully applied for early draft entrance.
- Nick Anderson – G, Illinois (junior)
- Martin Den Hengst – C, Sheridan (freshman)
- Jay Edwards – G, Indiana (sophomore)
- Andrew Gaze – Seton Hall (freshman)
- Benny Green – G, Tennessee–Chattanooga (junior)
- Shawn Kemp – F, Trinity Valley CC (freshman)
- Toney Mack – G, Georgia (junior)
- J. R. Reid – F, North Carolina (junior)
- Maurice Selvin – G, Puget Sound (sophomore)
- Alex Soyebo – C, Northland Pioneer (freshman)
- Johnny Steptoe – F, Southern (sophomore)
- Richard Whitmore – G, Brown (junior)
International players
This would be the first time in NBA history where an international born and raised player would be considered an underclassman in an NBA draft. The following international player successfully applied for early draft entrance.
- Vlade Divac – C, KK Partizan (Yugoslavia)
Other eligible players
This would be the fourth year in a row with at least one player that previously played in college entering the NBA draft as an underclassman. It was also the second year in a row where a player would qualify as an eligible underclassman for the NBA draft while previously playing for a French-based team in order to do so.
Invited attendees
The 1989 NBA draft is considered to be the twelfth NBA draft to have utilized what's properly considered the "green room" experience for NBA prospects. The NBA's green room is a staging area where anticipated draftees often sit with their families and representatives, waiting for their names to be called on draft night. Often being positioned either in front of or to the side of the podium (in this case, being positioned in the Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum for the eighth year in a row), once a player heard his name, he would walk to the podium to shake hands and take promotional photos with the NBA commissioner. From there, the players often conducted interviews with various media outlets while backstage. However, once the NBA draft started to air nationally on TV starting with the 1980 NBA draft, the green room evolved from players waiting to hear their name called and then shaking hands with these select players who were often called to the hotel to take promotional pictures with the NBA commissioner a day or two after the draft concluded to having players in real-time waiting to hear their names called up and then shaking hands with David Stern, the NBA's commissioner at the time. The NBA compiled its list of green room invites through collective voting by the NBA's team presidents and general managers alike, which in this year's case belonged to only what they believed were the top 16 prospects at the time. Despite the large amount of invites that held some very successful players (including the first truly international born, raised, and developed prospect in Vlade Divac), some notable absences from this group outside of future Hall of Famer Dino Rada include Dana Barros from Boston College and power forward Shawn Kemp, with Gary Leonard and Clifford Robinson both waiting into the second round themselves. Even so, the following players were invited to attend this year's draft festivities live and in person.
- Nick Anderson – SG/SF, Illinois
- B. J. Armstrong – PG, Iowa
- Mookie Blaylock – PG, Oklahoma
- / Vlade Divac – C, KK Partizan (Yugoslavia)
- Sean Elliott – SG/SF, Arizona
- Pervis Ellison – PF, Louisville
- Danny Ferry – PF, Duke
- Tom Hammonds – PF/C, Georgia Tech
- Tim Hardaway – PG, UTEP
- Stacey King – C, Oklahoma
- Gary Leonard – C, Missouri
- George McCloud – SG/SF, Florida State
- John Morton – PG, Seton Hall
- Glen Rice – SF, Michigan
- Clifford Robinson – PF/C, Connecticut
- Randy White – PF, Louisiana Tech