The 1999 NBA draft was held on June 30, 1999, at the MCI Center (now Capital One Arena) in Washington, D.C. It was the first draft in which four players from the same college were picked in the first round, with Elton Brand (1st selection), Trajan Langdon (11th), Corey Maggette (13th) and William Avery (14th) being selected out of Duke University. It is widely viewed as one of the best draft classes, with a total of nine future NBA All-Stars being chosen, as well as three winners of the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award—Manu Ginóbili, Jason Terry, and Lamar Odom. Six of the top nine picks were NBA All-Stars. Pablo Prigioni, who was eligible for selection but went undrafted, eventually debuted in the 2012–2013 season as the oldest rookie in NBA history at age 35.
Notable undrafted players
These players eligible for the 1999 NBA draft were not selected but have played in the NBA.
Early entrants
College underclassmen
This year would see a step down in the number of overall underclassmen entering the NBA draft. After seeing 40 initial entries the last two years, this year only saw 39 total initial entries at hand. Not only that, but twelve of the players that had declared entry (with six of the actual collegiate players being Harold Arceneaux from Weber State University, Edwin Daniels from UNLV, DeeAndre Hulett from the College of the Sequoias, Lamont Long from the University of New Mexico, Jamaal Magloire from the University of Kentucky, and Tyron Triplett from Tallahassee Community College) would later withdraw their names from this year's draft, which left only 21 total college underclassmen for this year (27 if you include the two high school players and four international players that stayed in this year's draft). The following college basketball players successfully applied for early draft entrance.
- Ron Artest – F, St. John's (sophomore)
- William Avery – G, Duke (sophomore)
- Carl Boyd – G, California (junior)
- Elton Brand – F, Duke (sophomore)
- Baron Davis – G, UCLA (sophomore)
- Steve Francis – G, Maryland (junior)
- Dwayne Franklin – F, Shaw (sophomore)
- Dion Glover – G, Georgia Tech (sophomore)
- Richard Hamilton – G, Connecticut (junior)
- Rico Harris – F, Cal State Northridge (junior)
- Ben Hendricks – G, East Carolina (junior)
- Kendrick Johnson – G, San Jose State (freshman)
- Jumaine Jones – F, Georgia (sophomore)
- Shaun Kenney – G, Cleveland State (sophomore)
- Corey Maggette – G/F, Duke (freshman)
- Shawn Marion – F, UNLV (junior)
- Michael Maxwell – G, Western New Mexico (junior)
- Greg Minor – G, Cal State Northridge (junior)
- Lamar Odom – F, Rhode Island (sophomore)
- Aleksandar Radojević – C, Barton CC (sophomore)
- Gene Shipley – F, San Jose CC (freshman)
- Albert White – G/F, Missouri (junior)
High school players
This would be the fifth straight year in a row where at least one high school player would declare their entry into the NBA draft directly out of high school after previously only allowing it one time back in 1975. The following high school players successfully applied for early draft entrance.
- Jonathan Bender – F, Picayune Memorial HS (Picayune, Mississippi)
- Leon Smith – F, King College Prep (Chicago, Illinois)
International players
In addition to the players below, the likes of Greece's Georgios Diamantopoulos of the Papagou B.C., Greece's Antonis Fotsis of the Panathinaikos B.C., Brazil's Guilherme Giovannoni of the Esporte Clube Pinheiros, the Nigerian born Olumide Oyedeji of Germany's DJK Würzburg, Yugoslavia's Igor Rakočević of the KK Crvena Zvezda, and Greece's Kostas Tsartsaris of the Near East B.C. also initially declared entry for this year's draft at first, but those six players would later withdraw their names from this year's draft altogether. However, the following international players did successfully apply for early draft entrance.
- Nikola Dacevic – F, Limoges CSP (France)
- Hrvoje Henjak – C, KK Split (Croatia)
- Andrei Kirilenko – F, PBC CSKA Moscow (Russia)
- Josko Poljak – C, KK Split (Croatia)
Invited attendees
The 1999 NBA draft is considered to be the 21st 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 somewhere within the MCI Center in Washington, D.C.), 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. 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 high amount of invites and successful players for this year's draft, there would still be a notable amount of discrepancies between the missed invites of All-Star Andrei Kirilenko and Hall of Famer Manu Ginóbili for actual talents alongside the draft selections Jonathan Bender, Trajan Langdon, Frédéric Weis, and maybe Cal Bowdler missing the perfect draft invite listing, with Ron Artest (to a lesser extent), James Posey, and especially Tim James and Jumaine Jones being late first round draft pick invites there. With that in mind, the following players were invited to attend this year's draft festivities live and in person.
- Ron Artest – SF, St. John's
- Will Avery – PG, Duke
- Elton Brand – PF/C, Duke
- Baron Davis – PG, UCLA
- Steve Francis – PG, Maryland
- Richard Hamilton – SG/SF, Connecticut
- Jumaine Jones – SF, Georgia
- Tim James – SF, Miami (FL)
- Corey Maggette – SG/SF, Duke
- Shawn Marion – SF/PF, UNLV
- Andre Miller – PG, Utah
- Lamar Odom – SF/PF, Rhode Island
- James Posey – SG/SF, Xavier
- / Aleksandar Radojević – C, Barton County Community College
- / Wally Szczerbiak – SG/SF, Miami (OH)
- Jason Terry – PG/SG, Arizona